pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 110
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 110 | THE WRITING AND DRAWING FIGURE figure which also inscribed a few set phrases or titles of the drawings. In mechanism, appearance, and results it tallies almost exactly with the automaton claimed by Robert-Houdin as originating in his brain. The Jacquet- Droz figure showed a child clad in quaint, flowing gar- ments, seated at a desk. The Robert-Houdin figure was modernized, and showed a court youth in knee breeches and powdered peruque, seated at a desk. The Jacquet-Droz figure drew a dog, a cupid, and the heads of reigning monarchs. The Robert-Houdin figure, made seventy-five years later, by some inexplicable coincidence drew a dog as the symbol of fidelity, a cupid as the em- blem of love, and the heads of reigning monarchs. The history of the Jacquet-Drozes is written in the annals of Switzerland as well as the equally reputable annals of scientific inventions, and cannot be refuted. Pierre Jacquet-Droz was born July 28th, 1721, in a small village, La-Chaux-de-Fonds, near Neuchâtel, Switz- erland. According to some authorities, his father was a clock-maker, but the brochure issued by "Société d'Histoire et l'Archéologie" of the city of Neuchâtel, which has recently acquired many of the Jacquet-Droz auto- mata, states that he was the son of a farmer and was sent to a theological seminary at Basle. Here the youth's natural talent for mechanics overbalanced his interest in "isms" and "ologies," and he spent every spare moment at work with his tools. On his return to his native town he turned his attention seriously to clock- and watch-making, constructing a marvellous clock with two peculiar hands which, in passing each other, touched the dial and rewound the clock. [ 93 ] |