ON AUTOMATON FIGURES.

I.

AMONG the various ways in which human ingenuity has displayed itself, one of the most remarkable is the construction of machines which shall, to a considerable extent, imitate the motions and actions of a living being. We are sometimes led to regret that such extraordinary powers of invention should be expended on the production of a machine possessing no real utility to society: but still it is so far useful, that it keeps alive a spirit of mechanical invention, which, at an after period, may be of incalculable benefit. Most of the great specimens of automatic mechanism, to which the general name of automata is applied, were produced at a time when there were no railroads,-few canals,-few tunnels,-still fewer steam-engines, no locomotive carriages,-no power-looms, no spinning-jennies,-and what is of more importance, when there was not diffused among society in general that thirst for manufacturing improvements which so greatly distinguishes the present age. A really ingenious mechanical inventor at the present day has many ways of bringing his ingenuity to a profitable market, by applying it to manufacturing machinery, and we do not consequently hear so much at the present day, as in bygone times, of the production of elaborate playthings, requiring years for their production, and possess ing no commercial value. We can therefore admire the results of ingenuity shown by the older mechanists, without judging them too harshly for not doing that which the spirit of their times scarcely afforded them a field for doing.

We propose to present here a brief description of such automata, or self-moving figures, as have gained for themselves a reputation among ingenious men.

In the Saturday Magazine, vol. iii., p. 156, is a description of the very remarkable automatic figures in the great clock of Strasburg cathedral. We will now present some details of other clocks remarkable for the ingenuity of the figures connected with them. In the fourteenth century, James Dondi constructed for the city of Padua a clock which was long considered the wonder of the age. Besides indicating the hours, it represented the motion of the sun, moon, and planets, as well as pointed out the different festivals of the year.

The clock at the cathedral at Lyons was long celebrated as being one of the most ingenious ever constructed. We do not know whether it still exists, but in its most perfect form the following was the nature of its construction. It exhibited, on different dial-plates, the annual and diurnal progress of the sun and moon, the days of the year, their length, and the whole calendar, civil as well as ecclesiastical. The days of the week were indicated by symbols, fitted to the purpose, and the hours were announced by the crowing of the cock, thrice repeated, after it had flapped its wings, and made other movements. When the cock had ceased crowing, angels were made to appear, who, by striking various bells, performed the air of a hymn. The annunciation of the Virgin was also represented by moving figures, and by the descent of a dove. When all this ceremony was concluded, the clock struck the hour. On one of the sides of the clock was an oval dial-plate, where the hours and minutes were indicated by means of an index, which possessed the peculiar power of lengthening or shortening itself, so as to adapt its length to the various diameters of the oval plate. This clock was made by Lippius de Basle, and was repaired in the seventeenth century by Nourisson.

The royal apartments at Versailles once contained a singular clock, constructed by Martinot. Before it struck the hour, two cocks, on the corners of a small edifice, crowed alternately, clapping their wings. Shortly after this, two lateral doors of the edifice opened, at which appeared two figures, bearing cymbals, beat upon with

clubs by two sentinels. When these figures had retired, the centre door was thrown open, and a pedestal, supporting an equestrian statue of Louis the Fourteenth issued from it, while a group of clouds, separating, gave a passage to a figure of Fame, which came and hovered over the statue. A tune was then performed by bells; after which the two figures re-entered; the two sentinels raised up their clubs, which they had lowered, as if from respect for the presence of the king; and the hour was then struck.

Many other specimens of ingeniously-constructed clocks have been recorded; but these will be sufficient here: we will therefore proceed to other automata.

It is difficult properly to estimate the statements of ancient writers on this subject. Mention is made, that, so long ago as 400 years B.C., Archytus of Tarentum, a Pythagorean philosopher, made a wooden pigeon that could fly. The writers who have recorded this seem to have known but little respecting its truth. One said that if the pigeon fell, it could not rise again by itself: another says that it flew by mechanical means, being suspended by balancing, and animated by a secretlyenclosed spring.

The imitations of various animals have been very numerous, and we have records of several, the authenticity of which is undoubted. One mechanist constructed the figure of a swan, as large as life, which gracefully curved its neck, or turned it round, as if to dress the plumage of its wings or body: having done this, it bent down its head, and, taking a metal fish in its bill, swallowed it. Another person constructed a peacock, which could erect or depress its crest, and unfold its tail: it could likewise lift a piece of money in its bill, and perform many of the movements peculiar to a peacock. But Maillardet, a Frenchman, surpassed these efforts, by producing machines in which complicated actions were to be concentrated in a small space. He constructed an oval box, about three inches in length. The lid suddenly flying open, a bird of beautiful plumage, not larger than a humming-bird, started up from its nest within the box. The wings began to flutter, and its bill opening, with the tremulous motion peculiar to singingbirds it began to warble. After producing a succession of notes, whose sound well filled a large apartment, it darted down into its nest, and the lid closed again. The time that i ccupied to perform its routine of actions was about four minutes, and it produced four distinct kinds of warbling. Maillardet also constructed an automatic spider, a caterpillar, a mouse, and a serpent, all of which exhibited the peculiar movements of the living originals. The spider was made of steel, and the legs were levers which were successively advanced by springs within the body of the animal. It ran on the surface of a table for three minutes, and its course was so devised as to tend inwards towards the middle of the table. The serpent constructed by the same artist crawled about in every direction, opened its mouth, hissed, and darted out his tongue.

John Müller, of Nuremburg, is said to have constructed a wooden eagle, which flew from the city of Nuremburg, aloft in the air, met the Emperor Maximilian a good way off, saluted him, and preceded him back to the city gates; and to have also constructed an iron fly, which in the midst of a party of friends, flew from Müller's hand, and passed round from guest to guest. But from some contradictions in the accounts left by Baptista Porta, Kircher, &c., we may justly be allowed to doubt these narrations.

About a century and a half ago Truchet constructed, for the amusement of Louis the Fourteenth, an automaton, which the king called his little opera. It was about sixteen inches long, thirteen inches high, and one inch and a quarter deep. It represented an opera, in five acts, changing the decorations at the commencement of each. The actors performed their parts in pantomime;

and the

representation could be stopped at pleasure, and made to recommence. Another contrivance, made for the amusement of the same monarch-who had a strange mixture of the great and the small in his character-must have been worked by very elaborate mechanism. There was a small coach drawn by two horses: a lady sat in the coach, and a servant and a page stood behind it. This coach being placed on a table at which the king was seated, the coachman smacked his' whip, and the horses immediately began to move, their legs advancing in the proper succession. When the cavalcade reached the edge of the table, it turned at a right angle, and proceeded along that edge. When it arrived opposite to the place where the king was seated, it stopped and the page got down and opened the door, upon which the lady alighted, and, with a curtsey, presented a petition to the king. After waiting some time, she again curtseyed, and re-entered her carriage: the page then resumed his place, the coachman whipped his horses, which begun to move, and the footman, running after the carriage, jumped up behind. This was made by M. Camus, who wrote a description of the general nature of the mechanism employed: but his details were not sufficiently minute to account for the almost inconceivable movements of the figures. We have frequently seen in the public streets of London an exhibition in which a carriage rolled rapidly round a circular table, the horses' feet moved, and the coachman smacked his whip: but there was no dismounting,-no curtseying, -no presentation of a petition,-no footman running after the carriage, &c.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful specimens of automatic mechanism ever constructed was the duck of Vaucanson. This machine in external form exactly resembled a real duck; the wings being anatomically correct in every part. But not only was the exterior an exact copy of the original; the resemblance was also carried to internal parts: every bone in the real duck had its representative in the automaton; cavities, curvatures, protuberances, were all imitated. This duck imitated the actions of a real one to an extent that surpasses all we have yet detailed. It exhibited those quick motions of the head and throat so peculiar to the living duck: it produced the quacking sound; it drank water in that manner peculiar to billed animals: it swallowed food with avidity, and actually digested the food in the stomach. This latter remark is so astonishing that we must make one additional observation concerning it, in order that it may be believed at all. The stomach contained some chemical substance, which acted on the food introduced into it, so that the food left the body of the artificial duck in a form very different from that in which it entered. The authenticity of this narration is undisputed. The automaton was seen in action by Montucla, the eminent French mathematician, who wrote an account of it.

There are many other instances of similar ingenuity on record; such as a sheep which imitated the bleating of a natural one, and a dog watching a basket of fruit: when any one attempted to purloin the fruit, the dog gnashed his teeth and barked; and if the fruit were actually taken away, he did not cease barking till it was restored. But we have stated sufficient to give some idea of the mannner in which ingenuity has been directed to this subject in the imitation of birds, &c. In another article we shall describe some of the principal androides, or machines resembling the human figure, and so contrived as to imitate certain movements of a

living being. By referring to the Saturday Magazine, vol. viii., p. 151, the reader will find an account of a very ingenious automaton ship and sea.

Ir is not either fineness of wit, or abundance of wealth, or any such like inward or outward ornament, that makes the difference between men, and renders the one better than the other; but the firmness of good principles, the settledness of the spirit, and the quiet of mind.- BISHOP PATRICK.

THE JERBOA.

THIS pretty little animal belongs to a genus which approximates considerably to the rats, properly so called, but is sufficiently distinguished by the shortness of the fore-legs, and the length of the hinder extremities. Owing to an error long prevalent among naturalists, who imagined that these animals made use of their hind feet only in walking, and never employed the fore feet for that purpose, the genus was named dipus, or two-legged. A more attentive consideration of the structure of these animals has proved that the Jerboa is incapable of sustaining itself for any length of time on its hind-feet, though commonly seen in that posture. When alarmed, or wishing to proceed at a rapid rate, it takes prodigious leaps and falls upon its fore-feet, but elevates itself again with so much rapidity, that it almost appears as if it constantly maintained the erect posture. The fore-fect are, however, chiefly employed as the means of rest, and of conveying food to the mouth. There is much in the appearance of the Jerboa to remind us of the kangaroo. The form of the body bears a general resemblance; the hinder limbs are much stronger than the fore-part; the tail is very long; the ears are pointed and elongated; and the eyes are large and round. Still there are important differences between these animals, which sufficiently prove that it would be incorrect to follow Erxleben in classing kangaroos with Jerboas, under the name Jaculus giganteus.

The body of the Jerboa is covered with soft silken hairs; the tail also is usually covered with smooth hairs to its extremity, which is terminated by a tuft. The general colour of the animal is a clear fawn on the upper part, and white on the under parts of the body; in the males the tints are less deep than in the females; the size of the former is also smaller than that of the latter.

The tail is indispensable to the Jerboa for the performance of those extraordinary leaps for which the animal is so remarkable: it is likewise necessary for them in raising themselves on their hind-legs; and when for the sake of experiment, they have been either wholly or partially deprived of their tails, they have had their powers diminished proportionably, being in the one case unable to run or leap at all, and in the other, very much

limited in their motions.

The species which has been the best observed is the Gerbo, or Egyptian Jerboa, living in troops and digging burrows in Egypt. In the hot and sandy regions, and amid the ruins which surround modern Ålexandria, these animals are commonly seen. Without being exactly wild or ferocious in their character, they are extremely unquiet and wary. They come abroad in search of food, which consists of corn, nuts, roots, &c., but at the least noise re-enter their holes with precipitation. Their burrows consist of several galleries, and the Arabs have a mode of taking these animals alive, by closing up the issues of the different galleries, with the exception of one through which they must go out. They hunt them for their flesh, which, although not the best of meat, is in considerable request among the Egyptians. Their skins, likewise, are employed in the manufacture of ordinary fur.

Another species is the Alactaga, under which name some naturalists describe Jerboas, having five toes on the hind-feet, as a genus distinct from that of the Jerboas having but three. The Alactaga is about the size of a common squirrel. The fur is very soft and pliant, of a yellowish fawn colour over the body, varying with a grayish brown. The under part of the body, and the interior of the limbs are white. The tail is longer than the body, covered with similar hair for two-thirds of its length, and terminating in a tuft, half white and half black. This species is found in the deserts of Tartary, on the sand-hills which border the Tanais, the Volga, and the Irtisch. Gmelin says that these animals collect

herbs and roots during summer, form them into separate heaps, and transport them by degrees to their burrows. when they are sufficiently dried by exposure to the air. They seek their provisions by night, and besides herbs, succulent plants, fruits, and roots, they feed on insects and small birds. They are said also to devour one another, always commencing with the eyes and brain. To the west of Tartary lie extensive deserts, where the bulbs of tulips and of various other plants growing abundantly in that arid soil, afford nourishment for the Alactaga. In preparing its burrow, this animal scrapes away the earth with great activity, excavating with its fore-paws, and tearing away the roots with its teeth. It is able to foresee the approach of the cold or rainy season, and closes its burrow with surprising punctuality. It is remarkably sensitive of cold, and a very slight change of temperature will reduce it to its lethargic state. A great degree of heat likewise produces a similar effect.

The swiftness of these animals when pursued is so great that they scarcely appear to touch the earth, and it is said, that even a man on horseback cannot overtake them. It is difficult to preserve them in captivity, unless they are provided with a sufficient quantity of earth or sand to dig into. They may be fed with carrots, fruit, cabbage, bread, &c.

very

The Jerboas of India are described by General Hardwicke as being very numerous on cultivated lands, and particularly destructive to wheat and barley crops. The burrows of this species are very spacious, and the animals lay up considerable hoards of ripening corn, which they cut just beneath the ears, and convey entire to their common subterraneous repository, which when filled is carefully closed, and not opened again till supplies abroad become distant and scarce. Their favourite food may be considered the different sorts of grain, bnt when these fail they have recourse to roots, &c.

About the close of the day, (says Hardwicke,) they issue from their burrows, and traverse the plains in all directions to a considerable distance; they run fast, but oftener leap, making bounds of four or five yards at a time, carrying the tail extended in a horizontal direction. When eating they sit on their hind legs like a squirrel, holding the food between their fore-feet. They never appear by day, neither do they commit depredations within doors. I have observed their manners by night, in moonlight nights, taking my station on a plain, and remaining for some time with as little motion as possible I was soon surrounded by hundreds, at the distance of a few yards; but on rising from my seat, the whole disappeared in an instant, nor did they venture forth again for ten minutes after, and then with much caution and circumspection. A tribe of low Hindoos, called Kunjers, whose occupation is hunting, go in quest of these animals at proper seasons, to plunder their hoards of grain; and often, within the space of twenty yards square, find as much corn in the ear as could be crammed into a common bushel. They inhabit dry situations, and are often found at the distance of some miles out of the reach of water. In confinement, this animal soon becomes reconciled to its situation and docile, sleeps much in the day, but when awake feeds as freely as by night. The Hindoos above mentioned, esteem them good and nutritious food.

It was for a long time believed that common as the Jerboa is, on extensive sandy plains of both the old and new continent, yet that in similar tracts in Australia no such animal was to be found. It has now, however, been satisfactorily ascertained that these animals do exist in Australia. Šir Thomas Mitchell in his "Three Years Expeditions into the Interior of Australia," describes an animal found in the reedy plains near the junction of the Murray and the Murrumbidgee, on the northern boundaries of Australia Felix. Its fore and hind legs resembed those of a kangaroo, and it used the latter by leaping on its hind quarters in the same manner. It was not much larger than a field-mouse, but the tail was longer in proportion than even that of a kangaroo, and terminated in a hairy brush about two inches long.

Ir is related that King George the Third, who made the cause of longevity a subject of investigation, procured two persons, each considerably above a hundred years of age, to dance in his presence. He then requested them to relate to him their modes of living, that he might draw from them, if possible, some clue to the causes of their vigorous old age. The one had been a shepherd, remarkably temperate and had been noted for his irregularity, exposure, and intempecircumspect in his diet and regimen; the other, a hedger, rance. The monarch could draw no inference, to guide his inquiries, from such different modes of life, terminating in the same result; but, on further inquiry, he learned that both men were alike distinguished by a tranquil easiness of temper, active habits, and EARLY RISING.

THE hardest rain only wets the body, but the hard word cuts the heart.-LOVER.

WHAT is there of an exciting nature in the common events of life, and the usual course and uniformity of nature? Very little. However wonderous the works of the creation may be, habit has so accustomed us to behold them, that they are familiar to our eyes; they become matter of fact, and science has taught us to comprehend the nature of many phenomena, which might otherwise have appeared incredible. But when we seek for an unattainable object, however fallacious its attraction may be, the mind is roused to energetic action. In our vain pursuits of ideal perfection, the mind may be compared to a focus in which our burning thoughts are concentrated until we are consumed by disappointment.

False doctrines and fallacious opinions, need all the aid of imagination's vivid colours to disguise their real form with a goodly outside. We may in general conclude that enthusiasts are at first deceived themselves, to become in turn deceivers. Seldom does man display sufficient humility to admit that he has erred in his favourite doctrines, and how much less will he be disposed to confess his deviation from rectitude, when imposture becomes the source of wealth, and power and hypocrisy a trade.

It is, however, fortunate that errors generally assist the developement of truth. The progress of the Christian faith, all other religions; and Helvetius has truly observed, that was materially forwarded by the absurdities and fallacies of if we could for a moment doubt the truth of Christianity, its divine origin would be proved by its having survived the horrors of popery. False theories led Columbus to correct geographic conclusions, and Galileo's discoveries overthrew his own former theories.-MILLINGEN.

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE.

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