Herman Melville's "The Bell-Tower" (short story, robot, free): Be careful around automata & be wary of "minor" defects in machines!

Once upon a time, in some town in Italy, a great "mechanician" named Bannadonna was commissioned by the city to build the "Bell-Tower".

This was the time when the bell towers had great bells hanging that were rung at appointed hour by a man. But Bannadonna is too skilled & ambitious - he built a special purpose robot to ring the bell every hour!! But the creator forgot that the creature is loyal to its job, not to its creator...

Caution: Story uses archaic words & imaginary.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1855. (where?)
Rating: B.
This post is based on the version of text that appeared in JBU, #18 (April 2009). Google finds a lot of copies of this story online. Here are 3 from dowse, The Literature, & Gaslight.
Related: 19th century fiction; robot stories.