The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-02-03
QUEER AUTHORIZATIONS.
EXAMPLES FROM THE DAYS OF
DEDALUS TO THE PRESENT.

Brazen Man Ihat iaIked--A Wonderfr
Mechanical Duck-The Greatest of Al
IS the Fraudulent Automatons.
81 There are few things more attraotiy
10 the generality Of men or more calcu
lated to excite their wonder and admira
tion than dexterously and mysteriousl
oontrived automaton. There is, indeed
something almost uncanny in the sigh
of a figure made by men S hands actin.
like a creature of flesh ard .lood, ant
this uncanniness is one of the most sub
tie of destinations. Hence the silver O.
the curious readily finds its way int,
the pockets OF men ingenious enough tt
invent such marvels.
This passion for the automaton is Ger
family no new thing. One meets it in
almost the earliest books, sometimes
yelled in myth, sometimes more direct.
~ stated. Vulcan, it will be remem.
bered made automatic tripods for the
gods of Olympus - stools which ad
vanced of their own accord to the ban
quoting table and so retired when tic
feast was over.
Aristotle tells us that tho human au
tomato which D8dalus made Tcro s,
active that 1T was necessary to keen
them tethered for fear they N0u,I run
away. The same philosopher describes
wooden Venus who walked aaott and
gives also the secret of the pheno .Ienon.
She was filed with quioksilver-a some
what crude device Albertus Mscnus j.
credited with having made a Lrazel
man who talked and St. Thomas Anal
mas with having pounded it to pieces
with club suspecting it to be a worl,
OF satan. Some marvellous feats OF
mechanism are credited to John Muller,
otherwise known as Regiomontanrs.
who fourished in the fifteenth century,
and il dealing with him we PERHAPS
touch iirmer ground. One was an iron
fly which flew around table, another
a wooden eagle which went out to meet
Emperor Macmillan on his entry of
Nuremberg on June 7, 1870, and re-
turned with him to the city gates
i 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 first named century marks the
beginning of the really historical era of
automatic. In the eighteenth century
lived Mr.. Naucanson, perhaps the most
wonderful of all makers Of automatic
and the creator of the famous duck |
which first appeared before the public |
in 174l. The duck was Vaucanson's !
masterpiece and completed reputation
already made wide by his mechanical
flute player and an automatic musician |
which not only blew upon the fageolet,
but also kept time to it on tambourine.
The bird was of life size, and not only
was it oFtwardly an exact imitation to
p feather of a real duck, but its internal |
anatomy was absolutely true to life. Sc,
indeed, were its movements, for it
SWAN, dived, walked, quaclzed, ate,
drank and by an ingenious device even
seemed to digest its food
This automaton disappeared after it's
inventors death, but turned up again
IN 1910 i'll a garnet in Berlin and was
purchased by George Tiets, who took
four years to put it in proper working
order again. At the end of this time it
was exhibited in a room in the Palais
Royal, Paris, where Mr.. Houdin, the
celebrated oonjuror, saw it, and, indeed,
afterward, when something happened
to one of it's wings, took charge Of ana
repaired it. No doubt it is still in ex-
istence Of more modern autOmata this
is scarcely the place to speak, for they
are private secrets Let US confne our
selves to merely mentioning Mr.. Mas
kelynes PSYCHIC" and "Zoo."
Like most things, automata have not
always been what they seemed. Of
many frauds upon the wonder loving
public perhaps the completest was that
of the famous automatic chess player Of
Mr.. Kempelen, which was exhibited
all over Europe at the end Of the last
century and afrerward i'll America. 1t
was the figure of life sized Turk seat
ed behind large box, the top Of which
was marked in the middle for chess.
Prior to the automaton's meeting an
opponent the front of the box was open
ed and skeptical lockers Oh were shown
an arrangement OF strings, pulleys and
cylinders. After this they were allowed
to examine the interior of the figure,
which was hollow. Then Mr.. Kempe-
len wound up his Turk with key, and
it was ready to play, which it did by
moving the pieces with its left hand
and giving three mods for check to king
and two for check to queen. All the
noted chess players of Europe succumb-
ed to the figures superior strategy, and
it's skill SO impressed the Empress Cath
crime II of Russia that she wished to
buy it and was with difficulty persuad-
ed by Mr.. Kelnpelen to give up the idea.
It was not Tor years that the secret was
but, like most secrets, it
leaked out at last. The real chess play
81 was a Mr.. Wronsky, a Polish ex-cap-
.ain, DUSi o. Whose legs bad been am
putated at the trunk il consequence Of
4 wound from cannon bail. While the
spectators were examining the box
was in the Turks body, and
when they turned to inspect that an in
yenious mechanism slid him back into
the box. To the fact that Wronsky was
! chess player of consummate skill the
wide fame of the automaton, which he
secretly controlled. is to be attributed
After this disclosure Mr.. Kenpelen'
ono,,cr}, 4, |