“One of the most popular pieces of mechanism which we have seen, Is the Magician constructed by M. Maillardet, for the purpose of answering certain given questions.  A figure, dressed like a magician, appears seated at the bottom of a wall, holding a wand in one hand, and a book in the other A number of questions, ready prepared, are inscribed on oval medallions, and the spectator takes any of these he chooses and to which he wishes an answer, and having placed it in a drawer ready to receive it, the drawer shuts with a spring till the answer is returned.  The magician then arises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles with his wand, and consulting the book as If in deep thought, he lifts it towards his face.  Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed question he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his head, two folding doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer to the question.  The doors again close, the magician resumes his original position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion.  There are twenty of these medallions, all containing different questions, to which the magician returns the most suitable and striking answers.  The medallions are thin plates of brass, of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each other.  Some of the medallions have a question inscribed on each side, both of which the magician answered in succession.  If the drawer is shut without a medallion being put into it, the magician rises, consults his book, shakes his head, and resumes his seat.  The folding doors remain shut, and the drawer is returned empty.  If two medallions are put into the drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one.  When the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about an hour, during which time about fifty questions may be answered.  The inventor stated that the means by which the different medallions acted upon the machinery, so as to produce the proper answers to the questions which they contained, were extremely simple.”

The duck of Vaucanson was still more remarkable.  It was of the size of life, and so perfect an imitation of the living animal that all the spectators were deceived.  It executed, says Brewster, all the natural movements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, performed all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the duck, and like it muddled the water which it drank with its bill.  It produced also the sound of quacking in the most natural manner.  In the anatomical structure the artist exhibited the highest skill.  Every bone in the real duck had its representative In the automaton, and its wings were anatomically exact.  Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was imitated, and each bone executed its proper movements.  When corn was thrown down before it, the duck stretched out its neck to pick it up, swallowed, and digested it. {*1}