been called specially an _androides_. We have very early notices
of the construction of automata, _e.g._ the tripods of Vulcan, and the
moving figures of Daedalus. In 400 B.C., Archytas of Tarentum is said to
have made a wooden pigeon that could fly, and during the middle ages
numerous instances of the construction of automata are recorded.
Regiomontanus is said to have made of iron a fly, which would flutter round
the room and return to his hand, and also an eagle, which flew before the
emperor Maximilian when he was entering Nuremberg. Roger Bacon is said to
have forged a brazen head which spoke, and Albertus Magnus to have had an
androides, which acted as doorkeeper, and was broken to pieces by Aquinas.
Of these, as of some later instances, _e.g._ the figure constructed by
Descartes and the automata exhibited by Dr Camus, not much is accurately
known. But in the 18th century, Jacques de Vaucanson, the celebrated
mechanician, exhibited three admirable figures,--the flute-player, the
tambourine-player, and the duck, which was capable of eating, drinking, and
imitating exactly the natural voice of that fowl. The means by which these
results had been produced were clearly seen, and a great impulse was given
to the construction of similar figures. Knauss exhibited at Vienna an
automaton which wrote; a father and son named Droz constructed several
ingenious mechanical figures which wrote and played music; Frederick
Kaufmann and Leonard Maelzel made automatic trumpeters who could play
several marches. The Swiss have always been celebrated for their mechanical
ingenuity, and they construct most of the curious toys, such as flying and
singing birds, which are frequently met with in industrial exhibitions. The
greatest difficulty has generally been experienced in devising any
mechanism which shall successfully simulate the human voice (not to be
compared with the gramophone, which reproduces mechanically a real voice).
No attempt has been thoroughly successful, though many have been made. A
figure exhibited by Fabermann of Vienna remains the best. Kempelen's famous
chess-player for many years astonished and puzzled Europe. This figure,
however, was no true automaton, although the mechanical contrivances for
concealing the real performer and giving effect to his desired movements
were exceedingly ingenious. J. N. Maskelyne, in more recent times
(1875-1880), has been prominent in exhibiting his automata, Psycho (who
played cards)