Quack.

Just so you know, it was Karel Capek, a Czech writer, who came up with the word "robot" in 1920. Prior to that they were called "automata or automatons". He gave the world this word and stoked their imagination with his play R.U.R - Rossums Universal Robots. Actually, gave is the wrong word; the word "robot" was the invention of his brother Josef, from the original Czech word "robota" or forced labour. (so many quotation marks). One day I'll get back to this idea and write about the play etc etc, but I really wanted to get to a truly important piece about a robot duck.

Jacques de Vaucanson, a French inventor/engineer, born 1709, made robots that actually mimicked the bones, tendons and muscles of the real article. Originally he studied to become a surgeon, where, no doubt he gained the expertise and insight needed to create his inventions. He was very curious about the various systems in the body and wanted to recreate them in his robots.

Good timimg for him, because the early to middle 1700's was the time to build mechanical oddities. His first creation, not that unlike Al Jazari's musicians from 500 years earlier, was a shepard that played a Pipe and Tabor, a rather cool but kooky little flute and drum combo. Both instruments are designed to be played by one hand- you play the flute with one hand (the holes are all within reach) and the drum is tied to the waist or side and struck with a drum stick in the other hand. His little beauty was life size, it had to be loud, and was impressive in detail. The hands were covered in a skin like glove to give the illusion of moving fingers. Here's the cool part, it could be programmed to play over a dozen songs.

If this didn't get him press, his Digesting Duck sure did. This device from 1739 had 400+ parts and could do all the duck stuff- flap its wings, drink water, eat seeds and grain from a dish and poop. Because de Vaucanson was such a anatomical perfectionist the duck represented the digestive cycle with but one flaw. The robot fowl could not really turn the food into crap so it had a compartment of tasteful crap like pellets (it was often demonstrated to the wealthy elite of Europe) that came out after the correct interval.

Have a look at the cross section drawing above. I love the little arrow coming out of the ducks bum, in case we might be confused by the direction.