With the fame of the Neuchâtel shop spreading and the demand for Swiss watches increasing, Maillardet and Jean Pierre Droz, apprentices or perhaps partners of Pierre Jacquet-Droz and Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz, removed to London and there set up a watch factory. About this time Maillardet invented a combination writing and drawing figure which was pronounced by experts of the day slightly inferior to the work of the two Jacquet-Drozes. However, it must have been worthy of exhibition, for it appeared at intervals for the next fifty years in the amusement world, particularly in London. At first Maillardet was not its exhibitor nor was his name ever mentioned on the programmes and newspaper notices, but later his name appeared as part owner and exhibitor. As the Swiss watches had created a veritable sensation and were snatched up as fast as produced, it is quite likely that he had no time to play the rôle of showman. The figure first appeared in London in 1796, when the London _Telegraph_ of January 2nd carried the advertisement reproduced on the next page. Haddock had no particular standing in the world of magic, and it is more than likely that he rented the automata which he exhibited, or merely acted as showman for the real inventors. [Illustration: Haddock advertisement in the London _Telegraph_, January, 1796, in which he features the writing automaton as an androide. From the Harry Houdini Collection.] [Illustration: Clipping from the London _Telegraph_ in March, 1812, proving the partnership of de Philipsthal and Maillardet in an "Automatical Theatre." The Mr. Louis mentioned in the advertisement as assistant engineer later secured possession of the writing and drawing figure. From the Harry Houdini Collection.] In quite a few works on automata, notably Sir David Brewster's "Letters on Natural Magic," Collinson is quoted as having interviewed Maillardet as the inventor of the combination writing and drawing figure. _The Franklin Journal_ of June, 1827, published in Philadelphia, Pa., credits this figure to Maillardet and gives the following description: "It was the figure of a boy kneeling on one knee, holding a pencil in his hand, with which he executed not only writing but drawings equal to those of the masters. When the figure began to work, an attendant dipped the pencil in ink, and fixed the paper, when, on touching a spring, the figure wrote a line, carefully dotting and stroking the letters." The Robert-Houdin figure did not kneel, but this change could be made by a mechanician of ordinary ability. [Illustration: A Louis programme of April 3rd, 1815, in which the writing and drawing figure is advertised as a juvenile artist. It also features a bird of paradise automaton which Robert-Houdin claimed to have invented thirty years later. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]