VAUCANSON'S FLUTE-PLAYER. 263 



Europe. His two principal automata were the flute- 

 player, and the pipe and tabor player. The flute-player 

 was completed in 1736, and wherever it was exhibited it 

 produced the greatest sensation. When it came to Paris 

 it was received with great suspicion. The French savans 

 recollected the story of M. Eaisin, the organist of Troyes, 

 who exhibited an automaton player upon the harpsichord, 

 which astonished the French court by the variety of its 

 powers. The curiosity of the King could not be restrained, 

 and in consequence of his insisting upon examining the 

 mechanism, there was found in the figure a pretty little 

 musician five years of age. It was natural, therefore, 

 that a similar piece of mechanism should be received with 

 some distrust ; but this feeling was soon removed by 

 M. Vaucanson, who exhibited and explained to a com- 

 mittee of the Academy of Sciences the whole of the 

 mechanism. This learned body was astonished at the 

 ingenuity which it displayed ; and they did not hesitate 

 to state, that the machinery employed for producing the 

 sounds of the flute performed in the most exact manner 

 the very operations of the most expert flute-player, and 

 that the artist had imitated the effects produced, and the 

 means employed by nature, with an accuracy which had 

 exceeded all expectation. In 1738, M. Vaucanson pub- 

 lished a memoir, approved of by the Academy, in which 

 he gave a full description of the machinery employed, 

 and of the principles of its- construction. Following this 

 memoir, I shall therefore attempt to give as popular a 

 description- of the automaton as can be done without 

 lengthened details and numerous figures. 



The body of the flute-player was about 5-J feet high, and 

 was placed upon a piece of rock, surrounding a square 

 pedestal 4i feet high by three and a half wide. When 

 the panel which formed the front of the pedestal was 

 opened, there was seen on the right a clock movement, 



