Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Automaton

AUTOMATON (from auro s, self, and /xaw, to seize), a self-moving machine, or one in which the principle of motion is contained within the mechanism itself. Accord ing to this description, clocks, watches, and all machines of a similar kind, are automata, but the word is generally applied to contrivances which simulate for a time the motions of animal life. If the human figure and actions be represented, the automaton has sometimes been called specially an androides. Ye have very early notices of the construction of automata, e.g., the tripods of Vulcan, and the moving figures of Daedalus. 400 years B. c. , Archytas of Tarentumis said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fiy ; and during the Middle Ages numerour instances of the construction of automata are recorded. Regiomontanus is said to have made an iron fly, which would nutter round the room and return to his hand, and also an eagle, which flew before the Emperor Maximilian when he was entering Nuremberg. Roger Bacon is said to have forged a brazen head which spoke, and Albertus Magnus to have had an an droides, which acted as doorkeeper, and was broken to pieces by Aquinas. Of these, as of some later instances, e.g., the figure constructed by Descartes and the automata exhibited by Dr Camus, not much is accurately known. But in the 18th century, Vaucanson, the celebrated mechanician, exhibited three admirable figures, the flute-player, the tambourine-player, and the duck, which was capable of eating, drinking, and imitating exactly the natural voice of that fowl. The means by which these results had been produced were clearly seen, and a great impulse was given to the construction of similar figures. Knauss exhibited at Vienna an automaton which wrote ; a father and son named Droz constructed several ingenious mechanical figures which wrote and played music ; Kaufmann and Maelzel made automatic trumpeters who could play several marches. The Swiss have always been celebrated for their mechanical ingenuity, and they construct most of the curious toys, such as flying and singing birds, which are frequently met with in industrial exhibitions. The greatest difnculty has generally been experienced in devis ing any mechanism which shall successfully simulate the human voice. No attempt has been thoroughly suc cessful, though many have been made. The figure ex hibited by Fabermann of Vienna is, perhaps, as yet the best. No notice of automata can be complete without at least a reference to Kempelen s famous chess player, which for many years astonished and puzzled Europe. This figure, however, was no true automaton, although the mechanical contrivances for concealing the real performer and giving effect to his desired movements were exceedingly ingenious.