Automaton, Automaton

It features a female automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin.

Thus mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. France in the 17th century was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, in 1649, when Louis XIV was still a child, an artisan named Camus designed for him a miniature coach, and horses complete with footmen, page and a lady within the coach; all these figures exhibited a perfect movement. According to P. Labat, General de Gennes constructed, in 1688, in addition to machines for gunnery and navigation, a peacock that walked and ate. The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher produced many automatons to create Jesuit shows, including a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking tube.

Belgian-born John Joseph Merlin created the mechanism of the Silver Swan automaton, now at Bowes Museum.

Source: Wikipedia > Automaton