1. On the general history of automata: Alexander Buchner, Mechanical Musical Instruments, trans. Iris Unwin (London: Batchworth, n.d. [1950s?]); Alfred Chapuis and Édouard Gélis, Le Monde des automates, étude historique et technique, 2 vols. (Geneva: Slatkine, 1984; reprint of Paris ed., 1928); Alfred Chapuis and Edmond Droz, Les Automates: Figures artificielles d’hommes et d’animaux (Neuchâtel: Griffon, 1949); Alfred Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique et de la musique mécanique (Lausanne: Scriptar, 1955); Pierre Devaux, Automates et automatisme (Paris: P.U.F., 1941); Pierre Latil, Il faut tuer les robots! ([Paris:] Grasset, 1957); Éliane Maingot, Les Automates (Paris: Hachette, 1959); Jean Prasteau, Les Automates (Paris: Grü–, 1968); Albert Protz, Mechanische Musikinstrumente (Kassel: Bärenreiter, [1940]). For the particulars mentioned here: Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 1, chap. 2 (Ctesibius); vol. 1, chap. 7 (jaquemarts); vol. 1, chap. 11 (cuckoo clock).

2. For a description of the Flûteur: [Jacques] Vaucanson, Le Mécanisme du flûteur automate (Buren, the Netherlands: Knuf, 1979; reprint of 1st ed., Paris, 1738), pp. 9–16; “Le Flûteur,” Le Mercure de France, April 1738, pp. 738–39 (incl. “fourteen airs” quotation); Académie Royale des Sciences report on Vaucanson’s exhibition, Le Journal des sçavans, April 1739, pp. 435–52 (which stated that the Flûteur played only twelve airs). Vaucanson does not say what powered his automata, but his biographers are fairly confident that it was weights; André Doyon and Lucien Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, mécanicien de génie (Paris: P.U.F., 1967), p. 75. For the historical context: Apel, “Flute,” in Harvard Dictionary of Music, p. 322 (adoption of transverse flute as concert instrument); David Lasocki, pref. to Vaucanson, Mécanisme du flûteur automate, unpaginated (little written about transverse flute in Vaucanson’s day); Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique, chaps. 1, 2, 12 (history of pegged cylinders in mechanical musical instruments); Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 1, p. 113 (origins of weight-driven clocks).

3. Vaucanson, Mécanisme du flûteur automate, pp. 19–21.

4. Ibid., p. 21.

5. Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, pp. 23–33, 84–92.

6. For the Académie Royale des Sciences report: Journal des sçavans, April 1739, pp. 435–52. On the king’s visit to the exhibition: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, vol. 23, p. 259.

7. M. Imbert, “Nécrologie (mort de Vaucanson),” Le Mercure de France, 15 March 1783, pp. 116–19; Anon., “Vaucanson,” in Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, [1st ed.], ed. [Joseph-F. and Louis-Gabriel] Michaud, 52 vols. (Paris: Michaud, 1811–28), vol. 48, pp. 16–18; Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, chaps. 7, 8, 9, 11; Alfred Cobban, A History of Modern France, 3 vols. (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1957–65), vol. 2, pp. 45–46.

8. On Vaucanson compared to Prometheus: Voltaire, Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, 75 vols. (Paris: Baudouin, 1825–28), vol. 15, p. 363; La Mettrie, Man a Machine, pp. 70 (French version), 140–41 (English). On Vaucanson in the Académie Royale des Sciences: Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, “Éloge de M. de Vaucanson,” in Oeuvres, 12 vols. (Stuttgart: Fromann, 1968; reprint of Paris ed., 1847–49), vol. 2, pp. 657–58; Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, app. 2, pp. 443–54. On Vaucanson’s mechanical asp: [Jean-François] Marmontel, Mémoires de Marmontel, ed. Maurice Tourneux, 3 vols. (Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1891), vol. 1, pp. 247–48; Friedrich Melchior von Grimm et al., Correspondance littéraire, 16 vols. (Paris: Garnier, 1877–82), vol. 14, p. 72. Marmontel’s play had eleven performances; the playwright blamed Vaucanson’s snake for diverting attention from his dialogue.

9. Condorcet, “Éloge de M. de Vaucanson,” in Oeuvres, vol. 2, pp. 660, 656. On Vaucanson’s bequest: Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, pp. 384–406. On the founding of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers: Tulard, Fayard, and Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution, pp. 673–74.

10. Condorcet, “Éloge de M. de Vaucanson,” in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 660; M. Guichard de Meinieres, “Nécrologie,” Le Journal de Paris, 10 December 1782, p. 1399; “Le Flûteur,” Mercure de France, April 1738, p. 739.

11. The source of Condorcet’s quotation: Condorcet, “Éloge de M. de Vaucanson,” in Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 645. For the argument that Vaucanson may have originally conceived his three automata as anatomies mouvantes: Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, chaps. 1, 5 (the quotation is on p. 109). On Vaucanson’s later, unrealized anatomies mouvantes projects: Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, chap. 7 (the quotation is on p. 148).

12. Vaucanson, Mécanisme du flûteur automate, pp. 4–8 (physics of transverse flute), 21 (quotation concerning the galoubet), 19 (quotation concerning the Canard’s digestion). On Vaucanson and the contemporary debate over the process of digestion: Doyen and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, chap. 5.

13. Johann Heinrich Moritz [von] Poppe, Ausführliche Geschichte der theoretisch-praktischen Uhrmacherkunst (Leipzig: Roch, 1801), pp. 375–84; Johann Bernoulli, Johann Bernoulli’s Sammlung kurzer Reisebeschreibungen, 16 vols. and 2 suppl. vols. (Berlin: bei dem Herausgeber, 1781–85), 1st suppl. vol., p. 142.

14. Charles Perregaux and F.-Louis Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot (Neuchâtel: Attinger, 1916), chaps. 10, 11. Neuchâtel was under Prussian suzerainty from 1708 to 1857, with the exception of 1806–15, when it formed part of the Napoleonic Empire; William L. Langer, ed., An Encyclopedia of World History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968), pp. 497, 641, 651, 715.

15. Bernoulli, Johann Bernoulli’s Sammlung kurzer Reisebeschreibungen, 1st suppl. vol., pp. 154–56; Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, pp. 56–58; Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique, pp. 49–51; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 1, pp. 241–44. The clock was still to be found in the royal palace in Madrid as recently as 1955, although most of its mechanisms were not in working order.

16. Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, pp. 91–105.

17. The prospectus is reproduced in full in Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, pp. 103–5. The machinery of the androids is discussed in varying degrees of detail in the following sources: ibid., pp. 185–89; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 233–49, 270–79; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 287–91, 301–3; Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique, pp. 60–63. The ability of the Écrivain to “take dictation” is also discussed in C. Sivan, “Encore l’Écrivain de Jaquet Droz,” Le Journal suisse d’horlogerie et de bijouterie 31, no. 12 (June 1907): 412–15. The androids are still in existence and on display in the Musée d’art et d’histoire, Neuchâtel.

18. On the automata’s attraction of visitors to La Chaux-de-Fonds: Letter of Isaac Droz of Locle to Governor de Lentulus, quoted in Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, p. 102 (“people came” quotation). On the automata’s travels to Paris and Versailles: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, vol. 7, pp. 273, 284. On the automata’s tour of Europe: Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, pp. 110–11; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 192. On the automata’s return visit to Paris: various issues of Le Journal de Paris, cited in Émile Campardon, Les Spectacles de la foire, 2 vols. (Geneva: Slatkine, 1970; reprint of Paris ed., 1877), vol. 1, pp. 276–77, and in Isherwood, Farce and Fantasy, pp. 49, 262 <$f$>n. 125; exhibition prospectus cited in Maingot, Automates, p. 24.

19. Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, p. 95, chap. 15.

20. Ibid., p. 114.

21. [First name unknown] Weiss, “Droz (Henri-Louis Jacquet)” [sic], in Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, [1st ed.], vol. 12, p. 39; Anon., “Droz (Henri-Louis-Jacquet),” in Nouvelle biographie générale, vol. 14, col. 813; Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, p. 166. On Grimod, see chapter 2 above, p. 77.

22. Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, pp. 110, 216–17; Alfred Chapuis, “Les ‘Répliques’ des androïdes Jaquet-Droz,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 13 (1926): 88–105; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 249–51, 278; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 291, 306–9; Alfred Chapuis, “Nouveaux documents sur les automates Jaquet-Droz et Maillardet,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 38 (1951): 33–42.

23. Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, p. 119.

24. On Defrance’s automata: Les Affiches de Paris, 1746, quoted in Campardon, Spectacles de la foire, vol. 1, p. 225. On Lagrelet’s automata: Les Affiches de Paris, 1750, quoted in Campardon, Spectacles de la foire, vol. 2, pp. 19–20. On the Palais Magique’s automata: [François-] Victor Fournel, Le Vieux Paris: Fêtes, jeux, spectacles (Paris: Valtat, 1979; reprint of Tours ed., 1887), pp. 321–22. On Mical’s automata: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, vol. 26, p. 215; [Antoine Rivarol], Lettre à M. le Président de *** sur le globe aérostatique, sur les têtes parlantes…(London: Cailleau, 1783), p. 29. On Knauss’s automata: Friedrich von Knauss, Friedrichs von Knauss selbstschreibende Wundermaschinen (Vienna: n.p., 1780), pp. 103–5 (flageolet player, completed 1757), 13–93 (writers, completed 1753, 1758, 17??, 1760). On Richard’s automata: “Concert mécanique,” Le Mercure de France, August 1771, pp. 152–54; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 289; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, p. 278. On Pelletier’s automaton: Fournel, Vieux Paris, p. 323; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 269; Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique, vol. 2, p. 222.

25. Léon Montandon and Alfred Chapuis, “Les Maillardet,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 3 (1916): 152–67; 4 (1917): 24–45; Chapuis, “‘Répliques’ des androïdes,” Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 13, pp. 88–105; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 161–64, 196–98, 251–58, 278–79; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 253–54, 268, 311–17; Chapuis, “Nouveaux documents sur les automates,” Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 38, pp. 33–42; A. Michaud, ed., “Un Prospectus des Maillardet,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, 1st ser., 39 (1902): 214–15.

26. Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 279–86. Marie-Antoinette may have seen the Jaquet-Droz Musicienne again in the early 1780s; see note 18 above. Roentgen and Kintzing lived and worked in Neuwied, the capital of the autonomous Grafschaft (county) of Wied.

27. The National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints; The British Library Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975; Catalogue générale des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque nationale (ouvrages publiés avant 1969).

28. On canaries, flageolets, serinettes, and mechanical songbirds: Perregaux and Perrot, Les Jaquet-Droz et Leschot, chaps. 18, 19; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 1, p. 279; vol. 2, chap. 18; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 127, 199–202; Buchner, Mechanical Musical Instruments, pp. 83–84.

29. Knauss’s writers nonetheless constituted a great mechanical achievement.

30. Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 289; Anon., “Mical,” in Biographie universelle et portative, vol. 5, p. 461.

31. H[enri] Decremps, La Magie blanche dévoilée, 4 vols. (Paris: Desoer, 1789–91; first published 1784–88), vol. 4, Codicile de Jérome Sharp, chap. 12; Chapuis, “‘Répliques’ des androïdes,” Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 13, p. 96. On quasi- and pseudo-automata in general: Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, chap. 26, Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, chap. 18; Adolphe Blind, Les Automates truqués (Geneva: Eggiman, 1927). Payen’s automaton writer, exhibited in Paris in 1771, was probably a true automaton; “L’Écrivain automate,” Le Mercure de France, September 1771, pp. 175–76; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 254.

32. The biographical sketch of Kempelen presented here is based on these sources: Charles Gottlieb de Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs de M. de Kempelen (Basel: Chrétien de Mechel, 1783; the German ed., Karl Gottlieb von Windisch, Briefe über den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, bears the same imprint); J. Karl Unger, “Wolfgang von Kempelen,” in Zeitschrift von und für Ungarn, zur Beförderung der vaterlä–ischen Geschichte, Erkunde und Litteratur 5 (1804): fasc. 5, pp. 313–17; Anon., “Kempelen, Wolfgang Ritter von,” in Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, ed. Constant[in] Wurzbach, 60 vols. (New York: Johnson, 1966; reprint of Vienna ed., 1856–91), vol. 11, pp. 158–63. Unless otherwise noted, all information on Kempelen in this section, including quotations, derives from these three sources.

33. [Sébastien] Guillié, Essai sur l’instruction des aveugles; ou, Exposé analytique des procédés employés pour les instruire (Paris: n.p., 1817), pp. 96, 121; Anon., “Paradis, auch, jedoch unrichtig Paradies, Maria Theresia von,” in Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, vol. 21, p. 288.

34. L[ouis] Dutens, “Lettre…au sujet de l’Automate qui joue aux échecs,” Le Mercure de France, March 1771, pp. 153–56; Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs, pp. 38–40.

35. Contemporary observers did not give mutually corroborative descriptions of Kempelen’s procedure. On this and other matters concerning the Chess Player, the present study follows for the most part, but not always or entirely, the definitive study of Charles Michael Carroll, The Great Chess Automaton (New York: Dover, 1975). On Kempelen’s procedure, see in that work pp. 54–55. The sketch of the automaton presented here is based on reports of contemporary observers, principally L[ouis] Dutens, “Lettre sur une Automate qui joue aux échecs,” Le Mercure de France, October 1770, vol. 2, pp. 186–90, and idem, “Lettre…au sujet de l’Automate” Le Mercure de France, March 1771, pp. 153–56; Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs (1783); Decremps, Magie blanche dévoilée (1784), vol. 1, pp. 65–69; Josef Friedrich, Freiherr zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen und dessen Nachbildung (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1789); [Robert Willis], An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton Chess Player, of Mr. de Kempelen (London: Booth, 1821).

36. Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs, pp. 40–41.

37. On late-eighteenth-century speaking machines: David Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic, Addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1883; first published 1832), pp. 268–70; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, chap. 15; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, chap. 22; Thomas L. Hankins and Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), chap. 8. Knauss apparently constructed four talking heads around 1770, but little is known about them; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 202. On Mical’s talking heads: “Mécanique,” Le Journal de Paris, 6 July 1783, p. 778; Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, vol. 26, pp. 214–16; Aoine] Rivarol, Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française, in Oeuvres choisies de A. Rivarol, 2 vols. (Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1880), vol. 1, pp. 79–82; idem, Lettre à M. le Président de *** sur le globe aérostatique, sur les têtes parlantes…, pp. 20–24, 29–30 (Rivarol’s quotation is on p. 30); L. Louvet, “Mical,” in Nouvelle biographie générale, vol. 35, col. 312. Both Vicq d’Azyr, in his official report to the Académie Royale des Sciences (according to Louvet’s article), and Bachaumont found the pronunciation of Mical’s talking heads defective, but without making a comparison to Kempelen’s speaking machine. The source of the quotation rating Kempelen’s speaking machine above Mical’s talking heads: Grimm et al., Correspondance littéraire, vol. 13, p. 359. On Kempelen’s speaking machine: Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs, pp. 45–49; Wolfgang von Kempelen, Wolfgangs von Kempe-len Mechanismus der menchlichen Sprache nebst der Beschreibung seiner sprechenden Maschine (Stuttgart: Frommann, 1970; reprint of Vienna ed., 1791).

38. The pamphlet of 1783 heralding the tour was Windisch, Lettres sur le joueur d’échecs. The various editions of it are mentioned in Carroll, Great Chess Automaton, p. 18. That same work, pp. 108–13, contains an excellent bibliography of the most important works on the Chess Player and explains: “A list of all the literature dealing with the automaton chess player, without a lifetime or two in which to trace all the periodical entries, represents a well-nigh impossible task.”

39. For notices of the Paris exhibitions of the Chess Player: articles titled “Mécanique” in Le Journal de Paris, 18 April 1783, pp. 453–54; 24 April 1783, p. 477; 2 May 1783, p. 508; 12 June 1783, pp. 682–83; 23 June 1783, p. 718. On Bernard and the Chess Player: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, vol. 22, pp. 305–6; vol. 23, pp. 3–5; Grimm et al., Correspondance littéraire, vol. 13, pp. 354–58. On Philidor and the Chess Player: Lardin, “Philidor peint par lui-même,” Le Palamède, 2d ser., 7, no. 1, pp. 12–13; Twiss, Chess, vol. 1, pp. 186–87.

40. Carroll, Great Chess Automaton, pp. 22–27.

41. The present biographical sketch of Maelzel is based on these sources: Anon., “Maelzel (Léonard),” in Biographie universelle et portative, vol. 5, pp. 428–29; Anon., “Mälzel, Johann Nepomuk,” in Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, vol. 16, pp. 248–50; George Allen, “The History of the Automaton Chess-Player in America,” in The Book of the First American Chess Congress, ed. Daniel Willard Fiske (New York: Rudd and Carleton, 1859), pp. 420–84; Carroll, Great Chess Automaton, pp. 42–51, 65–92; Fétis, “Maelzel (Jean-Népomucène),” in Biographie universelle des musiciens, vol. 5, pp. 396–97; Theodor von Frimmel, “Mälzels Kunstkabinett,” Feuilleton of the Wiener Zeitung, 26 July 1914, pp. 10–12; L. Louvet, “Maelzel (Léonard),” in Nouvelle biographie générale, vol. 32, cols. 643–44. Leonhard Maelzel (1783–1855) was the brother of Johann and also a mechanician; their names were often confused with each other.

42. An earlier version of the Panharmonicon is described in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 2, no. 23 (5 March 1800), cols. 414–15. On the Panharmonicon of 1805: Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 8, no. 44 (30 July 1806), cols. 701–2; “Arts Mécanique: Le Panharmonicon,” Feuilleton of Le Journal de l’Empire, 9 March 1807, pp. 1–3; Prudhomme, Miroir historique, vol. 5, pp. 156–59; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 289; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, p. 279; Chapuis et al., His-toire de la boîte à musique, pp. 91–92; Buchner, Mechanical Musical Instruments, pp. 77–78. It was perhaps this instrument that ended up in Stuttgart’s Industrial Museum, which was destroyed during World War II, but not before two photographs of the instrument had been taken; they are reproduced in ibid., plates 131, 132.

43. On Maelzel’s Trompeter: “Arts Mécaniques: Le Trompette Automate, par M. Maelzel, de Vienne, auteur du Panharmonicon,” Feuilleton of Le Journal de l’Empire, 12 October 1808, pp. 1–3; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 286. On the industrial expositions: Achille de Colmont, Histoire des expositions des produits de l’industrie française (Paris: Guillaumin, 1855), chap. 2.

44. On Kaufmann’s trumpeter: Carl Maria von Weber, “Der Trompeter,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 14, no. 41 (7 October 1812), cols. 663–66. On Kaufmann’s Belloneon: Buchner, Mechanical Musical Instruments, pp. 55, 80. On Napoleon and the Chess Player: Carroll, Great Chess Automaton, p. 43. On Maelzel’s chronogram for Napoleon: Anon., “Mälzel,” in Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, vol. 16, p. 248. The chronogram was “taCe, MVnDVs ConCors,” Latin for “silence, the world is united”; the capitalized letters when rearranged yield MDCCCVV, Roman numerals for 1810.

45. Anton Schindler, Beethoven-Biographie, ed. A. C. Kalischer (Berlin: Schuster and Loeffler, 1909; first published 1840), pp. 237–43, 281–84; idem, The Life of Beethoven, trans. and ed. Ignace Moscheles, 2 vols. (Mattapan, Mass.: Gamut Music, 1966; first published 1841), vol. 1, pp. 143–56 (the quotation is on pp. 153–54, editor’s footnote); Thayer, Life of Beethoven, pp. 543–69, 579–80, 686–88, 1094–99 (app. G). The all-star orchestra for the Beethoven-Maelzel concert counted among its members Spohr, Dragonetti, Meyerbeer, Hummel, Salieri, and Moscheles, the last four on percussion.

46. For a biographical sketch of Winkel: Fétis, “Winkel,” in Biographie universelle des musiciens, vol. 8, pp. 476–77. On the Winkel-Maelzel metronome controversy: J[ohann Nepomuk] Maelzel, Notice sur le métronome de J. Maelzel ([Paris:] Carpentier-Méricourt, [1822]; first published 1816); “Maelzels Metronom,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 19, no. 25 (18 June 1817), cols. 417–22; “Zur Geschichte der musikal. Metronomen,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 20, no. 26 (1 July 1818), cols. 468–73; “Correspondance,” La Revue musicale, 1st ser., 6 (1830): 56–59; Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique, chap. 10; Apel, “Metronome,” in Harvard Dictionary of Music, pp. 523–24; E. G. Richardson, “Metronome,” in New Grove Dictionary, vol. 12, pp. 222–23. On Winkel’s Componium: Buchner, Mechanical Musical Instruments, pp. 79–80; Chapuis et al., Histoire de la boîte à musique, chap. 9. Maelzel’s fortune at the time of his death was estimated at half a million thalers, or approximately two million francs.

47. [Marie-Pierre] Hamel, Nouveau manuel complet du facteur d’orgues, 3 vols. (Paris: Roret, 1849), vol. 1, pp. lvi–lviii (Maelzel’s talking dolls); vol. 3, pp. 458–59 (Maelzel’s acrobat). Hamel says that the dolls were exhibited at the exposition of 1824, but there was none in that year; he probably meant 1823. Colmont, Histoire des expositions des produits, lists the gold and silver medal winners at each of the expositions from the first one in 1798 until that of 1849; Maelzel’s name does not appear.

48. On Maelzel with a Jaquet-Droz writer-sketcher: Chapuis, “Nouveaux documents sur les automates,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 38, pp. 41–42. The source of Barnum’s quotation: Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, vol. 1, p. 114.

49. Allen, “History of the Automaton Chess-Player,” in First American Chess Congress, pp. 455–58.

50. For some early skeptics: Rigoley de Juvigny, “Lettre au sujet de l’Automate qui joue aux échecs,” Le Mercure de France, December 1770, pp. 181–88; Vincent de Montpetit, “Lettre sur l’Automate de M. de Kempell” [sic], Le Mercure de France, March 1771, pp. 157–60; Grimm et al., Correspondance littéraire, vol. 13, pp. 354–58 (entry for September 1783); Decremps, Magie blanche dévoilée (1784), vol. 1, pp. 65–69; Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler (1789), passim.

51. Anon. [perhaps Jacques-François Mouret], “Automate joueur d’échecs,” Le Magasin pittoresque 2 (1834), fasc. 20, p. 155; [Mathieu-Jean-Baptiste Nioche] de Tournay, “La Vie et les aventures de l’automate joueur d’échecs,” Le Palamède, 1st ser., 1, no. 3 ([15 May] 1836): 85–87; “L’Automate joueur d’échecs,” Le Palamède, 1st ser., 4, no. 3 [late 1839 or early 1840]: 68–69; Allen, “History of the Automaton Chess-Player,” in First American Chess Congress, pp. 436–38. On Mouret’s kinship to Philidor: Louvet, “Maelzel,” in Nouvelle biographie générale, vol. 32, cols. 643–44.

52. Allen, “History of the Automaton Chess-Player,” in First American Chess Congress, pp. 474, 483.

53. All three quotations are from Harry Houdini, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin (New York: Publishers Printing, 1906), pp. 7–9.

54. Letter of Houdini to Harry Leat, 20 April 1926, cited in Maurice Sardina, Where Houdini Was Wrong: A Reply to “The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin,” trans. and ed. Victor Farelli (London: Armstrong, 1950), p. 119. Houdini said substantially the same thing to another magician as early as 1911; ibid., p. 17 <$f$>n. 1.

55. For example: Henry Ridgely Evans, History of Conjuring and Magic (Kenton, Ohio: International Brotherhood of Magicians, 1928), p. 75; David Price, A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theater (New York: Cornwall, 1985), p. 59.

56. Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations; comment on devient sorcier (Geneva: Slatkine, 1980; reprint of Paris ed., 1868), chaps. 1, 2 (the quotations are on pp. 6, 7, 18).

57. Ibid., chap. 2 (the quotation is on p. 24).

58. Ibid., chap. 3 (the quotations are on pp. 37–40).

59. Ibid., pp. 42–132 (the quotation is on p. 132).

60. The interpretation of the Torrini episode presented here is original. For other commentary on it: Jean Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur de la magie blanche (Blois: Author, 1969), pp. 40–41; André Keime Robert-Houdin, Robert-Houdin, le magicien de la science (Paris/Geneva: Champion/Slatkine, 1986), p. 19; Michel Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin (Paris: Fayard, 1971), pp. 48–51; Alain Sergent, Le Roi des prestidigitateurs, Robert-Houdin (Paris: Seuil, 1952), pp. 20–22; Bernard C. Meyer, Houdini: A Mind in Chains; A Psychoanalytic Portrait (New York: Dutton, 1976), chap. 2.

61. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 132–36; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, p. 45.

62. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 28–30.

63. Ibid., pp. 32 (quotation), 136–37.

64. Ibid., pp. 196–98; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, pp. 50–52; Keime Robert-Houdin, Robert-Houdin, le magicien de la science, p. 81.

65. “Exposition des produits de l’industrie française (Sixième article),” Le Moniteur universel, 10 June 1839, p. 930; Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 198–99; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, p. 52. For photographs of the Réveil-Briquet and the Pendule Mystérieuse: Keime Robert-Houdin, Robert-Houdin, le magicien de la science, unpaginated section of plates.

66. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 174–214.

67. Ibid., p. 181 and unpaginated app., “Programme générale.” Robert-Houdin describes only how the trick looks to the audience, not how it is accomplished. The explanation given here is of Pinetti’s similar trick, as described by Decremps, Magie blanche dévoilée, vol. 1, chap. 19. Other magicians used pistons instead of air to push the folded-up flowers and fruit out of the hollow branches; Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, p. 76.

68. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, p. 181.

69. Ibid., pp. 174–78.

70. On the building of Robert-Houdin’s Écrivain-Dessinateur: ibid., pp. 199–214. On the reappearances of Jaquet-Droz automata: Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 192–94. On the reappearances of Jaquet-Droz–Maillardet Écrivain-Dessinateurs: citations in note 25 above. On the relationship between Robert-Houdin’s Écrivain-Dessinateur and Jaquet-Droz/ Jaquet-Droz–Maillardet automata: Chapuis, “‘Répliques’ des Androïdes,” Le Musée neuchâtelois, new ser., 1, pp. 99–103; Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, p. 259; Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, chap. 3. On Robert-Houdin’s Écrivain-Dessinateur at the exposition of 1844: Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 236–38, 354 (quotation); Colmont, Histoire des expositions des produits, p. 562. On Barnum and Robert-Houdin’s Écrivain-Dessinateur: Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs, vol. 1, pp. 259–60; vol. 2, chap. 39.

71. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 211–12.

72. Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 132–34; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 212–16; Maingot, Automates, pp. 71–73.

73. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 137–48 (the quotations are on pp. 137–38, 144). On Comte, see also Evans, History of Conjuring and Magic, p. 102.

74. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 187–94. On Bosco, see also Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, pp. 302–7; Evans, History of Conjuring and Magic, pp. 118–20; Price, Pictorial History of Conjurers, pp. 45–47. Price says that Bosco used chickens, not pigeons; both he and Houdini suggest that Bosco may not really have killed the birds he apparently decapitated.

75. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 225–35. On the pistol-shot lighting of candles, which may have been invented by Austrian magician Ludwig Döbler: idem, The Secrets of Stage Conjuring, trans. and ed. Prof. Hoffmann (London: Routledge, 1881; trans. of Magie et physique amusante), chap. 5. On Philippe, see also Evans, History of Conjuring and Magic, p. 103; Price, Pictorial History of Conjurers, pp. 65–67.

76. “Nouvelles des théatres, spectacles, concerts, etc.,” Le Moniteur universel, 6 July 1845, p. 2064; “Soirées fantastiques de M. Robert-Houdin,” Le Charivari 14, no. 191 (10 July 1845), unpaginated; “M. Robert-Houdin,” L’Illustration; journal universel hebdomadaire 5, no. 125 (19 July 1845): 336; Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 240–57, 289–95; idem, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), chaps. 1, 2.

77. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, app., “Programme général.”

78. Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique, vol. 2, pp. 219–24; Guillaume de Berthier de Sauvigny, Nouvelle histoire de Paris: La Restauration (Paris: Hachette, 1977), pp. 379–82; Isherwood, Farce and Fantasy, chap. 8.

79. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, app., “Programme général.”

80. The source of the quotations: Ibid., pp. 158–59. See also Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 149–51; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 239–46; [Christoph] Friedrich Nicolaï, Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz im Jahre 1781, 6 vols. (Berlin: n.p., 1783–85), vol. 1, pp. 281–89; Doyon and Liaigre, Jacques Vaucanson, pp. 91–107.

81. Bernoulli, Johann Bernoulli’s Sammlung kurzer Reisebeschreibungen, 1st suppl. vol., p. 164; Sivan, “Encore l’Écrivain de Jaquet Droz,” Journal suisse d’horlogerie 31, no. 12, pp. 413–14.

82. Blind, Automates truqués, pp. 33–37; Chapuis and Droz, Automates: Figures artificielles, pp. 374–80. Robert-Houdin describes his use of pistons, wires, pulleys, and pedals to work his automata, but without naming any particular automaton; Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), pp. 41–43.

83. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 262–66, 277–80, app., “Programme général”; Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, chap. 7; Théophile Gautier, Histoire de l’art dramatique en France depuis vingt-cinq ans, 6 vols. (Bruxelles: Hetzel, 1858–59), vol. 4, pp. 163–65.

84. “M. Robert-Houdin,” Illustration, 19 July 1845, p. 336; “Tribunaux,” Le Moniteur universel, 26 June 1850, pp. 2176–77.

85. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 272–354; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, chaps. 3, 4 (dates). The 1846 trip to Belgium is described in a chapter excised from the “definitive” 1868 edition of Robert-Houdin’s autobiography, the last edition published in his lifetime, the edition that is the source for most of the later editions and translations, and the edition that has been cited heretofore. The excised chapter, entitled “Séductions d’un agent théâtral,” appears in these editions: Confidences d’un prestidigitateur (Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1859); Confidences de Robert-Houdin (Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1861).

86. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 311–15; Sidney W. Clarke, “The Annals of Conjuring,” The Magic Wand and Magical Review 15 (1926): 34–38; Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, pp. 44, 308–10; Sardina, Where Houdini Was Wrong, p. 104; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, pp. 102, 113–14; Milbourne Christopher, The Illustrated History of Magic (New York: Crowell, 1973), chap. 8; Price, Pictorial History of Conjurers, pp. 61–64.

87. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 146–48. Thanks to psy-chologist Dr. Barbara A. Augusta for pointing out and elucidating this idiom.

88. Ibid., pp. 354–419; article of Le Moniteur algérien 25, no. 1510 (5 November 1856), reprinted in Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin, p. 13; “Faits divers,” Le Moniteur universel, 9 October 1857, p. 1108. A photograph of the calligraphic placard may be found in Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, p. 129.

89. Charles Baudelaire, Fusées, in Oeuvres complètes, ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec and Claude Pichois (Paris: Pléiade, 1961), p. 1252. Baudelaire wrote this as a sort of aphorism, on which he did not elaborate.

90. The titles of Robert-Houdin’s books vary a great deal from edition to edition. His autobiography, for example, appeared as: Confidences d’un prestidigitateur; une vie d’artiste (1858, 1859), Confidences de Robert-Houdin; une vie d’artiste (1861), and Confidences et révélations; comment on devient sorcier (1868), among other titles. Sometimes in bibliographies the subtitle is listed as the main title, which is particularly confusing in the case of the “definitive” 1868 edition of the autobiography, whose subtitle, comment on devient sorcier, is the same as the main title of Robert-Houdin’s third book, Comment on devient sorcier; les secrets de la prestidigitation et de la magie. The titles of the English translations also vary a great deal. The titles used here are those of the most commonly cited French editions.

91. Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), chap. 1. Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin, p. 69, also treats the cat’s-claw story as a deception.

92. For predecessors of Robert-Houdin’s cat’s claw: Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, pp. 280–81. For predecessors of Robert-Houdin’s detective story: Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin, p. 69. Seldow writes: “Un esprit imprudent n’hésiterait pas à opérer un rapprochement entre le petit récit policier inventé par Robert-Houdin et Le Dossier no. 113 du génial Gaboriau. ” But there is no particular resemblance between Robert-Houdin’s little detective story and Gaboriau’s Le Dossier no. 113; for example, there is no mechanical thief-trap in Gaboriau’s novel. For predecessors of Gaboriau’s detective stories: Roger Bonniot, Émile Gaboriau; ou, La naissance du roman policier (Paris: Vrin, 1985), chap. entitled “Les Précurseurs,” esp. pp. 161–69; see also the discussion of the detective story in chap. 3 of this volume. For praise of Baudelaire’s translations of Poe: Théophile Gautier, Portraits contem-porains: littérateurs, peintres, sculpteurs, artistes dramatiques (Paris: Charpentier, 1874), p. 159.

93. [Jean-Eugène] Robert-Houdin, Les Tricheries des Grecs dévoilées; ou, L’art de gagner à tous les jeux (Paris: Hetzel, 1863), pp. 243–44, 255–57; Victor DuBled, Histoire anecdotique et psychologie des jeux de cartes, dés, échecs (Paris: Delagrave, 1919), pp. 228–29. See also Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 220–25.

94. Robert-Houdin, Tricheries des Grecs dévoilées, chaps. 5–12. Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin, p. 138, calls this section of Robert-Houdin’s book “le premier ‘Roman d’un tricheur.’”

95. Vidocq, Mémoires, pp. 544–81. The novella, written by Vidocq’s ghostwriter, L.-F. L’Héritier de l’Ain, was previously published as Les Malheurs d’une libérée (Paris: Tenon, 1829); see J.-M. Quérard, La France littéraire, 12 vols. (Paris: Maisonneuve and Larose, n.d.), vol. 11, p. 252.

96. Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, pp. 8, 47, 235–36. For a refutation, see Sardina, Where Houdini Was Wrong, p. 84.

97. Robert-Houdin, Tricheries des Grecs dévoilées, pp. 337–39.

98. Edition consulted: [Jean-Eugène] Robert-Houdin, Comment on devient sorcier; les secrets de la prestidigitation et de la magie (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1878). For the claim that this book was the first systematic treatment of conjuring: Clarke, “Annals of Conjuring,” Magic Wand, vol. 15, pp. 128–29.

99. Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), pp. 36–38; idem, Confidences et révélations, pp. 240–41.

100. For Robert-Houdin’s perhaps erroneous explanations of other magicians’ tricks: Houdini, Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, chap. 10. For Robert-Houdin’s explanations of spiritualists’ tricks: Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), chaps. 8, 13. On Robert-Houdin and spiritualists, see also [Jules] Eudes, marquis de M[irville], Pneumatologie: Des esprits et de leurs manifestations fluidiques (Prais: Vrayet de Surcy, 1853), pp. 2–16.

101. The source of Robert-Houdin’s quotation on the public’s ignorance of electro-magnetism: Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), p. 57. The source of the quotation from the Cosmos editor who praised Robert-Houdin: F. Moigno, “Exposition universelle,” Cosmos 7 (19 September 1855), p. 335. On Robert-Houdin’s “first-class” medal at the exposition of 1855: Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 354–55. On Robert-Houdin as an electrical inventor and experimenter: Keime Robert-Houdin, Robert-Houdin, le magicien de la science, chap. 3; Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, pp. 158–65. For list of Robert-Houdin’s most important patents: Keime Robert-Houdin, Robert-Houdin, le magicien de la science, pp. 81–82. For articles on Robert-Houdin in Cosmos, revue encyclopédique hebdomadaire des progrès des sciences: Anon., “Nouvelles et faits divers,” Cosmos 6 (16 February 1855): 173–74; Anon., “Académie des sciences,” Cosmos 6 (25 May 1855): 578–80; F. Moigno, “Exposition universelle,” Cosmos 7 (19 September 1855): 328–40; idem, “Exposition universelle,” Cosmos 7 (23 November 1855): 619; M. Sylvester, “Société d’ couragement: Médailles d’argent,” Cosmos 8 (21 March 1856): 294–95; Anon., “Nouvelles et faits divers,” Cosmos 9 (11 July 1856): 37; Anon., “Nouvelles et faits divers,” Cosmos 9 (1 August 1856): 120; Anon., “Nouvelles et faits divers,” Cosmos 9 (22 August 1856): 203.

102. For the complete text of the note: Chavigny, Robert-Houdin, rénovateur, p. 170. See also Chapuis and Gélis, Monde des automates, vol. 2, pp. 281–82.

103. Robert-Houdin, Confidences et révélations, pp. 160–73.

104. Jules Adenis and Octave Gastineau, La Czarine (Paris: Michel-Lévy, 1868); Robert-Houdin, Secrets of Stage Conjuring (trans. of Magie et physique amusante), chap. 6; Seldow, Vie et secrets de Robert-Houdin, chap. 14.

105. See in the New York Times, vol. 146, no. 50, 790 (12 May 1997), the following articles: Bruce Weber, “Swift and Slashing, Computer Topples Kasparov,” pp. A1, A14; Robert D. McFadden, “Inscrutable Conqueror: Deep (RS/6000SP) Blue,” pp. A1, A14; Laurence Zuckerman, “Grandmaster Sat at the Chessboard, but the Real Opponent Was Gates,” p. A14; Robert Byrne, “How One Champion Is Chewed Up into Small Bits by Another,” p. A14.