The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-24
THE HISTORY OF AUTOMATIC.
Vulcan Made Toys for the Gods of o1vrn.
us which Came and Went of Their Own
Accord.

Accord.
There are few things more attractive
to the generality of men, or more calou-
lated to excite their wonder and admira-
ton, than dexterously and mysterious
ly contriyed automaton, says the London
Standard. There is, indeed, something
almost uncanny in the sight of figure
made by mems hands acting like a
creature of flesh and blood, and this I'M
canniness ia one of the most subtle of
destinations. Hence the silver OF the Gu
rious readily finds its way into the peck
cts Of men ingenious enough to Invent
such marvels, and hence men Of mechan-
ical genius have in all ages thought it
worth while to put their toll OF brain
amp hand into such contrivanoes, perhaps
to the neglect of works far moro perma-
nently valuable to mankind.
The passion for the automaton Is GER
tainly no new thing. One meets it in
almost the earliest books, sometimes
yelled in myth, sometimes more directly
stated. Vulcan, it will be remembered,
made automatic tripods for the gods OF
Olympus-stools which advanced of their
own accord to the banqueting table, and
SO retired when the feast was over. Was
this all pure imagination on the part of
Homer, or did it shadow out some actual
achievement of skilled mechanicians of
Phoenicia? According to the author of
the life of Apollonius of Tyana, similar
tripods were known in India, and, in
deed, the Hindu sacred books seem to
hint ct more than one lost or only re-
GENTLY recovered mechanical invention.
Among the Greeks later than Homer,
Daedalus is the famous maker of scien-
tific' marvels-the Houdjn or Maskelyne
of those dim old days. YsT5aa
Aristotle tells as that the human auto.
mata which Daedalus made were so &C
tive that it was necessary to keep them
tethsred, for fear they should run away.
The same philosopher describes a wood
On Venus who walked shout, and gives
also the secret Of the phenomenon. She
was flled with quicksilver somewhat
crude device. Later on-in the Middle
Ages-the fame due to the maker Of au-
tomato was darby connected with the
unlawful magic arts. Ry p strange IRONY
of fate, most of the stories of magic
prowess then current were fathered upon
the Roman poet Virgil, the last man
probably to have coveted, or even wished
for, posthumous fame as q neoromancer.
Two of the legendary Virgil's most IA
nous magic automatic may be quoted.
One was brazen fly he made for Marcel
lus, the son of Augustus, emperor. Mar
cellus was flying his hawk at birds-so
goes the tale-when Virgil casually asked
him whether he would prefer to have a
bird that could catch all other birds or
fly that would destroy all other flies.
Perhaps Marcellus was no very keen
sportsman for he chose the fly, and 1t is
said to have proved very useful, especially
to butchers. The other was copper
archer, who perpetual]y pointed his magic
arrow at Mount Vesuvius to present it
from erupting. All,is said to have gone
well until nischievous boy orept 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 legs 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, sus-
pecting it to be work of Satan. Some
marvellous feats of mechanism are cred
tied to John Muller. otherwise known as
Regiomontanus, who hourished in the
fifteenth century, and in dealing with
him we perhaps touch hrmer ground
One was an iron fly which flew around
table, another wooden eagle which went
out to meet the Emperor MaximiliRn on
his entry to Nuremberg on the 7th of
,oI xxyj+ T. ~.
city gates, an attention no doubt appre-
oiated and adequately remuneratsd by
the monarch. Indeed, it was to the king
rather than to the people that an old
time inventor had to look for the rewards
of his ingenuity. Mechanicians especially
exerted themselves to please Louis XIV.
One Father Truchet of the Royal Acade-
my of Sciences made him an automatic
opera with moving characters and scenes
complete. The figures did not of course
speak-that is an invention not yet per-
fected, though some steps have been
taken toward it during this century-but
acted in dumb pantomime. A. NJ. Canus
made him moving coach with running
horses, and a lady who descended from
the coach to present the king with pe-
tition, and footman who opened and
closed the carriage 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 connects with the automata of King
Louis the better known mechanical tiger
which used ito delight Mana Sahib by
tearing a mechanical Englishman to
pieces, with an accompaniment of growls
and yells.
Whether due or not to the stimulus
given by Louis XIV, the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were in France
times Of great automatic activity. In
deed, the frst-nimed century marks the
honirntrct of the realIr historiaal - -