The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-09-05
Wonderful Auton0aton
Clock Which Answers the Question What Time Is IT,

Immediately The minister was frightened
and he too, hurried away. In consequence
of this Seance the Neuchstel artist. fear
ing that ne might De arrested by the IN
1uisition and burned as 4 sOrcerer, begged
the king to invite the grand inquisitor to
be present Jaquet-Broz took the clock
apart in his presence piece py piece
showing him all thu springs and explain
ing to him the action of the train. Prob
ably the in1uiSitor UNDERSTOOD little or
nothing of the matter; nevertheless, he
announced the fact publicly that he dis
covered no magic and that the 4 echanism
was moved entirely by natural means
Three Wonders.
.eThree of these automatons, whose per,
fection exceeded everything which hau
over been known in this class of work,
are the Young Musician, the DrauShtS-
man and the Writer a young woman
seated at the harpsichord, executed sey-
eraI pieces of music with deXterlty, WIFI
out any person touching the instrument.
The Draughtsmau, seated on a stool
made drawings with a pencil sketChlnS
them correctly and then shading them;
From time to time he raised MS manu-
to examine the work the better. correct
ed some defect, and blew the dust from
the paper Henri Louis, having gone 70
Versailles, exhibit ed his autnmatohs 10
the king The Draughtsman. 10 tpe
amazement of the whole court. sketched
the portrait of the French KING, with
laurel wreath on his head.
"Jacquet -Droz went over to ,EnSlahd'
he placed the Draughtsman before the
king and soon the hands of his automa-
ton were actively at work, but the sur sur
prise of those preSent was poulluleSS
when they beheld not the image of the
king of France, which thSy had eSpecteSE.
but that of the English monarch. VI
course the portraits were not IlnlSteu
productions, but presented q geheral 1'
semblance.
1.-The Draughtsman of Jacduet,DrGz
was not, however, the most relfldIhta,tpiio
of the works created by the ineXnaustlple
genius of this artist. Let one Judge from
the writer, seated before an isolated deSh,
without contact with any person; ne
would then dip his pen in the lnkstand
and write without dictation, slowly, y -
true, but distinctly and correctly. Eael
word occupied a suitable place at the de-
sired distance from the preceding; Wheh
a line was finished. he commenced
new one, leaving between them the ne
cessary. space The movements OF the
eyes and of the arms and hands were
admirably initiated. The Writer might gnu
even be interrupted. He stopped III tile
middle of a word, if asked, and wrote
another.
The means used by Jaquet-Droz for
securing this result must have remained
unknown. The courtiers. scientists ana
the most skillful mechanicians nave
1t is needless to say that the Writer
performed only in the presence OF
Jaquet-DroZ, which involves the ldea OF
some action exercised by this artist it
has been supposed that he made use OF
magnet concealed in his shoes or his
clothing. This idea was suggested by his
habit of walking back and forth, ana
turning sometimes to one side and some
times to the other while the automaton
was writing: thus perhaps being able to
attract the hook toward the wheel. with
the aid of a magnet and cause 1t TO re-
turn by the same force. The lords of
the court endeavored by means of other
magnets of great power concealed in their
clothing to disturb the working of the
apparatus by their attitudes and move
ments but in vain. The automaton wrote
with the same accuracy, The Writer is
still in existence. 1t continues to write
provided the hook and wheel are kept IN
action by the hand. The motive force
used by the artist is a secret which un-
fort unately has been buried with him.