

AUTOMATON. 



265 



was rescued from his tomb, re-assumed his former 

 splendour, and, proud of having triumphed over 

 the conqueror of Austerlitz, continued his travels. 



After some years he arrived at the Bavarian 

 court, where the ecstasy which his play never 

 failed to excite was again renewed. Indeed the 

 impression made was so strong, that Prince Eugene 

 could not resist the temptation of becoming the 

 possessor of this masterpiece, and learning the 

 secret which was at the bottom of so many pro- 

 digies; his desire was satisfied, and the price of his 

 initiation was fixed at 30,000 francs (1200). 



The moment had arrived when the veil was to 

 be removed, and he was to become acquainted 

 with the invisible genius, the superior being that 

 hovered over the chess-board. All profane eyes 

 had been banished, and the Prince was alone with 

 the exhibitor. The latter, by way of explanation, 

 opened both the doors of the machine at once ; 

 the clock-work had disappeared, and a real flesh- 

 and-blood chess-player was in its place. He was 

 sitting on a low bench, upon castors, and seemed 

 very ill at ease. We may suppose how the new 

 purchaser was disenchanted on seeing this; the 

 solution of the problem depended merely on a 

 juggling trick. The cylinder, levers, and clock- 

 work, were very slightly made, and could be re- 

 moved at pleasure. While the spectator was in- 

 dulged with a view of the machinery, the doors 

 being opened, not at once, but only in succession, 

 the player concealed himself in the parts not ex- 

 posed to view. One or two rehearsals served to 

 teach a player this exercise, as well as the method 

 of turning the handle that moves the automaton's 

 arm, of touching the elastic spring that moves its 

 fingers, and of pulling the cord belonging to the 

 bellows that said shay. Hence it would appear 

 that this part of the secret was pretty well guessed 

 or known by the author of a pamphlet, entitled 

 ' An Attempt to analyse the Automaton Chess- 

 Player of M. De Kempelin.' London, 1821. 8vo. 

 After describing the manner in which the player 

 may take refuge in one part of the machine while 

 another is exposed to the spectator, he says, 

 ' When the doors in front have been closed, the 

 exhibitor may occupy as much time as he finds ne- 

 cessary in apparently adjusting the machinery at 

 the back, whilst the player is taking the position 

 described in figs. 7 and 8. In this position he will 

 find no difficulty in executing every movement 

 required of the automaton : his head bein b above 

 the table, he will see the chess-board through the 

 waistcoat as easily as through a veil." 



But the ingenious author of this pamphlet, though 

 right in his supposition that the game is played 

 by a person concealed in the machine, is wrong in 

 imagining that he sees the moves of his antagonist. 

 The method by which the player becomes acquaint- 

 ed with the moves made upon the board, shows a 

 singular felicity of mechanical contrivance; but has 

 not yet been made public. 



Prince Eugene now found that keeping the au- 

 tomaton was useless, unless he also kept the 

 player; and he therefore allowed the proprietor 

 to carry off the wonder-working Turk, on condi- 

 tion of paying interest for the sum which had been 

 given for the secret. 



A pleasant story is told of a panic that once 

 seized the automaton. He had arrived at some 

 town in Germany, where a celebrated conjuror was 

 exhibiting his tricks. The automaton soon eclipsed 

 the juggler; the latter, piqued at his success, went 



to see him, guessed the secret, and, seconded by 

 an accomplice, began to roar out most lustily, 

 "Fire! Fire!" The spectators ran here, there, 

 and everywhere ; the automaton in his fright, up- 

 set his antagonist, rolled about in the strangest 

 way, and seemed to have gone mad. Fortunately, 

 the proprietor preserved his presence of mind, 

 and pushed him behind a curtain, where his fears 

 were soon calmed. Thus the juggler was defeated, 

 and the glory of his rival remained untarnished. 

 The automaton has passed several years in North 

 and South America. 



Perfect as the chess-player is as a piece of me- 

 chanism, it may by many people be considered as 

 inferior to the celebrated duck of Vaucanson. This 

 ingenious person, who flourished in France during 

 Louis XV. "s reign, constructed a duck, exactly of 

 the natural size, and scarcely distinguishable from 

 the living animal. It quacked as perfectly as if it 

 had been hatched in a nest ; it muddled the water 

 which li lifted with its bill; it ate and drank, and 

 performed all the gestures and movements peculiar 

 to the living animal with wonderful accuracy. 

 When grains of corn were cast before it, it stretched 

 its neck to pick them up, swallowed them, and, 

 what was still more marvellous, digested them by 

 an artificial chemical process in its stomach, and 

 finally discharged them from its bowels in a di- 

 gested condition. What constituted an additional 

 beauty of this piece of mechanism, was its internal 

 anatomical structure, which in every bone, every 

 cavity, every canal, resembled the real duck. The 

 king and courtiers of France were so much delight- 

 ed with it, that it was subsequently exhibited ou 

 the faith of that success over all Europe, and, as 

 might be expected, the interest which it excited 

 every where was most flattering to its constructor. 



The same mechanist exhibited his astonishing 

 powers in the construction of an automaton flute- 

 player, which executed several very difficult pieces 

 of music with great beauty and precision. Con- 

 sidering the influence which is exerted by the mo- 

 bile character of the human lips and throat in 

 modifying the tones of instrumental music, such a 

 machine as a flute-player could not, it is evident, 

 be constructed without great labour and ingenuity. 

 The operations of this automaton were directed by 

 clock-work, which acted on not less than nine pair 

 of bellows. The air emitted from these by the 

 contracting force of the clock-work, passed from 

 the lips of the figure into the holes of a flute, held, 

 as usual, in the hands. Seven levers directed the 

 motions of the fingers, and regulated the ingress 

 of the air into the flute. Various contrivances, of 

 a delicate kind, modified and counteracted the 

 hissing, &c., which such a machine was liable to. 

 In short, every motion which a flute-player of 

 flesh and blood goes through in the exercise of his 

 art, found a parallel in this machine of M. Vau- 

 canson, and the effect of the whole was surprising 

 in the highest degree, and most honourable to the 

 ingenuity of the mechanist. 



In a late number of Galignani's Messenger, the 

 following account is given of an automaton violin- 

 player, made by a monsieur Mareppe, and exhibited 

 before the Royal Conservatory of Paris. 



" Our informant, M. Bruyere, who was present, 

 thus describes it : On entering the saloon, I saw 

 a well-dressed handsome figure of a man, apparently 

 between forty and fifty, standing with a violin in 

 his hand, as if contemplating a piece of music 

 which lay on a desk before him ; and had I not 



