uilt for the 1930 World’s Poultry Congress in London, the United States Department of Agriculture’s exhibit featured a 7-foot-tall mechanical chicken that “ate” and “digested” food through a copper-lined stomach and rubber intestines, before laying an oversized egg. Powered by an electric motor, the display used a phonograph behind the exhibit with a recording that explained the scientific advances in chicken farming. The exhibit, like the Poultry Congress, promoted the consumption of chicken, which grew from an annual average of 10 pounds per person in 1930 to more than 59 pounds today.