A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 2 (of 2)Beckmann, Johann
History
A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 2 (of 2)
Beckmann, Johann
Inventions -- History
Callistratus, another writer, who was the tutor of Demosthenes, gives
us to understand that the statues of Dædalus were made to move by the
mechanical powers[341]. But what has been asserted by Palæphatus, and
by Gedoyn[342], Banier, Goguet, and others among the moderns, is most
probable. The first statues of the Greeks were imitations of those
of the Egyptians, for the most part clumsy figures, with their eyes
shut, their arms hanging down close to the body on each side, and their
feet joined together. Those made by Dædalus had their eyes open, as
well as their feet and hands free; and the artist gave them such a
posture, that they seemed either reclining, or appeared as if ready
to walk or to run. As Anacreon[343], struck with wonder, exclaimed
when he saw a waxen image of his favourite object, “Begone, wax, thou
wilt soon speak!” the astonished Greeks in like manner cried out, when
they beheld the statues of Dædalus, “They will soon walk.” The next
generation affirmed that they really walked; and their posterity,
adding still to what was told them, asserted that they would have run
had they not been bound.
Equally imperfect is the account given of the wooden pigeon constructed
by Archytas of Tarentum. We are informed that it flew; but when it
had once settled, it could not again take flight. The latter is not
incredible; but even if we allow that aërostatic machines were then
known, it is impossible to believe the former. At present one cannot
determine with any probability, what piece of mechanism gave rise to
this relation[344]. The head of Albertus Magnus, which is said not only
to have moved, but to have spoken, is too little known for any opinion
to be formed concerning it. The construction of it must have been very
ingenious and complex, if it be true that he was employed upon it
thirty years[345].
In the fourteenth and following centuries, automata, as I have said,
were frequently made. Among these was the iron fly of John Müller or
Molitor, or, as he is sometimes called, Regiomontanus, which is said
to have flown about; and his artificial eagle, which flew to meet the
Emperor Maximilian on his arrival at Nuremberg, June the 7th, 1470.
None of the contemporary writers, however, though they often speak
of this very learned man, make the least mention of these pieces of
mechanism; and it is probable that the whole tale originated with
Peter Ramus[346], who never was at Nuremberg till the year 1571. J. W.
Baier[347] endeavours to prove that the above-mentioned fly, moved by
wheel-work, leaped about upon a table; and that the eagle perched upon
the town-gate, stretched out its wings on the emperor’s approach, and
saluted him by an inclination of its body. We know that Charles V.,
after his abdication, amused himself during the latter period of his
life with automata of various kinds[348].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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