AUTOMATON. applied to pieces of mechanism so constructed as to imitate the actions of living animals. The term Android is sometimes applied to such machines as resemble the figures and imitate the actions of mankind.
The extent to which these useless but ingenious contrivances has been some times carried is very surprising. Archy tas of Tarentum, about 400 years before our era, is said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly. Friar Bacon's speaking head is a well-known tradition. Albertus Magnus constructed an automa ton to open his door when any one knocked ; the celebrated Regiomontanus, a wooden eagle that flew forth from the city, saluted the emperor, and returned : and likewise an iron fly which flew out of his hand, and returned after flying about the room. These instances may perhaps have been exaggerated in the description and but there are some of recent date, and not less remarkable, respecting which the testimony is clear and strong. The fol lowing are a few of the best authenti cated: The flute-player of Vaucanson, described by D'Alembert in the Encycio 23ectie Alethodique, was exhibited in Paris in 1738. It played on the flute exactly in the same manner as a living performer, and commanded three octaves, the fullest scale of the instrument. Its height was nearly six feet. In Hutton's Mathemati cal Pecreations, a description is given of an automaton group, constructed by M. Camila for the amusement of Louis XIV., consisting of a coach and horses, with coachman and page, and lady inside, &c.,
by which the action of driving up, alight ing, presenting a petition to the king, and setting off again, was mimicked with wonderful accuracy. In 1741, Vaucanson produced a flageolet-player, which played the flageolet with the left hand, while it beat a tamborine with the right. He also produced a duck which dabbled in the water, swam, and drank, and quacked like a real duck ; raised and moved its wings, dressed its feathers with its bill, took barley from the hand and swallowed it, and even digested its food by means of materials for its solution placed in the stomach.
Automaton flute-players have likewise been exhibited in England of the size of real life, which performed ten or twelve duets. Maelzel, the inventor of the me tronome, exhibited an automaton trumpe ter at Vienna, of which a description is given in the Journal dee Modes for 1809. It was a martial figure, in the uniform of a trumpeter of an Austrian dragoon regi ment which played not only the Austrian and I'rench cavalry marches, and all the signals of those armies, but also a march and an allegro, by Weigl, accompanied by the whole orchestra, &c.
Automata have also been constructed which wrote, drew likenesses, played on the pianoforte, &c.
Professors Willis and Wheatstone have improved very much a speaking automa ton; and one made by a German was ex hibited a few years ago in London.