Fig. 157.
An assistant of Mr. Panky is concealed on the side C, where he turns the crank R, to make the figure execute a quarter turn to the left. The automaton now moves, from having his arms parallel with the horizon; rises gradually until his arms are placed vertically and parallel to the rest of his body.
If another quarter turn be made in the same direction, the upper arms then lean towards the spectator, and necessarily drag the body after them. The limbs offer no resistance, as they are jointed at the hip and knee.
The confederate, being on the watch, can take advantage of the moment when one leg passes before the other to let the mannikin drop astride the bar. Then he makes him swing, and finally execute a somersault; all to the movements of a piece of music.
As a finish, a jerk is given to a wire, and the figure is detached and falls to the floor. It will be believed thereby that mechanism made it grasp the bar, perform, and detach itself.
As the tube wraps the bar in all places except where the figure is attached, and hides all the turnings of the bar, no complicity is ever suspected.
THE AUTOMATON TUMBLER.
Figure 158 represents the only motor of a little figure which, placed in a cell on top of a flight of stairs, will, upon the bell of his residence being pulled, fly out heels over head, and, tumbling somersaults down the steps, alight in a chair at the bottom, in order to be at his ease before his visitor.
