When about to give up the subject in despair, I stumbled on a memoir of the inventor of the "Automaton Duck." This memoir, bearing date 1738, is addressed by the author to the members of the Academy of Sciences. In it will be found a learned description of his flute-player, as well as a report of the Academy, which I here transcribe.
_Extract from the Registers of the Royal Academy of Sciences for April 30, 1738_:
"The Academy, after hearing M. de Vaucanson's memoir read, containing a description of a wooden statue, copied from Coysvoix's marble fawn, which plays twelve different airs on a German flute with a precision deserving of public attention, was of opinion that this machine was extremely ingenious; that the inventor had employed novel and simple means both to give the fingers the necessary motion and to modify the wind entering the flute, by augmenting or diminishing its velocity, according to the various tones; by varying the arrangement of the lips, and setting a valve in motion to perform the functions of the tongue; lastly, by artificially imitating all that a man is obliged to do; and that, in addition, M. de Vaucanson's memoir possessed all the clearness and perception such matter is capable of, proving the intelligence of the author, and his great knowledge of the different branches of mechanism. In confirmation of which I have signed the present certificate.
FONTENELLE, "Perpetual Secretary, Royal Academy of Sciences.
After this report comes a letter of Vaucanson's, addressed to the Abbé D. F., in which he informs him of his intention of presenting to the public on Easter Monday--
"In this duck," the celebrated automatist writes, "will be noticed the mechanism of the viscera, intended to perform the functions of eating, drinking and digesting. The action of all the parts is exactly imitated. The bird puts out its head to take up the seed, swallows it, digests it, and evacuates it by the ordinary channels.
"All thoughtful persons will understand the difficulty of making my automaton perform so many different movements, as when it stands on its legs and moves its head to the right and left. They will also see that this animal drinks, dabbles with its bill, quacks like the living duck, and, in short, is precisely similar in every respect."