Evening star., 1900-08-18
SOME CURIOUS AUTOMATA.
yaucanson's Famous Duck and Me-
chanical Flute Player.

From Lectures pour Tous
OF all the inventors of mechanical curl
osities jacques Vaucanson certainly
the king. In the ingenuity OF his mind he
eQualed H he did not surpass the most
skillful of men In the first book of the
Odes of Horace we read that Arckytas
manufactured wooden pigeon. which. ac-
tuated by a mechanical movement. flew
from place to place. This. however. was
nothing compared with the automatic fly
manufactured by John Muller. and which
few around the table during a dinner, and
alighted upon the hand OF its owner and
manufacturer. to the great astonishment
of his guests. Philippe Camus Describes
an extraordinary automatic group which
was specially constructed for the amuse-
ment of Louis XIV. 1t was a minute
coach. to which were harnessed several
horses. and which rolled over the table.
Upon starting the coachman cracked his
whip. and the horses began to prance and
then became quiet and started OF on
trot. The coach stopped in front of the
king, and the lackey jumped from his seat
and. opening the door. handed out a hand
somely dressed lady, who walked toward
his majesty, saluted him tremendously.
presented a petition to him and then re-
door and jumped upon his box, the whip
snapped and the horses galloped OF
Vaucanson did better still. His auto
matte duck was, to connoisseurs, an OBJ
Ject OF admiration. The bird waddled off
in search of food and picked up and swal-
lowed the seeds that it met with. These
seeds. says article in the Geographic
Cniverselle, passed into the stomach
through a series Of trituratiops that facili-
tated the Introduction of them into the
fntestines and caused them to accomplish
all the phases of digestion II was i'm
possible to distinguish this duck from
living one. 1t splashed about in the water
and quacked at pleasure Vaucansons
mechanical flute player also was a marvel.
1t was life-size figure, clothed in tho
fashion of the period. and standing along
side of broken column. upon which 1t
slightly leaned. 1t was capable of playing
dozen different airs with remarkable
ease. To effect this result there was a sys-
TEN OF weights that actuated a bellows
placed in the interior of the autonlaton,
and. through an invisible tube. forced air
to the flute, where IL acted In the usual
way upon tho stopple Of the opening. In
order to obtain the modulations and, conse-
quently, complete air the fingers of tho
automaton were movable and closed the
holes of the flute Theoretically when at rest,
and also rose and replaced one another
through the traction exerted by wires and
cords that were tautened and relaxed by
the play Of a toothed cylinder.
About sixty years ago a jeweler Of Bou-
logne constructed wonderful automatic
prestidigitateur. This figure, correctly
dressed In black. performed various sleight-
ot-hand tricks with remarkable dexterity.
and when 1t was applauded. gracefully
saluted the spectators to the right and
left. One of it's tricks was the following:
1t struck a table several times and made
egg come out of IT. Ii then blew upon
the latter. when out of IL came a bird that
tapped its wings and sang. and afterward
entered the egg again. This trick finished
the exhibition.