ATHENS: A humanoid figure dressed as a maid holds a jug in its right hand and, as hidden gears click and whirr, lifts it and pours wine into a cup a bystander has placed into the palm of its left.
The robot is a recreation of the automatic servant of Philon, designed more than 2,200 years ago by a Greek engineer and operating though a complex mechanism of springs, weights and air pressure that also allowed it to dilute the alcohol with water.
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