AUTOMATON

(Gr. avros, self, and ptarnv, easily.) A name applied to pieces of mechanism so constructed as to imitate the actions of living animals. The term Android (from the Gr. dvi)p, man) is sometimes applied to such machines as resemble the figures and imitate the actions of mankind. Tlic extent to which these usele but ingenious contrivances has been sometimes carried is very surprising. Arehytas of Tarentum, about 400 years before our era, is said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly. Friar Bacon's speaking head is a well-known tradition. Albert us Magnus constructed an automaton to open his door when any one knocked; the celebrated Regiomontanus, a wooden eagle that flew forth from the city, saluted the emperor, and returned: and likewise an iron fly which flew out of his hand, and returned after flying about the room. These Instances may perhaps have been exaggerated in the description but; there are some of recent date, and not le remarkable, respecting which the testimony is clear and strong. The following are a few of the best authenticated:— The flute-player of Vaucauson, described by DAlembert in the Encyclopedie Method i que, was exhibited in Paris in 1738. It played on the flute exactly in the same manner as a living performer, and commanded three octaves, the fullest scale of the instrument. Its height was nearly six feet. In Hutton's Mathematical Recreations, a description is given of an automaton group, constructed by M. Camus for the amusement of Louis XIV., consisting of a coach and noises, with coachman and page, and lady inside, , by which the action of driving up, alighting, presenting a petition to the king, and setting off again, was mimicked with wor.derful accuracy. In 1741, Vaucauson, produced a flagelet olayer, which played the flagelet with the left hand, whi'e it beat a tambourine with the right. He also produced a duck, which dabbled in the water, swam, drank, and quacked like a real duck; raised and moved its wings, drained its feathers with its bill, took barley from the hand and swallowed it, and even digested its food by means of materials for its solution placed in the stomach. (Montucla, Il.'stoiredes Math., tome iii. p. 602.) Automaton flute-players have likewise been exhibited in England, of die size of real life, which performed ten or twelve duets Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, exhibited an lutomaton trumpeter at Vienna, of which a description is given in the Journal des Modes for 1S09. It was a martial figure, in the uniform of a trumpeter of an Austrian dra»oon regiment, which played not only the Austrian and French cavalry marches, and all the signals of those armies, but also a march and an allegro, by Weigh accompanied by the whole orchestra, . (Dictionary of Musicians, London, 1827.) Automata have also been constructed which wrote, drew likene es, played on the pianoforte, <fc. The celebrated r.ne -play in a automaton is now considered as a solved no [s. 124]