The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-18
WONDERFUL AUTOMATA.
Examples of Human Ingenuity From
the Days of DaednIus TO the Pres

Ihere are Jew things more attractive 10
the generality Of men. or more calculated
10 excite their wonder and admiration,
than dexterously and mysteriously con-
trived automaton. There is. indeed, some
thing almost uncanny in the sight Of
figure made by mems hands acting like
creature of flesh and blood, and this I'M
canniness is one of the most subtle of fas-
cinations. Hence. the silver of the curious
readily finds It's way into the pockets Of
men ingenious enough 10 invent such mar
Vels. and hence men Of mechanical genius
have in all ages thought it worth while
TO put their toll Of brain and hand into
such contrivances perhaps to the neglect
OF works far more permanently valuable
TO mankind
This passion for the automaton is GER
tainly no new thing. One meets it in al
most the earliest books. sometimes yelled
in myth, sometimes more directly stated,
Vulcan, it will be r. memDered, made au-
tomato tripods for lhe gods of olympus
stools which advanced of their own ac-
cord to the banquetinS table, and so re-
tired when the feast was over. Was this
all pure Imagination on the part of Ho-
mer, or did il shadow out some actual
achievement of skilled meehanicians of
Phoenieia? According 10 the author of
the life of ApolOn.us Of Tyana, similar
NilPols were KNOWN III lEOids anu, lAdecus
the Hindu sacred books seem TO hint at
more than one lost. or only recently re-
covered, mechanical invention, Among the
Greeks later than Homer, Daedalus is the
famous maker of scientific marvels-the
Houdin or Maskelyne of those dim old
days.
Aristotle tells us that the human auto
mata which Daedalus made
were so active that 1t was
necessary to keep them tethered,
for fear they should run away. The same
philosopher describes a wooden Venus who
walked about, and gives also the secret of
the phenomenon. She was filed with quick
silver-a somewhat crude device. Later on
IN the middle ages-the fame due to the
maker Of automata was darkly connected
with the unlawful magic arts BY a
strange irony of fate, most Of the aories
of magic proWess then current were faith
cred upon the Roman poet Virgil, the last
man, probably, to have coveted, or even
wished for, pOsthumOus fame as a NEGRO
manCer. Two of the Legendary Virgirs
more famous magic autcmata may be
quoted. One was the brazen fly he made
for Marcellus, the son of Augustus, en-
peror. Marcellus was flying his hawk at
birds-so goes the tale-when Virgil cas-
ually asked him whether he would prefer
to have a bird that could catch all other
birds, or a fly that could catch all other
flies. Perhaps Marcellus was no very keen
sportsman. for he chose the fly, and it is
said to have proved very useful, especially
to butchers. The other was a copper arch
err who perpetually pointed his magic ar
row at Mount VesuVius to prevent it from
erupting. All is said to have gone we'll un-
til a mischievous boy crept behind the
archer and let off the arrow. After that,
the eruption. These stories, it should be
said, were, of course, not known to the
Latins. They were invented by the monks,
and, it is one John of Salisbury who has
handed them down to US.
Similar achievements were attributed to
other less fabulous doctors of strange arts.
Albertus Magnus is credited with having
made a brazen man who talked. and ST.
Thomas Aquinas with having pounded it to
pieces with a club, suspecting iNel be a
work of satan. Some marvellous 1f
mechanism are credited to John Muller
otherwise known as Regomontanus, who
hourished in the fifteen century, and in
dealing with him we, perhaps touch firm
er ground. One was an iron fly which flew
around a table; another a wooden eagle
which went out 20 meet the Emperor Max
imilian on his entry of Nuremberg on June
Z, 1870 and returned with him to the city
gates, an attention no doubt appreciated
and adequately remunerated by the mon
arch Indeed it was to the king rather
than to the people that an old-time in
ingenuity. Mechanicians especially exert
ed themselves to please Louis XIV. One
Father Truchet of the Royal Academy Of
Science him an automatic opera
with moving characters and scenes com
plete. The figures did not, of course, speak
that is an invention not yet perfected,
though some steps have been taken to-
wards it during this century-but acted
in dumb pantomime. A. NJ. Canus made
him a moving coach with running horses,
and a lady descended from the coach TO
present the king with a petition, and q
footman who opened and closed the car
riage door for her Toys of this kind,
no doubt delighted kings in days when
there was little to read, and time must
have often hung very heavy. One con-
meets with the automata of King Louis
the better known mechanical tiger which
used to delight Mana Sahib, by tearing a
mechanical Englishman to pieces, with an
accompaniment of growls and yells.
Whether due or not to the stimulus CIV
en- by Louis XIV, the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were in France times
of great automatic activity. Indeed, the
frst-named century marks the beginning
of the really historical era of automata.
In the eighteenth century lived NJ. Nau-
canson perhaps the most wonderful of all
makers of automata, and The creator of
the famous duck, which first appeared be-
fore the public in 1741. This duck was
Vaucanson's masterpiece, and completed
reputation already made wide by his me-
chanical futepiayer, and an automatic
musician who not only blew upon the flag
eolet but also kept time to it on tambou-
iine The bird was of life-siZe, and not
only was it outwardly an exact imitation
to a feather of a real duck, but its internal
anatomy was absolutely true to life. So,
indeed, were its movements, for it walked,
quacked, swan, Owed, ate, drank and, by
an ingenious device, even seemed to digest
it's food This automaton disappeared at
ter its inventors death, but turned up
again in 1910 in garnet in Berlin. and was
purchased by Mr. George Tiets who
took four years to put ii in proper working
order again. At the end of this time it
was exhibited in a room in the palais royal,
Paris, where NJ Houdin, the celebrated
conjurer, saw it, and. indeed, afterwards,
when something happened to one of its
wings, took charge of and repaired it, No
doubt it is still in existence. OF more
modern automatic this is scarcely the place
to speak, for they are private secrets. Let
us conf1ne ourselves to merely mentioning
Mr. Maskelyne's Psyche" and Zoe
Like most things, automata have not al
hot