AUTOGRAVURE, a'to-grav'ur. See Auto- type.
AUTOL’YCUS. A ivaggish thief in Shake-
speare's Winter's Tale, who robs the Bo-
hemian shepherds under cover of selling them
trinkets. By his petty villainies he effects the
lusus of the play.
AUTOLYCUS (Gk. AiW-6kkos. Aiifolykos).
A mythological character who lived on Mount
Parnassus, and who was the father of Anticlea,
the mother of Odysseus. Hermes had given him
superior skill as thief and perjurer. Later^yriters
represented him as the son of Hermes, and
as possessing the power to metamorphose all
that he stole: this led to his contest with the
more wily Sisyphus (q.v. ). who alone outwitted
him, and became by Anticlea father of Odysseus.
The contest of wits between two clever thieves
is a common folk-tale among many peoples.
AUTOLYCUS (c.330 B.C.). A "Greek astron-
omer and mathematician of Pitane in jfEolia.
He wrote works on the revolving sphere, JIcpl
Ktvov/Uvris <7<paipas (Peri kinoumene^s sphairas)
and on the rising and setting of the fixed stars,
Hept ^iToXuJi' Ko; dvtreui', t Peri epitolon kai dy-
seOn I . Edition, with Latin translation and scho-
lia, by Hultsch (Leipzig. ISSot.
AUTOM'ATISM (Gk. avrbiMTos, automatos,
self-willed, self-acting, from oirAt, autos, self +
fiaeiv, maein, to wish eagerly, to strive). A term
variously defined in various departments of
knowledge. (1) In philosophy, it is the equiva-
lent of determinism (q.v.). (2) In psychology
it is used specifically for Descartes's doctrine
that the animals are unconscious automata (see Animal Psychology), and also generally to cover all manifestations of involuntary bodily movement — reflex and secondary reflex movement, concomitant movements. (See Action.) (3) In pathology, it denotes the simulation of voluntary actions by involuntary movements, consequent upon certain forms of brain disease. Consult W. B. Carpenter, Mental Physiology (Boston. 1891).
AUTOM'ATON (Lat., from Gk. ainb^roi.
automatos, self-moving). A piece of mechan-
ism constructed to represent human or animal
figures and actions. The construction of au-
tomata has occupied men's attention from very
early times. As early as B.C. 400, the invention
of a mechanical dove which could fly is credited
to the Greek mathematician, Archytas, and there
are numerous reports of curious automata hav-
ing been invented at various times and by vari-
ous persons from the Thirteenth to the Seven-
teenth Century, most of which are open to
considerable doubt. In 1738, however, it is au-
thentically reported that Vaucanson, a French-
man, exhibited in Paris an automaton repre-
senting a flute-player which placed its lips
against the instrument and produced the notes
with its fingers exactly as a human being does.
In 1741 this same mathematician exhibited a
flageolet-player which with one hand beat a tam-
bourine, and in the same year he produced a duck
which swam, dived, ate, drank, dressed its wings,
etc., as naturally as its animated companion.
Droz, a Swiss, is reported to have invented a
sheep which would bleat and a dog guarding a
basket of fruit which would bark if any of the
fruit was removed, ceasing only when it was
replaced. At the London Exhibition of 1851
Maillardet exhibited a bullfinch which fluttered its wings and gave the note of the bird which it represented. Houdin, the famous conjurer, made a writing and drawing automaton which was operated by clockwork. The chess-player of Kempelen was long regarded as the most wonderful of automata. It represented a Turk of natural size, dressed in the national cos- tume, and seated behind a box resembling a chest of drawers in shape. Before the game com- menced, the artist opened several doors in the chest, which revealed a large number of pulleys, wheels, cylinders, springs, etc. The chessmen were produced from a long drawer, as was also a cushion for the figure to rest its arm upon. The figure not being able to speak, signified when the queen of his antagonist was in danger by two nods, and when the king was in check by three. The automaton succeeded in beating most of the players with whom it engaged; but it turned out afterwards that a crippled Russian officer, a very celebrated chess-player, was con- cealed in the interior of the figure, and that he used this means to escape from Russia, where his life was in danger. In 1875 Mr. J. N. Maskelyn exhibited an automaton under the name of 'Psycho' which represented a seated human figure. To show that the contrivance was not operated by electricity, it was insulated by being mounted on a glass cylinder. This figure moved its head, and from a rack in front of it selected the cards necessary for playing a hand at whist. It would also work out calculations up to 100,000,000, showing the entire total of each calculation by opening a sliding door in a box. Another automaton named 'Zoe,' similar in appearance to the first, and insulated in like manner, was designed by Mr. Maskelyn. This figure would draw the likeness of any person chosen by the spectators from a list of 200 names. Various other automata have been contrived at different times.
In its broad meaning, an automaton is any mechanism which, upon receiving an impulse, will perform a certain cycle of motions by itself. In this sense watches and clocks, and particularly such complicated clocks as that in the Cathedral of Strassburg. are automata. For the best books relating to automata representing human and animal actions, consult: Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic (London, 1834); Houdin, Secrets of Conjuring and Memoirs of Houdin (London, 1891); Ozanam. Mathematical Recreations, translated by Hutton (London, 1854).
AUTOM’EDON (Gk. Airro/j^Suv ). A son of
Diores: the friend and charioteer of Achilles
in the Iliad, Bk. xvi.. 145 ff.: ibid., xvii,. 536 ff.
After the death of Achilles, Automedon became
the attendant of his son Pyrrhus.
AUTOMEDON (Gk. Avroii^Swy). The name of
two epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology, one
an Ætolian, the other a native of Cyzicus: one
of the two lived probably in the reign of Nerva,
the date of the other is quite unknown.
AUTOMOBILE, a'to-mc/bil or .s't6-m6-bel' (auto + Lat. mobilis, movable). The generic name which has been adopted by popular approval for all forms of self-propelling vehicles for use upon highways and streets for general freight and passenger service. This definition should not include such self-propelled machines
