The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-02
FASCINATION OF AUTOMATIC.
INTERESTING EXAMPLES OF HU-
MAN INGENUITY.

Appeals to All Glasses of Men-The
Ignorant Attribute superhumnn
Powers to 1t. and There Is some
thing Uncanny About 1t, Even to
Those Who Understand It's Me-
chanism-The Commercial Value
of Such COntrivances May BE
Readily seen-ExampIes From An
cient Times to the resent.
From the London Standard
There are few things more attractive
to the generality of men. or more calcu-
lated to excite their wonder and admira-
ton, than a dexterously and mysteriousy
contrived automaton. 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 is one of the most subtle Of
destinations. Hence the silver of the Gu
rious readily finds it's way into the pockets
of men ingenious enough to invent such
marvels, 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. II will be remembered, made au-
tomato tripods for the gods of Olympus
stools which advanced Of their own ac-
cord to the banqueting table, and so re-
tired when the feast was over Was this
all pure imagination on the part OF Homer.
or did il shadow out some actual achieve
ment of skilled mechancians of Phoeni-
| cia? According to the author of the life
of Apollonius of Tyana, similar tripods
were known in India, and indeed, the
Hindu sacred books seem TO hint at more
than one lost, or only recently recovered,
mechanical invention. Among the Greeks
later than Homer, Daedaltus is the ia
nous maker Of scientific marves-the
Houdin or Maskelyne of those dim old
days.
Aristotle tells us that the human auto
mata which Daedalus made We're so active
that is was necessary 20 keep them tether-
ed, for fear they should run away. The
same philosopher describes a wooden We
nus, who walked about, and gives also
the secret of the phenomenon. She was
filled with quicksilver 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 stories of magic prowess then
current were fathered upon the Roman
poet Virgil, the last man. probably, to
have coveted, or even wished for, postum
nous fame is necromanCer. Two of the
legendary Virgins more famous magic au-
tomato may be quoted. One was the bra
zen fly he made for Marcellus the son of
Emperor Augustus Marcelus was flying
his hawk al birds-so goes the tale-when
Virgil casually asked him whether he
Nragfa 10 it'd
catch all other birds, or a 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 a copper archer, who perpet-
ually pointed his magic arrow at Mount
Vesuvius to prevent it from erupting All
is said to have gone well until a mischiev-
Gus 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 club, suspecting it to be
a work of Satan. Some marvellous feats
of mechanism are credited to John Muller
otherwise known as Regomontanus. who
fOurished In the fifteenth century and I'm
dealing with him we. perhaps touch
firmer ground One was an iron fly which
flew around a table; another a wooden
eagle which went out to meet the Empe
ror MaXimilian on his entry of Nurem-
berg, on the 18th of June, 1470 and returned
with him to the city gates, an attention
no doubt appreciated and adequately re-
Enumerated by the monarch. Indeed, 1t
was to the king rather than TO the Deopla
that an old-time inventor had to look for
the rewards of his ingenuity. Mechani-
clans especially eXerted themselves to
please Louis XIV. One-Father Truchet
of the Royal Academy of Sciences-made
him an automatic opera with moving
characters and scenes complete. The fig
ures did not, of course, speak-that is an
invention not yet perfected, though some
steps have been taken towards Ii during
this century-but acted in dumb pantom-
inc. A. NJ. Canus made hin a moving
coach with running horses, and a lady
who descended from the coach to present
the king with petition, and a footman
who opened and closed the carriage door
for her Toys of this kind no doubt de-
| lighted kings in days when there was lit
tie to read and time must have often hung
very heavy One connects with the au-
tomato of King Louis the better known
delight
Mana Sahib, by tearing a mechanical Eng
lishman to pieces. with an accompani-
ment of growls and yels
Whether due or not to the stimulus given
by Louis XIV. the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries were in France times of
great automatic activity. Indeed the first
named century marks the beginning of
the really historical era of automatic In
the eighteenth century lived NJ. Vaucan
son. perhaps the most wonderful of all
makers of automata, and the creator of
the famous duck which first appeared be-
fore the public in 174l. This duck was
Naucanson's masterpiece. and completed
a reputation already made wide by his
mechanical flute player and an automatic
musician who not only blew upon the
dageolet, but also kept time TO it on a
tambourine. The bird was of life-size.
and not only was it outwardly an exact
imitation TO feather of real duck. but
it's internal anatomy was absolutely true
TO life So, indeed. were its movements
FOR it walked, quacked swan, dived. tie.
drank. and, by an ingenious device. even
seemed 10 digest its food. This automa
ton disappeared after it's inventors death.
but turned up again in 1870 in a garnet In
Berlin. and was purchased by a Mr..
George Tiets, who took four years to put