Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The most noted person who succeeded Kempelen in the art of magical automata 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.