01.04.2019
The 1st of April is the International Bird Day
Day of birds marks the beginning of spring, the time of the first warm sunny days, the time when birds return from outward migration.
Exhibits with birds are presented in various sections of the Museum Collection. More than 200 items with figures and images of various birds are unloaded on the Museum website. Lapidary works of art and Metal artworks are among them.
Singing and moving birds are presented in the collection section Amusing Automata.
Mechanical singing birds in cages, with clockwork mechanisms, were very popular in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Initially, they were used for teaching canary birds to sing. Later the mechanical birds became a common home accessory.
Everyone remembers the fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen The Nightingale. At the very beginning of our millennium a Greek mathematician and mechanic, one of the greatest engineers in the history of humankind, Heron of Alexandria, invented a similar bird. Heron's design was extremely simple.
Bird sat on the lid of a vessel. Water poured into this vessel. It forced the air into the tube, which was in the bird’s neck. When the vessel was filled up to the top, the bird fell silent; the water from the vessel automatically poured through the siphon, and then the total cycle was repeated from the beginning.
Following the established tradition, we publish one more video clip narrating about the unique exhibits that are stored in the Museum Collection. This time it is a fictitious tree with a variety of cages fixed on it with cheerfully chirping birds.
More details about the similar exhibits are in the section MECHANICAL BIRDS AND SINGING BIRD BOXES.