(VIDEO) Expert to Discuss Restoring Automaton that Inspired ‘Hugo’

Hugo is an Academy Award-winning film about the magic of movies and dreams centered on a boy’s quest to rebuild a robot-like writing machine called an automaton. But in a little more than a month, Hopkins residents will be able to learn about an automaton that is not a dream.

On May 4, the Midwest Watch and Clockmakers Association is hosting by Andrew Baron—the man who restored the legendary 18^th Century Maillardet Automaton that was the inspiration for the book on which Hugo is based.

(Baron is the man in the blue shirt in the video above.)

Baron restored the automaton in 2007 for the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The machine can draw four complicated drawings and write three cursively written poems.

The talk takes place at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Admission is $10. Children 12 and younger get in free.

Baron will also present a more in-depth, technical presentation exclusively for MWCA members the following day at a joint meeting with the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute.

(Haven’t seen Hugo yet? The movie is currently playing at .)

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