Vaucanson


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[10] The Movement 

Jean-Paul Sartre, p22 of 
"But the automaton's charm is precisely the fact that it waves a fan or plays the guitar like a man and that nevertheless the movement of its hand has the pitiless and blink rigor of purely mechanical transmissions."

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[13] Hulten, The Machine

Jacques Vaucanson, French 1709-1782
Duck 1733-34 (photograph of lost original or imitation in a ruined state)

Eighteenth Century saw an increased interest in Automata and also debates regarding the mechanical nature of man.

influenced by Descartes and other contemporary philosophers

wanted to construct moving anatomical figure for surgeons to demonstrate bodily operations

lacking funds, he created public curiosities

in 1738 he presented three automata before the Academie Royal des Sciences including the duck.

described as "an artificial Duck made of gilded copper which drinks, eats, quacks, splashes about on the water, and digests his food like a living Duck."

described by Voltaire as a rival Promethius


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[07] Burnam, Beyond Modern Sculpture

Vaucanson was the forerunner to the great automata builders of the eighteenth century. He brought smoothness of movement and coordination to a new level through innovating cams systems, miniature drive trains, and small flexible spring mechanisms

in the seventeenth-century Descartes developed a mechanistic view of physiology

mechanical similies to animal functions: sleeping, breathing, digestion, heartbeat, etc.

he thought humans had souls and animals did not and therefore a perfectly constructed machine could duplicate any of the lower animals

French Academy of Sciences
1738 also showed a flute player capable of moving its fingers and playing the instrument. Inspired by a statue in garden of the Tuileries

in 1738 also showed the Tabor player (Drummer)

"he spent much time on the position of the lips and on questions of the air pressure needed to secure low and hight notes while passing from one octave to another with a simple movement of the lips, and by changes in the speed at which the breath entered the mouthpiece."


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[08] Chapius, Automata

one is wing is claimed to have over 400 articulated pieces, several thousand over all

"On Sunday night there was a crowd, a queue formed and there were no vacant seats. After each of the duck's performances there was an interval of a quarter of an hour to replace the food. ... Greatest amazement was caused when it drank three glasses of wine, filling everyone with wonder."

The Duck was an attempt to produce more than the outward features of an organism

this was all produced at a time when all mechanisms were precious, watches were not made inexpensive until nineteenth century