American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-02-15
AndrOides.

Wandering one day through the streets
of Vienna, notice of an exhibition of va
rious mechanical figures was sufficiently
attractive to induce us to enter. 1t was a
men and women, who had everything but
souls to make them independent citizens.
Vaucarin was one of the extraordinary
mechanical geniuses in the early part OF
| the last century. His artificial duck, that
padded about the margin of pond,
picked up corn and significantly quacked
at suitable intervals, was a wonderful tri-
umph of skill, but the spinet player put
into the shade every andrOidal invention
before or since. There sat q really hand
some young lady before the instrument
1.-THE forerunner of the present piano) with
music book before her. When wound
up, the performer first looked either way
upon the audience, bowed gracefully and
then began to finger the keys. She swept
the instrument In the usual manner-the
fingers acting separately vibrating over
the ivory so naturally as to deceive any
One not informed that she was mere
machine made up IF an aggregation of
wheels, cams, levers and catgut cOrdage.
AS many different airs were executed as
were satisfactory to an inquisitive stran-
ger: ofcour:e old French music, in vogue
when the artist finished the interior. AZ
ter the springs were exhausted, the ope-
ratOr unbuttOned the musicians dress be-
tween her shoulders, unlaced her stays,
and next with key unlocked the chest.
Swinging open brass door, there was an
exposition of contrivances, especially of
cams as thin as paper sliding side by side,
amazing to view. There was multitu-
dinous congregation of powers. Catxut
cords extended from barrels down the
arms to the extremity of each finger, which
they controlled precisely like digital mus
Giles. 1t would be prolix story to dwell
on all the minuti4 of that masterpiece.
Suffice it to say that the man having the
show, himself q mechanic of rare ingenu-
about the spinet player. When he
had completed his apprenticeship, he
went to Paris to find it. After a te-
dious persevering search, it was found
packed away in 1umber-roOm of one of the
state departments, where it had been for
gotten, having been there since the out
break of the French revolution. He had
permission to take it away on a promise
to return it, he holding out an expecta-
ton of being able to put the lady once
more in motion, which no modern artisan
would undertake to do. He soon mas
tered the intricacies of the mechanism,
and we saw it rediriuus, good as new. An
other androidal movement, quite as aston
ishing, in the same exhibition, was mimi
allure old man, smoking while drawing a
hand cart laden with trunks and boxes.
OF course both man and cart were on a
small scale, but so extraordinary was the
resemblance to a live man bracing his feet
In order to drag the load, spectator
could hardly restrain an expression of en-
thusiasm as the cart rolled along the floor.
1t was the production of a matchmaker
somewhere in Switzerland, who was paid
five hundred dollars for the curiosity,
which he made in the course of long
winter evenings. Since Mcneil exhibited
the mechanical chess player (Which, by
the way, was not conducted by machin-
ery), although the rope dancer, skilfully
managed wonder. more nearly approached
a first class androidal device, no very
striking things have been invented of that
kind, at home or abroad. The trumpeter
was marvel at first, but the same bel
lows would have supplied the instrument
with wind If 1t had been in barrel or a
packing box. When that fact was real
ized by visitors, the excitement gradual
ly subsidized. Some inventors among us
are capable ofmaking such ingenious con-
trivances, but few can afford the time
E1cfau1e