Mons. Kempelen’s bellows, which were formed to supply the place of lungs, had no peculiarities. He found that his machine required six times the quantity of air used by a man in speaking. The muzzle, as I have observed, was inserted into the large air-chest, and the air which it discharged was also received by the small air-chest. With regard to the mouth, it consisted of a funnel, or rather bell-shaped piece of elastic gum, applied to the air-chest, and so adapted that the sound of the reed issued from it. Elastic gum was selected for this purpose as more nearly approaching to the natural softness and flexibility of the human organs. Independent of its communications with the reed producing the sound required, a tin tube connected it with the air-chest, by means of which it might be kept constantly full of air. This Mons. Kempelen considered a very essential, and even an indispensable part of the machine. Besides these there were small additional bellows, for the purpose of aiding the production of such sounds as p, k, t, which needed a greater emission of air. The nose consisted of two tin tubes, communicating with the mouth. When the mouth-piece was closed, and both tubes remained open, a perfect m was heard; when one was closed, but the other open, n was sounded. By the combined means of all these contrivances Mons. Kempelen could make his figure repeat such sentences as Vous étes mon ami, Je vous aime, etc. Upon Kempelen’s machinery all succeeding talking figures have been based.
The most noted person who succeeded Kempelen in the art of magical automata was Robert Houdin. He not only improved upon the production of his predecessors, but applied the basis of their materials to works comparatively original and unique. His automata certainly place him in the highest rank of modern illusionists, and in giving in detail the principal of his inventions, I shall at the same time be affording a solution of the working of many surprising and ingenious automatic tricks, which have been exhibited in recent days. One of his best productions was a Talking Figure, similar, but in many respects far superior, to that of Kempelen, the mechanism of which I have described above.
It has been asserted that Houdin first turned his attention to the construction of automata through the following trivial circumstance:
Being in company one day with a travelling showman, his assistance was asked to repair one of the figures the showman had accidentally broken. Having seen the performance of the figure, which was none other than the well-known Dancing Harlequin, he was struck with the marvellous and apparently magical effects which could be produced by the simplest laws of mechanism. He became so infatuated with the discovery the showman permitted him to make in the construction of the box and figure, that he, from that time, devoted all his thoughts and energies to the construction of automata.
The magic harlequin is worth description, not only because it takes so prominent a place among mechanical figures, but more because, in disclosing its mechanism, I shall be explaining the construction of a whole class of automata, which have been constructed on the same principle. As will be seen by the illustration given above, a box was placed upon a table, and at word of command the box opened and a harlequin was discovered therein. At a sign from the conjurer the figure leaped from the box, and then, apparently without being attached in any way to the box, it performed a variety of movements, imitating the action of the human pantomimist. It further smoked a pipe or cigar, and blew a whistle.
Such was the figure which opened the eyes of Houdin to the marvels which the application of the simple laws of mechanics might produce; and his great mechanical genius enabled him to succeed even better than he hoped when first he began his investigations of the automata that had already been exhibited.
The mechanism of the Magic Harlequin is extremely simple; in fact, it will be found that the most marvellous and astounding effects are produced by the simplest contrivances. The box containing the figure was grooved in the back in nine places, each groove terminating in a hole pierced through the bottom of the box. Corresponding exactly with these holes were nine holes in the table upon which the figure performed. Below these holes at the back of the table, which was always placed close up to the curtains at the back of the stage, and behind which the person who manœuvred the figure was concealed, were nine spring pistons worked by nine different strings passing over pulleys, each of which performed a different function, and were attached to that point in the figure which each was designed to move.
The figure of the harlequin, as the reader will perceive by the annexed illustration, was attached by means of two rods to a revolving bar fixed from side to side of the box, and so near the front that it was concealed from the eyes of the audience. When the harlequin was out of the box, the rods connecting it with the bar were hidden by the drapery of the figure. The first string worked the opening and shutting of the lid of the box. The second string, passing under a pulley immediately beneath the bar, passed over the shoulders of the figure, and by a sharp movement turned the bar and jerked the figure—which was reversed when in the box—out on to the table, the figure, of course, maintaining a standing posture, and being held up by means of the rods attached to the revolving bar. The shoulders were made to revolve on the two rods, so that the jerking motion would be easily produced. The third string passed through the body, and was attached to the legs, and produced a motion to imitate the stretching of the legs, known as the “splits.” Another string closed the legs and simultaneously turned the head right and left. Another string lifted the legs and imitated the movements of a dance. Another string turned the figure back again into the box. In the corner of the box was a bellows, through the medium of which, and by means of a tube passing through the arm, and ending in the mouth, the concealed person, by manipulating the nine pistons which worked the bellows, was enabled to produce the effects of smoking and whistling.