In 1810, Jaquet-Droz collaborator Henri Maillardet reached the apex of mechanical wonder with his illustrious Ethiopian Caterpillar.

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Churchill told MI5 to leak the Droz report, adding sternly that "it must not appear as having been furnished by the War Office".

BBC: Secret files reveal Franco plot

It was one of the Swiss delegation, Pastor Humbert Droz, from La Chaux de Fonds, whose report to MI6 in London appears on the file.

BBC: Secret files reveal Franco plot

It included several substantial paragraphs, from what The Times called a special correspondent in Helsinki, setting out an edited version of Pastor Humbert Droz's account of Lenin's message.

BBC: Secret files reveal Franco plot

After that debacle, most Jaquet-Droz automata were less philosophically precocious.

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