Mechanical silver swan flies nest in Bowes for Robots exhibition

An 18th-century automaton, described by Mark Twain as exuding ‘living grace’, to be star attraction at Science Museum

A robotic swan that entranced Mark Twain and generations of other viewers will be a star attraction at the Science Museum’s Robots exhibition when it opens next week.

The banal truth behind the piece – the nuts and bolts, levers and cogwheels that for almost 250 years have powered a lifesize silver swan to play music and catch a golden fish out of a crystal stream – has been laid bare in a workroom at the west London museum.

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