Mechanical silver swan that entranced Mark Twain lands at Science Museum

An 18th-century automaton admired by US writer to be star attraction at London museum's Robots exhibition

A robotic swan that entranced Mark Twain and generations of other viewers will be a star attraction at the Science Museum's Robots exhibition when it opens next week.

The banal truth behind the piece - the nuts and bolts, levers and cogwheels that for almost 250 years have powered a lifesize silver swan to play music and catch a golden fish out of a crystal stream - has been laid bare in a workroom at the west London museum.