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Further information was received on 12 March 2008 by email -
One correspondent has told me that Tati (my name for it, of course, not
the name its creator chose, certainly) was commissioned by Prince Louis
de Broglie, the Belgian physicist and Nobel laureate, for his
granddaughter in Paris. She fell on hard times and sold it to an antique
dealer. Could be, but my efforts to confirm the story have not yet born
fruit.
Best wishes,
Daniel Dennett
 
Although this photo has been associated with the Phony Pony the machine has eight legs and is nothing like the Phony Pony.
Even though it bears a superficial resemblance to the Iron-Mule test bed it is not of that lineage either. The mechanism here is worked by cranks rather than the cams of the Iron-Mule.