The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-29
an annronriate answer 10 the question,

resumed his original position, and the
drawer opened To return the medallion.
There were twenty of these medallions,
all containing different questions, to
which the magician returned the most
suitable and striking answers. The
medallions were thin plates of brass, of
an elliptical form, exactly resembling
each other. Some of the medallions had
question inscribed upon each side,
both of which the magician answered in
succession. If the drawer was shut
without the medallion being put into
1T, the magician rose, consulted his
book, shook his head, and resumed his
seat. The folding-door remained shut,
and the drawer was returned empty.
III two medallions were put in the drawer
together, an answer was returned only
to the lower one. When the machinery
was wound up, the movement continued
about an hour, during which time about
fifty questions might be answered.
The same ingenious artist also con-
structed various other automata, repre-
senting insects and vario smother ami
mails. Once there was spider made
entirely of steel, which exhibited all the
movements of the animal. 1t ran on
the surface of table for three minutes,
and to prevent it running of, its course
always tended to the center of the table.
He constructed, likewise, caterpillar,
n lizard mouse, and a serpent. The
serpent crawled about in every direction,
opened its mouth, Kissed and sarted out
its tongue.
NJ. Vaucanson, who lived in the mid
die OF the last century, was, however,
the most brilliant and successful of all
the wonder-workers. His two principal
automatic were the fiute-player and the
pipe and tabor-player. With these he
astonished all Europe. When the flute
player was first exhibited in Paris it
excited suspicion. The scientific men
recalled the story of Raisin, the organist
of Troyes, who exhibited an automaton
player upon the harpsichord, which
astonished the French court with the
extent of its powers. The King insisted
upon examining the mechanism, and as
his curiosity could not be restrained, it
was discovered that little musician,
five years of age, was concealed in the ma
chine. TWAS hardly singular, therefore,
that a similar machine would be received
with incredultity but the doubts of the
SQCanS were soon dispelled by Nj. Vau-
canson, who exhibited and explained to
committee of the Academy Of Sciences
the entire system of mechanism with
which the effects were produced. This
body oflearned men were astonished at the
marvellous ingenuity displayed ; and the
ma hap ,tota 70 tlot
the machinery employed for producing
the sounds of the flute performed, in
the most exact manner, the very opera
tions of very expert tiute-player and
that the artist had initiated the effects
produced, and the means employed, by
nature, with an accuracy which was
simply wonderful. AT later day, NJ.
Vaucanson published pamphlet, under
the sanction of the French Academy, in
which he gave full description of the
machinery employed and of the prin-
ciples of its construction.
Encouraged by the success of this ma
chine, NJ. Vaucanson exhibited other
automatic, which were even more adj
mired. One of these was duck, which
was probably the most extraordinary
piece of mechanism ever made. The
duck exactly resembled the living ami
NAL i'll size and appearance. 1t exc
cuted, 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, and, like it, muddled
the water which it drank with its bill.
1t produced, also, the sound of quack-
ing in the most natural manner In the
anatomical structure of the duck the
artist exhibited the highest skill. Every
bone i'll the real duck had its represen-
tative in the automaton, and its wings
were anatomically exact. Every cavity
and curvature was initiated, and each
bone executed its proper movements.
When corn was thrown down before it,
the duck stretched out its neck to pick
it up ; it swallowed it, digested it, and
discharged it in n digested condition.
The process of digestion WAS effected 10y
chemical solution, and not by tritura-
ton and the food digested in the stom-
ach was conveyed away in tubes to the
place of discharge.
The automatic of Vaucanson We're i'm.
itated by Du Monlin, silversmith, in
Germany. A writer who saw several OF
them after the machinery had been de.
ranged, says that the artificial duck was
still able to drink, eat 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 a cylinder
and fine chains, like that of an old-fash-
Toned watch. The duck of Vaucanson
was probably suggested to him by an
artificial peacock, constructed many
years before by Gen. Degennes, French
officer. The peacock could walk about
as if alive, pick up grains of corn from
the ground, digest them and then dis
charge them in an altered form.
Another of Vaucanson's machines was
the pipe and tabor-player. The figure
stood on pedestal, and was dressed
like dancing shepherd. It held in
one hand a hageolet, and in the other a
stick, with which it beat the tambourine,
as an accompaniment to the airs of the
fiageolet, about twenty of which it was
capable of performing. The fageolct
has only three holes, and the variety OF
its tones depends, principally, on a
proper variation of the wind, and on the
degrees with which the orifces are COW
cred. These variations of the force OF
l Al 4 A.