Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-12
AUTOMATA.
An Account Of Some Of the Wonderful Things Done by Human Ingenuity.
 fIo

AUTOmATA.
 An Account Of Some Of the Wonderful Things Done by Human Ingenuity. From the London Standari.l
 Clever mechanicians have ceased for many years to give their attention to the art of i'm ltating nature in steel, wood and catgut. They find it more profitable to spend their energy in inventing some improvement, however trifing, upon one of the thousands ot machines which are in everyday use. But 1t does not become us of the nineteenth century to despise the marvellous skill which was in former days expended upon the con- struetion of automata. Every invention in the true sense of the word-every applica- tion of 8 new principle-has been at first a scientific toy. Practical men have often &C., quired wealth by adopting the ideas which men of genius had conceived; and it is @ cu- rious fact that some of the mechanism now
 used in manufactures was originally con- trived by the makers of automata. The idea of producing machine which would initiate the movements of living creature Is very ancient. It is said that so long ago
 as four centuries before the birth of Christ
 Archytas of Tarentum made wooden pi-
 geon that would fly. It is impossible now
 to say whether the wooden eagle of Regio-
 montanus, which, it was asserted, not only
 flew out to meet the emperor, but returned
 
 half way round a banqueting hall and come
 back to it's owners hands, had any real exis. tence. The flying might be granted, but that the machines should have the power of turning themselves in the air and returning to the point whence they started seems in credible. Of the wonderful automata of later times, however, no reasonable doubt can be entertained. Le Droz, a Swiss, made an imitation sheep, which could bleat exact- ly like real one and dog whose bark was like that of other dogs. Mailardet is to be credited with singing humming bird, as well as with an artificial spider, 6 caterpil- lar, lizard, mouse and serpent. Cannes made most ingenious toy for Louis XIV. when he was a boy, consisting of 8 coach and horses, with coachman and footman and a lady inside. The coach would run of itself to the edge of a long table, turn and move along the edge. At given point, where the king was supposed to be standing, it stopped. The footman got down and opened the door of the coach. The lady alighted, courtesied, presented her petition, again made obeisance, returned to her carriage and entered it, the servant closed the door after her, the coach set off at gallop and the footman jumped up behind! After making allowances for some enthusiasm on the part of the reporter, this must certainly have been a remarkable toy.
 The prince of automaton makers, how ever, was Vaucanson. His famous dunk in every respect resembled real one. Every bone, every ligament was reproduced in it. It could not only waddle about and quack, but eat and drink with quick motions-ex- actly like live bird. It muddied the water with it's bill as it drank, and the food which it swallowed was actually digested-not merely ground down, but transformed by process analogous to that of nature. After this tine modern walking postman and match box delivery machines seem very in- considerable triumphs. Vaucanson's fute- player was nearly as great marvel as his and held flute to its lips. It actually played tunes, and only one who has attempt ed to perform upon the flute can form any idea of the difficulty which Vaucanson must have had in getting the lips and tongue of his image to move so as to produce the de- sired effect. The flute player was furnished with nine pairs of bellows and innumerable levers, which expanded or drew in the lips, moved the fingers and regulated the supply of air. This triumph of patience and inge- nuity was exhibited in Paris in 173S. Deter mined to do something which would present even greater difficulties, Vaucanson proceed ed to construct pipe and tabor player. tude of a dancing shepherd. In one hand it held stick, with which it beat tam- bourine; in the other it held a fageolet upon which it could play no less than twen- ty airs. In order to comprehend the diffi- culty of this achievement it must be remem- bered that the fageolet has Cor then had) but three holes, and that the various notes are produced by making difference in the pres sure of the wind, and especially by stopping the holes to greater or less degree. In playing the fsgeolet one difficulty is that the tongue cannot articulate the quick notes with sufficient clearness and the ingenious arti6cer made his figures tongue move more G<~y,r I-A. and was thus able to boast with truth that his image could play, at least in one point, better than any living performer.
 Of the automasa which were no automata - not machines which, put in motion and left to themselves, would perform apparently natural acts, but contrivances in which the intervention of the operator was ingeniously concealed-the most famous have been Wolffgang de Kempelen's chess player and the figures called Psyche and Zoe, which have been exhibited in London of late years. As to the chess player, the really marvellous thing was that it should have been exhibited all over Europe, before monarchs, scholars, for more than thirty years without the se- cret being discovered. Every trick seems easy after it is explained, but it is difficult to imagine how men of intelligence could have thought that the numberless contingen- cies of game of chess could be provided for by machinery, or that Composing such @ thing had been possible) all the machinery in box two or three feet square. Yet learned men wrote pamphlets on the sub- ject, some of them arguing that 8 trick there must be, without condeseending to explain what the trick actually was, others consist- ing chiefly of Ca parcel of probablys." The machine was constructed in 1869. It con- sisted of figure clad as Turk and seated at tahlQ rather a phaat o h,1e feet long, two feet wide and two and a half deep. Doors opened both behind the chest and in the front; and when they were opened it was seen to be fuli of wheels, pulleys, levers and the like. Before a performance the 80 called automaton and his chest were wheeled about on castors; and the exhibitor introduced lighted candle into the interi- or, to satisfy the spectator that no one was concealed in either the chest or the figure. When this had been done the doors were closed, the exhibitor wound up the machine ry-a ceremony which was generally repeated after every ten or twelve moves-an antago- mist seated himself before the chest, the tor of which formed a chess board, and the game began. The figure certainly moved the pieces, lifting and replacing them with it's left hand. If false move were made the figure would put back the offending piece and move one of it's own pieces; and it would also nod it's head three times to sieni- fly check. The real merit of the exhibition lay in the adroitness with which the perfor- mer persuaded the spectators that they had seen the whole chest open at once, while in fact they were only allowed to see first one compartment of it and then another A slim led was concealed in the machine the whole time, slipping from one part of it to another as each was opened, and of course he played the game by pulling variety of strings. On the under side of the chess board, the ceiling of the tiny closet in which the boy lay hid, was sketch of the chess board above and number of vibrating pieces of metal which, either by magnetic or mechanical means, moved when piece was played and indicated what had been done On the third chess board the lad played the taper, and the candle which had been used to show off the machinery (which was of course movable and entirely useless as ma chinervA WAS left burning near hv so thar m