the electric bulb with vegetal filament in 1863 as well as electric plastrons for fencers, automatic doors, milometers and machines allowing ophtalmologists to scrutinize the eye ground.

The public's mysterious fascination with the automatons of Vaucanson, Jaquet-Droz, Maillardet and of so many other famous artisans was to encourage illusionnists to additionally present automatons in their shows sooner or later.

Although Robert-Houdin created genuine automatons which worked through sophisticated clockwork or other mechanisms, he took to the creation of rigged automatons working with the help of strings pulled by invisible hands or a human being hidden inside a mannequin or under a table.

By the end of the 18th century, some automaton masters adopted the pedal system. In his posthumous work devoted to "magic and amusing physics", Robert-Houdin described his systems of movement : "The pedal is made up of three steel wires, two of which are fixed and form a cage from a mechanical point of view, the third is mobile and can be raised above the two others by pulling the string. The spring below is designed to draw the stem back to its original place when pushing the string."

"When many of these pedals are aligned one against each other, they form a so-called set of pedals. Suppose a 10-pedal set, all the 10 strings would move to the right and to the left through the table's feet resting on pulleys. They would then be steered under the theater scene to eventually come to a keyboard where they would be sorted out according to the table order."

"When the stems are raised above the table, they meet the corresponding pedals which are placed inside the machine base and help move the arm,the head or any other part of the automat or the machine."

Moreover, eighteen months were physically not enough for a man on his own to make this android. (report to the section about the android creation in the "Mémoires"). We shall therefore remember that it took the Jaquet-Droz brothers six years to achieve their automaton.

Finally, it was a strange coincidence that the drawings made by Robert-Houdin's automaton (The Cupid, the monarch's crowned head, the dog) were partly the same as those made by the Jaquet-Drozes' draughtsman as well as their second copy bought by Henri Maillardet.

Everything leads us to believe that this android burnt down among the Great Barnum's collections in a devastating fire in 1865 in New-york.

I borrowed four rings and a white glove from a few ladies in the audience. Then I rolled them all into a small ball and put it into the small musket which I had first loaded and primed.

"Here you are", I told my Garde-Française, "here is your gun containing a glove and four rings. Now show me how skillfull you are and send all these objects to its target", pointing at a cristal column on another table.

"The automaton took aim at the target, put its finger on the trigger, and fired when I gave the signal. The objects inside the gun were thrown out to the column. The glove, swollen as if it were worn by an invisile hand, stood on the top of the cristal column. The fingers wore each ring that had been entrusted to me. "

This automaton, both famous and mysterious, was activated by a young boy who sat cross-legged at the back of the shop. Above the door and the windows there was an empty space, a kind of attic, to bear the cakes and beverages that the child put on a plate handed by the confectioner. This was made possible through a trap door installed in the ceiling of the shop when the doors were closed.

From the left window, the confectioners in the shop could be seen rolling the pastry and crushing almonds. They were moving according to a winded up clockwork controlled by the opening and closing of the main doors. When those doors would open the workers would stopp and would start work again only after the doors closed. The movement of the other characters, —the confectioner and his wife— the opening and closing of the doors were activated by the child who remained invisible to the public.

Then someone brought the orange tree without flowers or fruits. Some of the magic and flammable liqueur was poured into a vase which was then put on the tree after fire had been set to it. One could see the branches blooming, then succeedingly loading with fruits which were shared between the members of the audience, except a single orange. It was left on the tree and it opened into four parts showing the handkerchief. Two butterflies took it by its ends and unfurled it while fluttering high in the air.

This piece of work was controlled by pedals. Genuine oranges were driven in points and remained hidden by the foliage which spread open at the required moment to make them visible. The flowers were concealed in small tubes where they bloomingly appeared from with the help of a pedal. The final orange, a metallic one, spread open in four parts mounted on hinges. As soon as the orange opened, two artificial butterflies mounted on invisible steel wires were thrown in the air giving every appearance of flighting.

"At the first bars of the orchestra, it gracefully greeted the audience, bending downwards to every different part of the auditorium. Then, hanging by the arms and following the bars, it got pushed in an extremely strong way. "

"Then it had a rest and smoked a pipe. Thereafter it performed amazing feats on the trapeze such as raising itself on its arms or doing a headstand while performing quick movements with its feet. "

"In order to demonstrate that it was a whole mechanism by itself,my little Diavolo got rid of the rope,hung by the feet to finally get down from the trapeze."

small, very short pedals working at the stick's height where the automaton put its hands.

In the wings the pulley system was stopped by rings hanging in hooks, preventing them from moving at certain times or by bobbins pulled by hands. Two additional big threads came from a large pulley mounted on the left, on the front and at the back of the trapeze's stick, enabled the movement of the automaton which succeedingly involved the gradual swing of the trapeze due to its shifting from its centre of gravity.

Inside the automaton's arms and hands a series of control levers was mounted and pressed by the pedals out the trapeze's stick. So the movements could be transferred to the different parts of the automaton's body: shaking of the head, somersault around the armpits, hanging by the back of the knees—and not by the feet,according to Robert-Houdin's says— release of the hands when the automaton was doing a headstand, hanging by the back of the knees, balancing on the hands, as well as the grip on the trapeze's stick as soon as the automaton was put on it and the final release of the automaton's body when falling into the hands of the conjurer.

A very ingenious trick enabled Diavolo to release its hands when hanging by the back of the knees: Two flat tubes put into its arms contained the levers'stems and those tubes were fixed on the trapeze. Only two false arms (opened on one side) released while the tubes remained stuck to the body. As those tubes were coated with red velvet like the automaton's jacket, they were invisible.

Moreover the exercise was vigorously and very rapidly performed as the arms came quickly back to their normal position when the automaton sat back on the trapeze. It was such amazing when it dropped the trapeze and opened its arms that the audience had no time to notice that the arms were hollow.