directed to contrivances of this nature, some of which have dis played wonderful powers of invention, though in general little or no utility, unless so far as they were sources of public amusement, and examples of what may be accomplished by reflection and long perseverance. Brewster, in his Natural Magic, has given a very full account of the most remarkable automata, from which this article is principally taken.

Mechanical automata of the ancients.-The ancients had attained some degree of perfection in the construction of automata. 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 mentioned 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.

Automata of Daedalus.-Daedalus enjoys also the reputation of having constructed machines that imitated the motions of the kuman body. Some of his statues are said to have moved about spontaneously, and Plato, Aristotle, and others have related that it. was necessary to tie them, in order to prevent them from running away. Aristotle speaks of a wooden Venus, which moved about in consequence of quicksilver being poured into its interior; but Callistratus, the tutor of Demosthenes, states, with some probability, that the statues of Dædalus received their motion from the mechanical powers. Beckmann is of opinion that the statues of Dædalus differed only from those of the early Greeks and Egyptians in having their eyes open and their feet and hands free, and that the reclining posture of some, and the attitude of others, "as if ready to walk," gave rise to the exaggeration that they possessed the power of locomotion. This opinion, however, cannot be maintained with any show of reason; for if we apply such a principle in one case, we must apply it in all, and the mind would be left in a state of utter skepticism respecting the inventions of ancient times.

Wooden pigeon of Archytas.-We are informed by Aulus Gelius, on the authority of Favorinus, that Archytas of Tarentum, who flourished about four hundred years before Christ, constructed a wooden pigeon which was capable of flying. Favorinus relates, that when it had once alighted, it could not again resume its flight; and Aulus Gellius adds, that it was suspended by balancing, and nimated by a concealed aura or spirit.

Automatic clock of Charlemagne.-Among the earliest pieces of modern mechanism was the curious water-clock presented to Charlemagne by the Kalph Harun al Raschid. In the dial-plate

there were twelve small windows, corresponding with the divisions of the hours. The hours were indicated by the opening of the windows, which let out little metallic balls, which struck the hour by falling upon a brazen bell. The doors continued open till twelve o'clock, when twelve little knights, mounted on horseback, came out at the same instant, and after parading around the dial, shut all the windows, and returned to their apartments.

Automata of Muller and Turrianus.-The next automata of which any distinct account has been preserved, are those of the celebrated John Muller, or Regiomontanus, which have been mentioned by Kircher, Baptista Porta, Gassendi, Lana, and Bishop Wilkins. This philosopher is said to have constructed an artificial eagle, which flew to meet the Emperor Maximilian when he arrived at Nuremberg on the 7th June, 1470. After soaring aloft in the air, the eagle is stated to have met the emperor at some distance from the city, and to have returned and perched upon the town gate, where it waited his approach. When the emperor reached the gate, the eagle stretched out its wings, and saluted him by an inclination of its body. Muller is likewise reported to have constructed an iron fly, which was put in motion by wheelwork, and which flew about and leaped upon the table. At an entertainment given by this philosopher to some of his familiar friends, the fly flew from his hand, and after performing a considerable round, it returned again to the hand of its master.

The Emperor Charles V., after his abdication of the throne, amused himself in his later years with automata of various kinds. The artist whom he employed was Janellus Turrianus of Cremona. It was his custom after dinner to introduce upon the table figures of armed men and horses. Some of these beat drums, others played upon flutes, while a third set attacked each other with spears. Sometimes he let fly wooden sparrows, which flew back again to their nest. He also exhibited corn-mills so extremely small that they could be concealed in a glove, yet so powerful that they could grind in a day as much corn as would supply eight men with food for a day.

Camus's carriage.-The next piece of mechanism of sufficient interest to merit our attention is that which was made by M. Camus for the amusement of Louis XIV. when a child. It consisted of a small coach, which was drawn by two horses, and which contained the figure of a lady within, with a footman and page behind. When this machine was placed at the extremity of a table of the proper size, the coachman smacked his whip, and the horses instantly set off, moving their legs in a natural manner, and drawing the coach after them When the coach reached the op.

posite edge of the table, it turned sharply at a right angle, and proceeded along the adjacent edge. As soon as it arrived oppo. site the place where the king sat, it stopped; the page descended and opened the coach door; the lady alighted, and with a courtesy presented a petition, which she held in her hand, to the king. After waiting some time she again courtesied and re-entered the carriage. The page closed his door, and having resumed his place behind, the coachman whipped his horses and drove on. The footman, who had previously alighted, ran after the carriage, and jumped up behind into his former place.

Degennes' mechanical peacock.-Not content with imitating the movements of animals, the mechanical genius of the 17th and 18th centuries ventured to perform by wheels and pinions the functions of vitality. We are informed by M. Lobat, that General Degennes, a French officer who defended the colony of St. Christopher's against the English forces, constructed a peacock which could walk about as if alive, pick up grains of corn from the ground, digest them as if they had been submitted to the action of the stomach, and afterward discharge them in an altered form. Degennes is said to have invented various machines of great use in navigation and gunnery, and to have constructed clocks without weights or springs.

Vaucanson's duck.-The automaton of Degennes probably sug gested to M. Vaucanson the idea of constructing his celebrated duck, which excited so much interest throughout Europe, and which was perhaps the most wonderful piece of mechanism that was ever made. Vaucanson's duck exactly resembled the living animal in size and appearance. It executed accurately all its movements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, performed all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the living animal, and, like it, it muddled the water which it drank with its bill. It produced also the sound of quacking in the most natural manner. In the anatomical structure of the duck the artist exhibited the highest skill. Every bone in the real duck had its representative in the automaton, and its wings were anatomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was imitated, and each bone executed its proper movements. When corn was thrown down before it, the duck stretched out its neck to pick it up, it swallowed it, digested it, and discharged it in a digested condition. The process of digestion was effected by chemical solution, and not by trituration, and the food digested in the stomach was conveyed away by tubes to the place of its dis. charge.

The automata of Vaucanson were imitated by one Du Moulin,

a81.versmith, who travelled with them through Germany in 1752, and who died at Moscow in 1765. Beckmann informs us that he saw several of them after the machinery had been deranged; but that the artificial duck, which he regarded as the most ingenious, was still able to eat, drink, and move. Its ribs, which were made of wire, were covered with duck's feathers, and the motion was communicated through the fect of the duck by means of a cylinder and fine chains like that of a watch.

Drawing and writing automata.-Various pieces of mechanism of wonderful ingenuity have been constructed for the purposes of drawing and writing. One of these, invented by M. Le Droz, the son of the celebrated Droz of Chaux le Fonds, has been described by Mr. Collinson. The figure was the size of life. It held in its hand a metallic style, and when a spring was touched so as to release a detent, the figure immediately began to draw upon a card of Dutch vellum previously laid under its hand. After the draw. ing was executed on the first card, the figure rested. Other five cards were then put in in succession, and upon these it delineated in the same manner different subjects. On the first card it drew "elegant portraits and likenesses of the king and queen facing each other;" and Mr. Collinson remarks, that it was curious to observe with what precision the figure lifted up its pencil in its transition from one point of the drawing to another without making the slightest mistake.

Maillardet's conjurer.-M. Maillardet has executed an automaton which both writes and draws. The figure of a boy kneel. ing on one knee holds a pencil in his hand. When the figure begins to work, an attendant dips the pencil in ink, and adjusts the drawing-paper upon a brass tablet. Upon touching a spring the figure proceeds to write, and when the line is finished its hand returns to dot and stroke the letters when necessary. In this manner it executes four beautiful pieces of writing in French and English, and three landscapes, all of which occupy about one hour.

One of the most popular pieces of mechanism which we have seen is the magician constructed by M. Maillardet for the purpose of answering certain given questions. A figure, dressed like a magician, appears seated at the bottom of a wall, holding a wand in one hand and a book in the other. A number of questions ready prepared are inscribed on oval medallions, and the spectator takes any of these which he chooses, and to which he wishes an answer, and having placed it in a drawer ready to receive it, the drawer shuts with a spring till the answer is returned. The magician then rises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles with his wand, and consulting the book as if in deep thought, he lifts it towards

his face. Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed question, he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his head, two folding-doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer to the question. The doors again close, the magician resumes his original position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion. There are twenty of these medallions, all containing different ques tions, to which the magician returns the most suitable and striking answers. The medallions are thin plates of brass of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each other. Some of the medallions have a question inscribed on each side, both of which the magician an swers in succession. If the drawer is shut without a medallion being put into it, the magician rises, consults his book, shakes his head, and resumes his seat. The folding-doors remain shut, and the drawer is returned empty. If two medallions are put into the drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one. When the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about an hour, during which time about fifty questions may be answered. The inventor stated that the means by which the different medallions acted upon the machinery, so as to produce the proper an swers to the questions which they contained, were extremely simple. The same ingenious artist has constructed various other automata, representing insects and other animals. One of these was a spider entirely made of steel, which exhibited all the movements of the animal. It ran on the surface of a table during three minutes, and to prevent it from running off, its course always tended towards the centre of the table. He constructed likewise a caterpillar, a lizard, a mouse, and a serpent. The serpent crawls about in every direction, opens its mouth, hisses, and darts out its tongue.

Benefits derived from the passion for automata.-Ingenious and beautiful as all these pieces of mechanism are, and surprising as their effects appear even to scientific spectators, the principal object of their inventors was to astonish and amuse the public. We should form an erroneous judgment, however, if we supposed that this was the only result of the ingenuity which they displayed. The passion for automatic exhibitions which characterized the 18th century, gave rise to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and introduced among the higher orders of artists habits of nice and accurate execution in the formation of the most delicate pieces of chinery. The same combination of the mechanical powers which made the spider crawl, or which waved the tiny rod of the magician. contributed in future years to purposes of higher import. Those wheels and pinions, which almost eluded our senses by their minuteness, reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our spinning-machines and our steam-engines. The elements of the tum