Clockwork Game: The Illustrious Career of a Chess-Playing Automaton

In reality, the Panharmonicon was probably much bigger than this, but I had to keep the design down to something I could draw more than once. For an idea of what it might have sounded like, here’s a video of a more advanced Orchestrion from 1908.

The music is the second movement from Haydn’s Military Symphony (Allegrretto, Symphony #100). Haydn was once his teacher, and was also one of the few composers Beethoven respected.

Maelzel’s original design for the metronome is described as “a lever, striking upon a little anvil”, but I couldn’t find any actual images of it, so I did my best with the design.