MECHANICAL AUTOMATA OF THE ANCIENTS 31'/ 



LETTEE XI. 



Mechanical automata of the ancients Moving tripods Automata of 

 Dsedalus Wooden pigeon of Archytas Automatic clock of 

 Cliarlemagne Automata made by Turrianus for Charles V. 

 Camus s automatic carriage made for Louis XIV. Degennes s 

 mechanical peacocl: Vaucanson's duck which ate and digested 

 its food Du Moulin s automata Baron Kempelen's automaton 

 chess-play ?r Drawing and writing automata Maillardet's 

 conjurer Benefits derived from the passion for automata 

 Examples of wonderful machinery for useful purposes Duncan's 

 tambouring machinery Watt's statue-turning machinery Bab- 

 bage's calculating machinery. 



WE have already seen that the ancients had attained some 

 degree of perfection in the construction of automata or 

 pieces of mechanism which imitated the movements of 

 man and the lower animals. The tripods which Homer * 

 mentions as having been constructed by Vulcan for the 

 banqueting hall of the gods, advanced of their own accord 

 to the table, and again returned to their place. Self- 

 moving tripods are mentioned by Aristotle, and Philos- 

 tratus informs us, in his life of Apollonius, that this 

 philosopher saw and admired similar pieces of mechanism 

 among the sages of India. 



Dasdalus enjoys also the reputation of having constructed 

 machines that imitated the motions of the human body. 

 Some of his statues are said to have moved about spon- 

 taneously, and Plato, Aristotle, and others have related 

 that it was necessary to tie them, in order to prevent them 



* Iliad, Lib. xviii. 373378. 



