Tik-Tok is a fictional "mechanical man" from the Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. He has been termed "the prototype robot", and is widely considered to be one of the first robots to appear in modern literature, though the term "Robot" was not used until the 1920s, in the play R.U.R.
Tik-Tok (sometimes spelled Tiktok) is a round-bodied mechanical man made of copper, who runs on clockwork springs which periodically need to be wound, like a wind-up toy or a mechanical clock. He has separate windings for thought, action, and speech. Tik-Tok is unable to wind any of them up himself. When his works run down, he becomes frozen or mute. For one memorable moment in The Road to Oz, he continues to speak but utters gibberish. When he speaks, only his teeth move. His knees and elbows are described as resembling those in a knight's suit of armor. Being a machine, he is quite strong, allowing him to single-handedly overpower a whole horde of Wheelers without much difficulty, as demonstrated in a scene of the 1985 film Return to Oz.
As Baum repeatedly mentions, Tik-Tok is not alive and feels no emotions. He therefore can no more love or be loved than a sewing machine, but as a servant he is utterly truthful and loyal. He describes himself as a "slave" to Dorothy and defers to her.
Tik-Tok was invented by Smith & Tinker at their workshop in Evna. He was the only model of his kind made before the two disappeared. He was purchased by the king of Ev, Evoldo, who gave him the name Tik-Tok because of the sound he made when wound. The cruel king also whipped his mechanical servant, but his whippings caused no pain and merely kept Tik-Tok's round copper body polished.
