The Book of Curiosities

by John Platts

The art of reading made a very slow progress. To encourage that art in England, the capital punishment for murder was remitted, if the criminal could but read, which in law language is termed benefit of clergy. One would imagine that the art must have made a very rapid progress when so greatly favoured: but there is a signal proof of the contrary, for so small an edition of the Bible as six hundred copies, translated into English in the reign of Henry VIII. was not wholly sold off in three years. The people of England must have been profoundly ignorant in Queen Elizabeth’s time, when a forged clause, added to the twentieth article of the English creed, passed unnoticed till about sixty years ago.

The discoveries of the Portuguese on the west coast of Africa, afford a remarkable instance of the slow progress of the arts. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, they were totally ignorant of that coast beyond Cape Non, in 28 degrees, north latitude. In 1410, the celebrated Prince Henry of Portugal fitted out a fleet for discoveries, which proceeded along the coast to Cape Bajadore, in 26 degrees, but had not courage to double it: and seventy-six years elapsed before this was done by Bartholomew Diaz, in 1486!

Description of An Automaton.—This is a machine, so constructed by means of weights, levers, springs, wheels, &c. as to move for a considerable time, as if it were endued with animal life. According to this definition, clocks, watches, and all machines of that kind, may be ranked as a species of automata. But the word is most commonly applied to such machines as are made in the form of men and other animals, at the same time that their internal machinery is so contrived, that they seem voluntarily to act like the animals they represent. Archytas of Tarentum, who lived A. C. 400, is said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly. It is also recorded, that Archimedes made similar automata; that Regiomontanus made a wooden eagle, which flew forth from the city of Nuremburg, met the emperor, saluted him, and returned; also that he made an iron fly, which flew out of his hand at a feast, and returned again after flying about the room. Dr. Hook made the model of a flying chariot, capable of supporting itself in the air. Many other surprising automata have been exhibited in the present age. M. Vaucanson made a duck, which could eat, drink, and imitate exactly the voice of a natural one; and what is still more surprising, the food it swallowed was evacuated in a digested state, or at least considerably altered, on the principles of solution. The wings, viscera, and bones, were so formed, as greatly to resemble those of a living duck; and the actions of eating and drinking shewed the strongest resemblance, even to muddling the water with its bill.

M. de Droz, of la Chaux de Fonds, in the province of Neuchatel, has also executed some curious pieces of mechanism. One was a clock, presented to the king of Spain, which had, among other curiosities, a sheep that imitated the bleating of a natural one, and a dog that watched a basket of fruit, and which barked and snarled if any one attempted to take it away; if it was actually taken, it would bark till it was restored. A son of this gentleman has also made some extraordinary pieces, particularly an oval gold snuff-box, about four inches long, three broad, and one and a half thick. It is double, having an horizontal partition, with a lid to each of its parts. One contains snuff; but in the other, as soon as the lid is opened, there rises up a very small bird, (for it is only three-quarters of an inch from the beak to the extremity of the tail,) of green-enamelled gold, sitting on a gold stand, which immediately wagging its tail and shaking its wings, and opening its bill of white-enamelled gold, pours forth a clear melodious song, capable of filling a room of twenty or thirty feet square with its melody. The same gentleman exhibited an automaton in England, of the figure of a man, as large as life. It held in its hand a metal style, under which was a card of Dutch vellum. A spring was then touched, and the internal machinery being thus set a-going, the figure began to draw elegant portraits, and likenesses of the king and queen facing each other; and it was curious to observe, with what precision the figure lifted up its pencil, in the transition of it from one point of the picture to another, without making the least blunder whatever; for instance, in passing from the forehead to the eye, nose, and chin, or from the waving curls of the hair to the ear, &c. The first card being finished, the figure rested, until a second was completed, and so on through five separate cards put to it, on all of which it delineated different subjects, but five or six was the extent of its surprising powers.

Androides.—This is an automaton, in the figure of a man, which, by virtue of certain springs, &c. duly contrived, walks, and performs other external functions of a man. Albertus Magnus is recorded as having made a famous androides, which is said not only to have moved, but to have spoken. Thomas Aquinas is said to have been so frightened when he saw this head, that he broke it to pieces; upon which Albert exclaimed, “Periit opus triginta annorum!”

Artificial puppets, which, by internal springs, run upon a table, and, as they advance, move their heads, eyes, or hands, were common among the Greeks, and from thence they were brought to the Romans. Figures, or puppets, which appear to move of themselves, were formerly employed to work miracles; but this use is now superseded, and they serve only to display ingenuity, and to answer the purposes of amusement. One of the most celebrated figures of this kind, was constructed and exhibited at Paris, in 1738; and a particular account of it was published in the memoirs of the academy for that year. This figure represents a flute-player, which was capable of performing various pieces of music, by wind issuing from its mouth into a German flute, the holes of which it opened and shut with its fingers: it was about five and a half feet high, placed upon a square pedestal four and a half feet high, and three and a half broad. The air entered the body by three separate pipes, into which it was conveyed by nine pairs of bellows, that expanded and contracted, in regular succession, by means of an axis of steel turned by clock-work. These bellows performed their functions without any noise, which might have discovered the manner by which the air was conveyed to the machine.

The three tubes, which received the air from the bellows, passed into three small reservoirs in the trunk of the figure. Here they united, and, ascending towards the throat, formed the cavity of the mouth, which terminated in two small lips, adapted in some measure to perform their proper functions. Within this cavity was a small moveable tongue, which by its motion, at proper intervals, admitted the air, or intercepted it in its passage to the flute. The fingers, lips, and tongue, derived their proper movements from a steel cylinder, turned by clock-work. This was divided into fifteen equal parts, which, by means of pegs, pressing upon the ends of fifteen different levers, caused the other extremities to ascend. Seven of these levers directed the fingers, having wires and chains fixed to their ascending extremities, which, being attached to the fingers, made them to ascend in proportion as the other extremity was pressed down by the motion of the cylinder, and vice versâ; then the ascent or descent of one end of a lever produced a similar ascent or descent in the corresponding fingers, by which one of the holes of the flute was occasionally opened or stopped, as it might have been by a living performer. Three of the levers served to regulate the ingress of the air, being so contrived as to open and shut, by means of valves, the three reservoirs above-mentioned, so that more or less strength might be given, and a higher or lower note produced, as occasion required. The lips were, by a similar mechanism, directed by four levers, one of which opened them, to give the air a freer passage, the other contracted them, the third drew them backward, and the fourth pushed them forward. The lips were projected upon that part of the flute which receives the air, and, by the different motions already mentioned, modified the tune in a proper manner. The remaining lever was employed in the direction of the tongue, which it easily moves so as to shut or open the mouth of the flute. The just succession of the several motions, performed by the various parts of this machine, was regulated by the following simple contrivance.

The extremity of the axis of the cylinder terminated on the right side by an endless screw, consisting of twelve threads, each placed at the distance of a line and a half from the other. Above this screw was fixed a piece of copper, and in it a steel pivot, which, falling in between the threads of the screw, obliged the cylinder to follow the threads; and, instead of turning directly round, it was continually pushed to one side. Hence, if a lever was moved, by a peg placed on cylinder, in any one revolution, it could not be moved by the same peg in the succeeding revolution, because the peg would be moved a line and a half beyond it by the lateral motion of the cylinder.

Thus, by an artificial disposition of these pegs in different parts of the cylinder, the statue was made, by the successive elevation of the proper levers, to exhibit all the different motions of a flute-player, to the admiration of every one who saw it. Another figure, constructed by the same artist, Vaucanson, played on the shepherd’s pipe, held in its left hand, and with the right beat upon a drum.

The performances of Vaucanson were imitated, and even exceeded, by M. de Kempelin, of Presburg, in Hungary. The androides constructed by this gentleman in 1769, was capable of playing at chess. It was first brought over to England in 1783, and has often been exhibited since that period. It is thus described: The figure is as large as life, in a Turkish dress, seated behind a table, with doors three and a half feet long, two deep, and two and a half high. The chair on which it sits is fixed to the table, which is made to run on four wheels. It leans its right arm on the table, and in its left hand holds a pipe; with this hand it plays after the pipe is removed. A chess-board of eighteen inches is fixed before it. The table, or rather chest, contains wheels, levers, cylinders, and other pieces of mechanism, all of which are publicly displayed. The vestments of the figure were then lifted over its head, and the body was seen full of similar wheels. There is a little door in its thigh, which is likewise opened: and with this, and the table also open, and the figure uncovered, the whole is wheeled about the room. The doors are then shut, and the automaton is ready to play; but it always takes the first move. At every motion the wheels are heard; the image moves its head, and looks over every part of the chess-board. When it checks the queen, it shakes its head twice; and thrice in giving check to the king. It likewise shakes its head when a false move is made, replaces the piece, and makes its own move, by which means the adversary loses one. M. de Kempelin exhibited his automaton at Petersburg, Vienna, Paris, and London, before thousands, many of whom were mathematicians, and chess players, and yet the secret by which he governed the motion of its arm was never discovered. He valued himself upon the construction of a mechanism, by which the arm could perform ten or twelve moves. It then needed to be wound up like a watch, after which it was capable of continuing the same number of motions. This automaton could not play unless M. de Kempelin, or his assistant, was near it to direct its movements. A small square box was frequently consulted by the exhibiter during the game, and in this consisted the secret, which the inventor declared he could communicate in a moment. Any person who could beat M. de Kempelin at chess, was sure of conquering the automaton.