Hugo runs back to his apartment in the train station. He lights some candles and reveals a hiding place in the wall, from which he takes an automaton. Hugo’s father owned a clock shop and helped tend the clocks at a museum. He found the automaton in the museum’s attic, though it was rusty and in disrepair. The machine is a man sitting at a desk, and when turned on with a key, it can write a message using its ink pen. Hugo’s father told Hugo about the automaton, capturing the boy’s interest and imagination. No one knew who made the machine or where it came from, but Hugo’s father explained that magicians often start as clockmakers and use their machinery knowledge to create their shows’ automatons. Hugo encouraged his father to fix the automaton, though his father believed it was too worn down and was missing pieces.

A few nights later, Hugo and his father went to the museum to look at the automaton. Despite its appearance, Hugo thought it was beautiful. He asked his father, “Don’t you want to know what it can write?” (117); though his father warned Hugo that work took priority, he began making numerous drawings in several notebooks of the machine’s many pieces and how they fit together.