VAUCANSON'S FLUTE-PLAYER. 265 



These nine bellows discharge their wind into three 

 different and separate tubes. Each tube receives the wind 

 of three bellows, the upper boards of one of the three pair 

 being loaded with a weight of four pounds, those of the 

 second three pair with a weight of two pounds, and those 

 of the other three pair with no weight at all. These three 

 tubes ascended through the body of the figure, and termi- 

 nated in three small reservoirs placed in its trunk. These 

 reservoirs were thus united into one, which, ascending into 

 the throat, formed by its enlargement the cavity of the 

 mouth terminated by two small lips, which rested upon 

 the hole of the flute. These lips had the power of 

 opening more or less, and by a particular mechanism they 

 could advance or recede from the hole in the flute. 

 Within the cavity of the mouth there is a small moveable 

 tongue for opening and shutting the passage for the wind 

 through the lips of the figure. 



The motions of the fingers, lips, and tongue, of the 

 figure were produced by means of a revolving cylinder 

 thirty inches long, and twenty-one in diameter. By 

 means of pegs and brass staples fixed in fifteen different 

 divisions in its circumference, fifteen different levers, 

 similar to those in a barrel-organ, were raised and 

 depressed. Seven of these regulated the motions of the 

 seven fingers for stopping the holes of the flute, which 

 they did by means of steel chains rising through the body 

 and directed by pulleys to the shoulder, elbow, and fingers. 

 Other three of the levers, communicating with the valves 

 of the three reservoirs, regulated the ingress of the air, so 

 as to produce a stronger or a weaker tone. Another lever 

 opened the lips so as to give a free passage to the air, and 

 another contracted them for the opposite purpose. A third 

 lever drew them backwards from the orifice of the flute, 

 and a fourth pushed them forward. The remaining lever 

 enabled the tongue to stop up the orifice of the flute. 



