Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1845-10-31
CURIOUS PIECES OF MECHANISM

The automaton chess. player, exhibited IL
this country by Maelzel, was probably thu
most ingenious piece Of mechanism will
which our countrymen were ever familiar
But specimens Of mechanism have been ex.
hibited in Europe in years gone by, which
were far more wonderful than the automator
chess-player. The French have Away.
ingenuity in these matters, which require
much patience and calculation, as well as
skill.
We are told that M. Camus made toy
for the amusement of Louis XIV. when q
child, which must have been great curios-
~ in its way. 1t consisted of small coach,
which was drawn by two horses, and which
contained the figure of a lady within, with a
iootman and page behind.
When this machine was placed at the ex.
tremity Of table Of the proper size, the
coachman smacked his whip, and the horses
Instantly set off, moving their legs in nat
ural manner, and drawing the coach after
them when the coach reached the opposite
edge Of the table, it turned sharply at right
angle, and proceeded along the adjacent
edge. As soon as it arrived opposite the
place where the king sat, it stopped; the
page descended and opened the coach door |;
the lady alighed, and with curtesy pre-
scented petition which she held in her hand
to the king. After waiting some time, she
again curtesied and re.entered the carriage.
The page closed the door, and having re-
sumed his place behind, the coachman whip
ped his horses and drove on. The footman
who had previously alighted, ran after the
carriage, and jumped up behind into his for
mer place.
Not content with initiating the movements
of animals. the mechanical genius of The
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ven-
tured 10 perform by wheels and pnions the
functions of vitality. A French author in
forms US that General Degennes, a French
officer who once defended the colony Of ST.
Christopher against the English forces, con-
structed a peacock, which could walk about
as If alive, pick up grains of corn from the
ground. digest them as if they had been sub
mitted to the action of the stomach, and af-
forwards discharged them in an altered form.
Degennes is said to have invented various
machines of great use in navigation and gum
merry. and 10 have constructed clocks without
either weights or springs.
The sutomaton of Degennes probably
suggested to M. Vaucanson the idea Of con-
structing his celebrated duck, which excited
80 much interest throughout Europe, and
which was perhaps the most wonderful piece
of mechanism that was ever made. Vau.
canson's duck exactly resembled the living
animal in size and appearance. 1t executed
accurately all its movements and gestures
it ate and drank with avidity, performed all
the quick motions Of the head and throat,
which are peculiar to the living animal !; aud
like it, il muddled the water which il drank
with its bill. 1t produced also the sound Of
quacking in the most natural manner.
In tile anatomical structure of the duck,
the artist exhibited the highest skill. Every
bone in the real duck had its representative
in the auton,aton, and its wings were anat-
omically exact. Every cavity, apophysis
and curvature, was initiated, and each bone
executed its proper movements. When
corn was thrown down before it, the duck
stretched out its neck 10 pick it up. II
swallowed it, digested it, and discharged it
in digested condition. The process of di.
gestion was effected by chemical solution,
and not by trturation, and the food digested
in the stomach was conveyed away by tubes
to the place of its discharge.
The automata Of Vaucanson were imta-
ted by one Du Moulin, silversmilh, who
travelled with them through Germany in
1852, and who died at Moscow in l765.-
Beckman states that he saw several of them
after the machinery had been deranged
but that the artificial duck, which he regard.
ed as the most ingenious, was still able to
eat, drink, and move. Its ribs, which were
made of wire, were covered with ducks
feathers, and the motion was communicated
through the feet of the duck by means of
cylinder and fine chains like that of watch.
Boston Journal.