M. Vaucanson produced a flageolet-player, who beat a tambourine with

one hand. The flageolet had only three holes, and some notes were made
by half-stopping these. The lowest note was produced by a force of
wind equal to an ounce, the highest by one of fifty-six French pounds.
A duck was, however, considered to be his chef-d’œuvre; it dabbled in
the mire, swam, drank, quacked, raised and moved its wings, and dressed
its feathers with its bill; it even extended its neck, took barley
from the hand and swallowed it, during which process the muscles of
the neck were seen in motion, and it also digested the food by means
of materials provided for its solution in the stomach. The inventor
made no secret of the machinery, which excited, at the time, great
admiration.

Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, or time-measurer, frequently
used to aid pupils in music, exhibited in Vienna in 1809, another
automaton of singular power; which appeared in the uniform of a
trumpeter in the Austrian dragoon regiment Albert, with his instrument
placed to his mouth. When the figure was pressed on the left shoulder,
it played not only the Austrian cavalry march, and all the signals of
that army, but also a march and allegro by Weigl, which was accompanied
by the whole orchestra. The dress of the figure was then changed into
that of a French trumpeter of the guards, when it began to play a
French cavalry march, all the signals, the march of Dussek, and an
allegro of Pleyel, accompanied again by the full orchestra. Maelzel
publicly wound up his instrument only twice on the left hip. The sound
of the trumpet was pure and peculiarly agreeable.

About thirty years ago, Maillardet exhibited, in Spring Gardens, a
variety of automata, which the writer had an opportunity of seeing
at a later period. One was the figure of a boy, who wrote sentences,
and drew certain objects with remarkable promptitude and correctness.
Another was a pianiste, seated at a piano-forte, on which she played
eighteen tunes. All her movements were graceful. Before beginning a
tune, she made a gentle inclination of the head to her auditors; her
bosom heaved, and her eyes followed the motion of her fingers over the
finger-board. When the automaton was once wound up, it would continue
playing for an hour; and the principal part of the machinery employed
was freely exposed to public view. It has been doubted whether the
music was actually produced by the automaton: since the time now
referred to, the writer has examined another, in which the keys of the
instrument were certainly acted upon by the touch.

He has also seen, at various times, several very curiously constructed
automata: the figure of a lady, who could walk along a level surface,
throwing out the limbs, and moving the head from side to side; a
tippler, who could pour out wine from a decanter into a glass, open
his mouth, and swallow the fluid, and thus proceed till the bottle was
drained; and a performer on the slack rope, whose exceedingly rapid
movements of the body, the arms, and the head, all consistent and
graceful, were truly amazing.

A very beautiful automaton was exhibited, a few years ago, in Paris,
and subsequently in London. It appeared in a court suit, sitting at
a table, in the attitude of writing. Several questions, inscribed on
tablets, were placed on the table on which the whole apparatus stood,
and visitors might select any one or more at pleasure. The tablet,
containing a question, on being handed to the attendant, was placed
in a drawer, and, as soon as it was closed, the figure traced on
paper an appropriate reply. On the question being given, “Who may be
volatile without a crime?” the answer was, “A butterfly.” And as the
figure could draw a response as well as write it, when the question was
put, “What is the symbol of fidelity?” it drew, in outline, the form
of a greyhound. In the same way it proceeded throughout the series of
questions.

In some instances, the effect of automata is increased by the
exhibiter proposing certain questions, and receiving responses from
the figure--as shaking the head, to denote a negative; or nodding, to
indicate assent. It is evident that here the inquiries or remarks are
thrown in to accord with the motions that the figure is contrived to
make. When, however, a performer, as one has recently done, puts a
whistle in the mouth of an automaton, and then, sitting down by its
side, plays a tune on a guitar, desiring the figure to accompany him;
the hasty sounds with which the figure seems inclined to begin, the
irregularity with which it proceeds, and the long and loud closing
note, may all be easily supplied by some confederate. Surprising
as are the effects produced by many automata, it would be wrong to
infer that their only results are the wonder of the multitude, or
gain or applause to their inventors. “They gave rise,” as sir David
Brewster has remarked, “to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and
introduced, among the higher order of artists, habits of nice and
accurate execution in the formation of the most delicate pieces of
machinery.” Those combinations of wheels and pinions, which almost
eluded observation, “reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our
spinning-machines and our steam-engines. The elements of the tumbling
puppet were revived in the chronometer, which now conducts our navy
through the ocean; and the shapeless wheel which directed the hand
of the drawing automaton (of Maillardet,) has served, in the present
age, to guide the movements of the tambouring-engine. Those mechanical
wonders, which in one century enriched only the conjurer who used
them, contributed in another to augment the wealth of the nation; and
those automatic toys which once amused the vulgar, are now employed in
extending the power, and promoting the civilisation of our species. In
whatever way, indeed, the power of genius may invent or combine, and to
whatever bad or even ludicrous purposes that invention or combination
may be originally applied, society receives a gift which it can never
lose; and though the value of the seed may not at once be recognised,
though it may lie long unproductive in the ungenial soil of human
knowledge, it will; some time or other, evolve its germ, and yield to
mankind its natural and abundant harvest.”[D]

A singular fact is connected with the early history of the Astronomical
Society of London. A valuable set of tables, for reducing the observed
to the true places of stars, was in course of preparation, at the
expense of the society, including above three thousand stars, and
comprehending all known to those of the fifth magnitude, inclusive,
and all the most useful of the sixth and seventh. An incident which
now occurred, gave rise to one of the most extraordinary of modern
inventions. To insure accuracy in the calculation of certain tables,
separate computers had been employed; and two members of the society
having been chosen to compare the results, detected so many errors, as
to induce one of them to express his regret that the work could not be
executed by a machine. For this, the other member, Mr. Babbage, at once
replied, that “this was possible;” and, persevering in the inquiry
which had thus suggested itself, he produced a machine for calculating
tables with surprising accuracy.

The calculating part of the machinery occupies a space of about ten
feet broad, ten feet high, and five feet deep. It consists of seven
steel axes, erected over one another, each of them carrying eighteen
wheels, five inches in diameter, having on them small barrels, and
inscribed with the symbols 0, 1, to 9. The machine calculates to
eighteen decimal places, true to the last figure; but, by subsidiary
contrivances, it is possible to calculate to thirty decimal places.
Mr. Babbage has since contrived a machine, much more simple in its
construction, and far more extensive in its application.

In thus enumerating various displays of mechanical genius, we are
reminded that the prophet Isaiah, after describing the diverse labours
of the husbandman, adds, “This also cometh forth from the Lord of
hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.” In all
the evidence we have of human talent, then, let us acknowledge that
“every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning,” Jas. i. 17. Would that the gifts of God were always used
for the Divine glory!