Before revision: The word was first used by Homer to describe an automatic door opening,Homer, Iliad, 5.749 or automatic movement of wheeled tripods.Homer, Iliad, 18.376 It is more often used to describe non-electronic moving machines, especially those that have been made to resemble human or animal actions, such as the jacks on old public striking clocks, or the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock.
After revision: It was first used by Homer to describe an automatic door opening,Homer, Iliad, 5.749 or automatic movement of wheeled tripods.Homer, Iliad, 18.376 It is more often used to describe non-electronic moving machines, especially those that have been made to resemble human or animal actions, such as the jacks on old public striking clocks, or the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock.