For as long as humans have built machines, we’ve sought to emulate animals with machinery. Clockwork animals have long been playthings of royalty. Replacing animal power with steam power was one of the catalysts of the Industrial Revolution, and we still measure an engine’s might by horsepower. In our new anthology, Mechanical Animals, we asked some of our favorite authors of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and weird fiction to conjure their own unique and startling visions of the mechanized animal, be it in the distant, imagined past or some biomechanical future. But there are many real-life examples and archetypes of this trope throughout history that helped inspire us—and here are five we’ve particularly pondered.  [Read more]