CHAPTER II.Kempelen.
Kempelen’sSpeaking Machine has been thus described. It was of simple structure, and consisted only of five parts—viz., the reed, representing the human glottis; an air-chest, with internal valves; the bellows or lungs; a mouth with its appurtenances, and nostrils formed to resemble those of the human body. The reed was not cylindrical, but formed to imitate the reed of a bagpipe drone. The hollow portion, however, was square, and the tongue of the reed, which vibrated, consisted of a thin ivory slip resting upon it horizontally. This hollow tube was inserted into the chest, and the discharge of air occasioning a vibration of the ivory, the requisite sound was produced. To soften its vibration, the part supporting the slip was covered with leather, and a movable spring shifting along the upper side of the slip brought the sound of the reed to the proper pitch. The sound was more acute as the spring was moved forward to the outer extremity, because the vibrations then became quicker, and when shifted farther from the anterior extremity, the sound became more grave, as the vibrations were then slower. A slight curvature of the ivory slip arose from the pressure of the spring, which was enough for the object desired. One end of the air-chest, which was of an oblong figure, received this voice-pipe, containing the reed; and into the opposite end was inserted the mouth of the bellows. Both the apertures were guarded by leather, to prevent unnecessary waste of air: two smaller air-chests were then put into it, each having a valve above closed by the pressure of a spring, and each having a round aperture adapted to receive through the side of the large air-chest a tin funnel, and a round wooden tube for producing hissingsounds—as,s,z,sch,j. The voice-pipe was placed in the large air-chest, so as to be between the smaller air-chests. When all these parts were fitted to the air-chest, the operation of one lever raising the valve of the first smaller chest connected with the tin funnel produced the sounds; while the operation of another, raising the valve of the second smaller chest connected with the wooden tube, produced the sound ofsch. But it is proper further to explain that instead of being a simple tunnel, it was, in fact, a tin box, with a square hole in the outer end, nearly covered by a slip of pasteboard; and the wooden tube was merely the mouth-piece of a common flute, closed at the lower extremity, and with the air-hole modified and contracted: the letterrwas produced by the rapid vibration of the ivory slip, owing to a strong discharge of air.
Mons. Kempelen’s bellows, which were formed to supply the place of lungs, had no peculiarities. He found that his machine required six times the quantity of air used by a man in speaking. The muzzle, as I have observed, was inserted into the large air-chest, and the air which it discharged was also received by the small air-chest. With regard to the mouth, it consisted of a funnel, or rather bell-shaped piece of elastic gum, applied to the air-chest, and so adapted that the sound of the reed issued from it. Elastic gum was selected for this purpose as more nearly approaching to the natural softness and flexibility of the human organs. Independent of its communications with the reed producing the sound required, a tin tube connected it with the air-chest, by means of which it might be kept constantly full of air. This Mons. Kempelen considered a very essential, and even an indispensable part of the machine. Besides these there were small additional bellows, for the purpose of aiding the production of such sounds asp,k,t, which needed a greater emission of air. The nose consisted of two tin tubes, communicating with the mouth. When the mouth-piece was closed, and both tubes remained open, a perfectmwas heard; when one was closed, but the other open,nwas sounded. By the combined means of all these contrivances Mons. Kempelen could make his figure repeat such sentences asVous étes mon ami,Je vous aime, etc. Upon Kempelen’s machinery all succeeding talking figures have been based.
The most noted person who succeeded Kempelen in the art of magicalautomata was Robert Houdin. He not only improved upon the production of his predecessors, but applied the basis of their materials to works comparatively original and unique. His automata certainly place him in the highest rank of modern illusionists, and in giving in detail the principal of his inventions, I shall at the same time be affording a solution of the working of many surprising and ingenious automatic tricks, which have been exhibited in recent days.One of his best productions was a Talking Figure,similar, but in many respects far superior, to that of Kempelen, the mechanism of which I have described above.
It has been asserted that Houdin first turned his attention to the construction of automata through the following trivial circumstance:
Being in company one day with a travelling showman, his assistance was asked to repair one of the figures the showman had accidentally broken. Having seen the performance of the figure, which was none other than the well-known Dancing Harlequin, he was struck with the marvellous and apparently magical effects which could be produced by the simplest laws of mechanism. He became so infatuated with the discovery the showman permitted him to make in the construction of the box and figure, that he, from that time, devoted all his thoughts and energies to the construction of automata.
The magic harlequin is worth description, not only because it takes so prominent a place among mechanical figures, but more because, in disclosing its mechanism, I shall be explaining the construction of a whole class of automata, which have been constructed on the same principle. As will be seen by the illustration given above, a box was placed upon a table, and at word of command the box opened and a harlequin was discovered therein. At a sign from the conjurer the figure leaped from the box, and then, apparently without being attached in any way to the box, it performed a variety of movements, imitating the action of the human pantomimist. It further smoked a pipe or cigar, and blew a whistle.
Such was the figure which opened the eyes of Houdin to the marvelswhich the application of the simple laws of mechanics might produce; and his great mechanical genius enabled him to succeed even better than he hoped when first he began his investigations of the automata that had already been exhibited.
The mechanism of the Magic Harlequin is extremely simple; in fact, it will be found that the most marvellous and astounding effects are produced by the simplest contrivances. The box containing the figure was grooved in the back in nine places, each groove terminating in a hole pierced through the bottom of the box. Corresponding exactly with these holes were nine holes in the table upon which the figure performed. Below these holes at the back of the table, which was always placed close up to the curtains at the back of the stage, and behind which the person who manœuvred the figure was concealed, were nine spring pistons worked by nine different strings passing over pulleys, each of which performed a different function, and were attached to that point in the figure which each was designed to move.
The figure of the harlequin, as the reader will perceive by the annexed illustration, was attached by means of two rods to a revolving bar fixed from side to side of the box, and so near the front that it was concealed from the eyes of the audience. When the harlequin was out of the box, the rods connecting it with the bar were hidden by the drapery of the figure. The first string worked the opening and shutting of the lid of the box. The second string, passing under a pulley immediately beneath the bar, passed over the shoulders of the figure, and by a sharp movement turned the bar and jerked the figure—which was reversed when in the box—out on to the table, the figure, of course, maintaining a standing posture, and being held up by means of the rods attached to the revolving bar. The shoulders were made torevolve on the two rods, so that the jerking motion would be easily produced. The third string passed through the body, and was attached to the legs, and produced a motion to imitate the stretching of the legs, known as the “splits.” Another string closed the legs and simultaneously turned the head right and left. Another string lifted the legs and imitated the movements of a dance. Another string turned the figure back again into the box. In the corner of the box was a bellows, through the medium of which, and by means of a tube passing through the arm, and ending in the mouth, the concealed person, by manipulating the nine pistons which worked the bellows, was enabled to produce the effects of smoking and whistling.
It is upon this system of mechanism that very many modern tricks have been based—notably, the great rope acrobatic figure of Theodin. In this case, what was thought by the audience to be a rope was really a tube made to imitate a rope, and the strings passed through this tube and worked from the side of the stage, the rope serving the same purpose as the bar stretched across the box in the harlequin automaton.
Houdin was said to be the inventor of the well-known Magic Clock. This was a glass dial plate with hands, but with no visible works. This clever invention has within the last year or two been reproduced, and exhibited in many jewelers’ windows. His chief automatic figures, besides the talking one I have already mentioned, were twoperforming French Clownsand the Cook of the Palais Royal. The clowns were shown one sitting on a chair, and the other standing beside it. At the request of the exhibitor, the standing clown raised the chair, with its occupant, above his head, while the latter went through a number of acrobatic performances that would have done honor to a living gymnast.
These capital figures were worked precisely on the same system as the Magic Harlequin, the strings, pistons, and machinery being necessarily of stronger make, and worked from beneath, instead of behind the stage. This was considered by the public, and Houdin himself looked upon it, as hischef d’œuvre, and a masterpiece in automatic figures it certainly was.
The Cook of the Palais Royal was a very amusing piece of mechanical application. It consisted of a faithful representation of a detachedvilla. Houdin handed round a list of wines and liquors, requesting his audience to select which they liked best on the bill of fare. When one was mentioned, a figure of a young maid emerged from the doorway, descended the steps, and brought forward on a tray a glass of the desired wine. When the person at whose order the wine was brought removed the glass from the tray, the figure turned and glided back into the house, again emerging with another glass of wine, and so on until the list was exhausted or the bibulous propensities of the audience were fully satisfied.
The same basis of machinery used in the Magic Harlequin was also employed in the Cook of the Palais Royal, each piston working a tap containing one kind of wine. The operator at the back of the stage could hear the wine asked for, and thus knew which string to pull, and which tap to open, when the figure, which was made to pass under every tap, re-entered the house.
Houdin’s Orange Tree was a capital trick, and, although exceedingly simple in its mechanism, produced the most startling effects. Houdin borrowed a handkerchief, which he burnt, or rather which he led the audience to think he burnt, at the sacrifice of a duplicate, in front of a plant placed in a box upon a table, which, at word of command, gradually began to bloom. White blossoms were seen to emerge from four or five different shoots. These disappeared, giving place to oranges, which Houdin removed from the tree and distributed among his audience, with the exception of one, which he left on. This one opened, and out from it sprang two butterflies, and in the middle of the orange was found the burnt handkerchief.
In this trick also the spring pistons of the Magic Harlequin were used. The real oranges were fixed on pins and hidden by the leaves. A string or wire opened the leaves, gradually disclosing the oranges, which appeared at a distance to grow in size as the leaves spread wider. Another set of wires, worked by another string, pushed the blossoms up fine tubes, and as the paper emerged from the tube the separate parts spread out, giving the appearance of growing blossoms. As soon as the two halves of the sham orange in the centre were released, the butterflies, attached by wires to the stalk, and fixed upon delicate spiral springs, sprang out of their own accord, and presented the appearance of fluttering on thewing. Thebona fidehandkerchief was pushed into the halves of the orange through a hole in the back while Houdin was taking off the real oranges. A rose-tree, similar in its effects, was also exhibited by Houdin.
This clever mechanician was, I believe, the inventor of the Electric Bell, or, to be more precise, he produced it as a magical trick, long before the electric bell came into use.
The Magic Drum, swung from the ceiling by means of wires looking like cords, of which Houdin was the first exhibitor, was constructed on precisely the same principles as the modern continuous electric bell, only worked with a much stronger battery and a more powerfully made electro-magnet.
Mr. Houdin was the first person to introduce the famous “Suspension in the Air” trick, centuries ago made so famous by the Fakir of Oolu, performed by the Hindoos. The lady selected for the trick is generally slight in figure. Previous to coming on the stage she binds close to her body a framework specially made to fit her. This frame consists of an iron bar, with front and back plate fitting on the hip by means of straps fastened round the body. The iron bar reaches as far as the armpit, where it is joined to another bar reaching from the armpit to the elbow by a movable circular plate indented in three places. At the end of the arm bar and immediately below the elbow is a pin of iron, which is made to fit into the hollow iron bar upon which the exhibitor rests the lady. At the top of the body bar is a spring stop, made to glide into the indentations of the movable circular hinge, and thus keep the whole framework in the position it is placed. The annexed illustration will more clearly show this single piece of machinery.
A is the iron bar, and B the hip plate. D is a spring stop fitting into the teeth of the joint F. F is the arm bar, and G is the pin fitting into the hollow tube H, which is fixed into a socket in the platform. The frame is fastened to the body by means of the leather straps K. When the body is raised to the position of L, the spring stop D slips into the middle indentation, and thus keeps the frame and the lady borne upon the frame in that position. When the body is raised to a horizontal position, M, the spring stop catches in the first indentation, and keeps the body perfectly straight. In commencing the trick the performer rests the figure upon two poles and then knocks one away. This is done to make the audience believe that the two poles are similar. I need scarcely say that the putting of the lady into a mesmeric trance is only a piece of acting; it, however, adds very much to the effect of the trick, as the reader no doubt has thought up till now. It will be remembered, notably in the case of the Fakir of Oolu, that sometimes when the trick was performedbothpoles were taken away. What, then, you will ask, becomes of all my machinery? The two poles wereseeminglytaken away. The poles used consisted of brass bars. The limelight beamed upon the figure of the sleeping lady, while the rest of the stage was comparatively dark. Thus, when the conjuror apparently took away the only support the figure had, the audience did not and could not perceive that he really took away the brasscaseof the second pole, leaving another, the actual pole on which the framework was fixed, and which was of the same color as the drapery of the stage. It was for the purpose of deceiving the eyes of the audience that the pole was encased in abrassshell in the first instance. He refixed the case before the stage was relit, and the lady woke up from her sham mesmeric trance.