Writer Automaton, Switzerland

A 240 year old doll that can write, a clockwork creation by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker. The doll is able to write any custom text up to 40 letters long, and it uses a goose feather to write, which he inks from time to time, including a shake of the wrist to prevent ink from spilling. His eyes follow the text being written, and the head moves when he takes some ink. You can view this doll in person at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland.

The robot is a little boy that can write in beautiful cursive, with inward workings that are intricate like a computer. Tiny pieces are read by different parts inside the automaton and make the hand of the robot boy move just right to write out words on paper. An amazing invention, made two-hundred and forty years ago by a Swiss clock maker, it is the ancestor to the modern day computer; the boy can be programmed to write different things by changing his inside parts.
Quite amazing and ingenious; it's astonishing that someone more than two centuries ago put together this marvel.