page_title: Innocenzo Manzetti
section_title: Automaton
hierarchical_section_title: Innocenzo Manzetti / Inventions / Automaton
caption_attribution_description: Il "Suonatore di flauto", l'automa realizzato da Innocenzo Manzetti nel 1840; esposto presso la Maison de Mosse di Avise (AO), Italia, in occasione della mostra "Au fil des ondes: 150 ans de télécommunications en Vallée d'Aoste", 9 - 17 aprile 2011; le "joueur de flûte" de Innocenzo Manzetti de 1840, exposé à la Maison de Mosse de Avise (AO), Italie, dans l'expo "Au fil des ondes: 150 ans de télécommunications en Vallée d'Aoste", 9 - 17 Avril 2011.
context_page_description: Innocenzo Vincenzo Bartolomeo Luigi Carlo Manzetti was an Italian inventor born in Aosta. Following his primary school studies he went to the Jesuit-run Saint Bénin Boarding School and then on to Turin where he was awarded a diploma in land surveying before returning to Aosta.
context_section_description: In 1840 he constructed a flute-playing automaton, in the shape of a man, life-size, seated on a chair. Hidden inside the chair were levers, connecting rods and compressed air tubes, which made the automaton's lips and fingers move on the flute according to a program recorded on a cylinder similar to those used in player pianos. The automaton was powered by clockwork and could perform 12 different arias. As part of the performance it would rise from the chair, bow its head, and roll its eyes.
  Later he managed to get his automaton to play any piece performed by a musician on an organ by muting the organ's keys and connecting them to the automaton's fingers. A complex automaton was described in the same 1865 news article that described Manzetti's telephone. He also built, as a toy for his daughter, a wooden flying parrot which would beat its wings then, reportedly, rise into the air and hover for two or three minutes before settling on a shelf.
caption: The flute-player (1840)
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