KRATZENSTEIN S AUTOMATON. 



207 



intend the construction of the blood-vessels, and 

 the king had not only approved of, but had given 

 orders for, the voyage. Difficulties, however, 

 were thrown in the way, Vaucanson became dis- 

 gusted, and the scheme was abandoned. 



The two automata which we have described 

 were purchased by Professor Bayreuss of Helm- 

 stadt ; but we have not been able to learn whether 

 or not they still exist. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century a 

 bold and almost successful attempt was made to 

 construct a talking automaton. In the year 1779, 

 the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Peters- 

 burgh proposed, as the subject of one of their 

 annual prizes, an inquiry into the nature of the 

 vowel sounds, A, E, I, O, and U, and the con- 

 struction of an instrument for artificially imitating 

 them. This prize was gained by M. Kratzenstein, 

 who showed that all the vowels could be dis- 

 tinctly pronounced by blowing through a reed 

 into the lower ends of the pipes of the annexed 



Fig. 48. 



figures, as shown in Fig. 48, where the corre- 

 sponding vowels are marked on the different pipes. 

 The vowel I is pronounced by merely blowing 



