“On présentait à l’animal un vase dans lequel était de la graine baignant dans l’eau. Le mouvement que faisait le bec en barbotant divisait la nourriture et en facilitait l’introduction dans un tuyau placé sous le bec inférieur du canard; l’eau et la graine, ainsi aspirés tombaient dans une boîte placée sous le ventre de l’automate, laquelle se vidait toutes les trois ou quatre séances. L’évacuation était chose préparée à l’avance; une espèce de boullie, composée de mie de pain colorée de vert, était poussée par un coup de pompe et soigneusement reçue, sur un plateau en argent, comme produit d’une digestion artificielle,” so that, after all, this wonderful digestion of Vaucanson’s duck was nothing more than a clever trick.
The third automaton of Vaucanson was a figure that played on a shepherd’s pipe with one hand while it beat a drum with the other. The instrument played upon was a little pipe with only three holes, and the different notes were produced by a greater or less pressure of air and a more or less closing of the holes, and every note, no matter how rapid was the succession, had to be modified by the tongue. In this machine there were provided as many different pressures of air as there were notes to be sounded, and the mechanism by which these operations and the fingering of the keys were effected reflects the greatest credit on the memory of this remarkable man.[9]
The Automaton duck of Vaucanson was, to a certain extent, anticipated by the Comte de Gennes, Governor of the Island of Saint Christopher, who, we are told by Père Labat, constructed a peacock which could walk about and pick up grains of corn, which it swallowed and digested. I have no means of determining whether or not Vaucanson took the idea of his duck from this automaton, but that Vaucanson had imitators there is abundant evidence to prove. In the year 1752, Du Moulin, a silversmith, travelled all over Europe with automata similar to those of Vaucanson, and they were afterwards purchased in Nuremberg, by Bereis, a counsellor of Helmstadt, at whose place they were seen by Beckmann in 1754.
In the year 1760, there was a writing automaton exhibited in Vienna, which was constructed by Friedrich von Knaus, and about the same time a number of very curious automata were made by Le Droz, of Chaux de Fonds, in Neufchatel. One of these was a clock, presented to the King of Spain, which had, in addition to several moving figures, a sheep that bleated in a very natural way, and a dog mounting guard over a basket of fruit; if anyone attempted to touch the basket the dog barked and growled, and if any of the fruit were taken away the barking continued until it was restored.
The son of this man (who lived at Geneva), was no less skilful a mechanician, for he made a gold snuffbox about 4½ inches long by 3 inches broad, in which when a spring was touched a little door flew open and a beautifully modelled bird of green enamelled gold rose up, fluttered its wings and tail, and commenced a trilling song of great beauty and power, its beak keeping time with the notes. Such a snuffbox was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, proving as great a popular attraction as the Koh-i-nur diamond, and (owing to the kindness of my friend Mr. Tripplin the well-known horologist) I am now able to show you one of these very beautiful triumphs of mechanical skill.
Another of the younger Le Droz’s inventions was his celebrated drawing automaton, which was a life-size figure of a man sitting behind a table and holding a style in his hand. A sheet of vellum was placed on the table, and the figure began to draw portraits of well-known persons with extraordinary correctness. This automaton was shown in London, and attracted considerable attention at the time.
Fig. 22.
I must now re-introduce to you another old friend, first shown here by Brother Manning. Here he is! a little acrobat that turns somersaults backwards down stairs. This is not, as many have thought, an invention of that great mechanical genius, Robert-Houdin, for it is figured and described in Musschenbroeck’s “Introductio ad philosophiam naturalem,” which was published in Leyden in 1762 (a year after the author’s death), and half a century before Robert-Houdin was born, and on the screen you have a facsimile ([Fig. 22]) of Musschenbroeck’s illustration of this mechanical toy, which he refers to as “an old invention of the Chinese.” It is also described by Ozanam in his “Recréations Mathématiques et Physiques,” the first edition of which was published in 1694. The figure I now throw on the screen ([Fig. 23]), is taken from the second edition of this work which was edited by Montucla in 1790. The principle is exceedingly simple; the whole thing depends upon the centre of gravity being suddenly changed by a shifting weight. Within a tube contained within the body, is a small quantity of mercury, and the moment that this tube is inclined to the horizon the mercury flows to the lower end tilting one figure over the other, and with such force that it is carried over by its inertia far enough to tilt the tubes, and cause the mercury to flow to the opposite end, and the process is repeated as long as there are stairs to descend; by a very simple arrangement of strings passing over pulleys, the legs and arms are always brought into suitable positions to support the figure in every position of its descent.