AUTOMATON

, a seemingly self-moving machine; or one so constructed, by means of weights, levers, pullies, springs, &c, as to move for a considerable time, as if it were endued with animal life. And according to this description, clocks, watches, and all machines of that kind, are automata.

It is said, that Archytas of Tarentum, 400 years before Christ, made a wooden pigeon that could fly; that Archimedes also made such-like automatons; that Regiomontanus made a wooden eagle that flew forth from the city, met the emperor, saluted him, and returned; also that he made an iron fly, which flew out of his hand at a feast, and returned again after flying about the room; that Dr. Hook made the model of a flying chariot, capable of supporting itself in the air. Many other surprizing automatons we have been eye-witnesses of, in the present age: thus, we have seen figures that could write, and perform many other actions in imitation of animals: M. Vaucanson made a figure that played on the flute; the same gentleman also made a duck, which was capable of eating, drinking, and imitating exactly the voice of a natural one; and, what is still more surprizing, the food it swallowed was evacuated in a digested state, or considerably altered on the principles of solution; also the wings, viscera, and bones were formed so as strongly to resemble those of a living duck; and the actions of eating and drinking shewed the strongest resemblance, even to the muddling the water with its bill. M. Le Droz of la Chaux de Fonds, in the province of Neuschatel, has also executed some very curious pieces of mechanism: one was a clock, presented to the king of Spain; which had, among other curiosities, a sheep that imitated the bleating of a natural one, and a dog watching a basket of fruit, that barked and snarled when any one offered to take it away; besides a variety of human figures, exhibiting motions truly surprising. But all these seem to be inferior to M. Kempell's chess-player, which may truly be considered as the greatest master-piece in mechanics that ever appeared in the world. See also Baptista Porta's Magia Nat. c. 19, and Scaliger's Subtil. 326.