264 LETTEBS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



LETTER XI. 



Mechanical automata of the ancients Moving tripods- 

 Automata of Daedalus Wooden pigeon of Archytas 

 Automatic clock of Charlemagne Automata made by 

 Turrianus for Charles V. Camus's automatic carriage 

 made for Louis XIV. Degenne's mechanical peacock 

 Vaucanson's duck which ate and digested its food Du 

 Moulin's automata Baron Kempelin's automaton chess- 

 player 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-turn- 

 ing machinery Babbage's calculating machinery. 



WE have already seen that the ancients had 

 attained some degree of perfection in the con- 

 struction 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 men- 

 tioned by Aristotle ; and Philostratus informs us, 

 in his life of Apollonius, that this philosopher 

 saw and admired similar pieces of mechanism 

 among the sages of India. 



Daedalus enjoys also the reputation of having 

 constructed machines that imitated the motions 

 * Iliad, lib. xviii., 373378. 



