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1/ Video extract
: 56
K or 512
K (with Windows Media Player) 2/ Video extract : 56
K or 512
K (with Windows Media Player) 3/ Video extract : 56
K or 512
K (with Windows Media Player) These extracts are coming from the film "The
Jaquet-Droz androids". |
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| The three most beautiful androids ever created since 1909, and which still exist today, are exhibited in the Museum of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Built from 1770 by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis, and several skilful workers, the androids were showed to the audience from La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774. | ||||||
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 "The writer, the first android" Photo : Jean-J. Luder |
As soon as the mechanism starts up, he dips the feather
into the ink, shakes it twice, puts his hand at the top of the page and
stops. A lever must be then pressed on in order to make him write, while
he's observing the up and downstrokes. He respects the spaces, starts
on the next line, puts a full stop and stops writing.
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 "The writer, the first android" Photo : Jean-J. Luder |
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| Some authors explain that this automaton is a forerunner of the computers. This statement is certainly justified since the machine is composed of a "program" and a "memory"The "program"is a wheel which makes it possible to choose the words the android is to write, and the "memory", which is made up by a set of cams, make it possible to form the letters. | ||||||
 Detail of "The writer" Photo : Jean-J.Luder |
The wheel of program (Mechanism of the writer android made by Pierre Jaquet-Droz) Video extract 56 K (Windows media player) |
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| "The second figure portrays a two or three-year old child, sat on a stool, and drawing different little subjects on a desk situated in front of him. | ||||||
 The "draftsman"is an android created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son Photo : Jean-J. Luder |
This automaton really makes various drawings :
first, it sketches the first features by observing the up and down strokes and then by observing the shadows. Finally, he touches up and corrects its work. |
 The "draftsman"is at work The android was created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son Photo : Jean-J. Luder |
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 Interior mechanism of the draftsman Photo : Jean-J.Luder |
For that purpose, he spreads its hand from time to time, so as to see more clearly what it is doing. The various movements of the eyes and the hand exactly imitate nature." Moreover, the android sometimes blows on its drawing in order to remove the pencil's dust. |
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| Mainly made by Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and assisted by the skilful technician Jean Frédéric Leschot, it is today able to make 4 different drawings : "The butterfly led by love", "My doggie", "Louis XV profile" and "Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette profiles". | ||||||
 The drawings made by the draftsman android Flash animation : "My doggie", "Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette", "Louis XV" |
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 Detail of the musician android Photo : Jean-J Luder |
it consisted in making a set of steel fingers which
vibrates in a keyboard or in a music box, and this system was invented
in 1776 by Antoine Favre from Geneva. But Jean-Philippe Matiatek, an Hungarian
settled in La Chauds-de-Fonds, had created the organ, with flutes, bellows,
guides and so far…that the musician played.
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 When the machine is the equal of man Photo Jean-J. Luder |
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 The musician android playing with his little organ Photo : Jean-J.Luder |
Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz, influenced by the success
of the three first automatons, built two copies of the writer and the
draughtsman, and one copy of the musician.
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 The mechanism of the musician android Photo : Jean-J.Luder |
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| Actually, the first two automatons made at the same time writings and drawings. In technical terms, these androids were less complicated in technical terms than the originals and could not allow programmable inscriptions or drawings. | ||||||
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Concerning the copy of the musician, this complete
description written by David Brewster was found in the Encyclopedia
of Edinburgh in 1830 : "The automaton is a very beautiful woman sat in
front of a piano forte on which she plays 18 different tunes. Regardless
of the music that is produced by the pressure of her fingers onto the
keys, all her movements are elegant and graceful. They imitate life so
well that, even from a very close view, it can seem to be an illusion." "It must be noticed that the instrument has the appearance of a piano but is in reality an organ, whose bellows are operated by certain parts of the mechanism." "As for the android's movements, they are stopped by six big springs enabling it to perform for a whole hour. The various parts of this mechanism are extremely complicated and superbly combined, in view of the sought aim. Twenty five transmissions produce the different movements of the body, in the middle and in the various parts of the automaton. A brass wheel acts as a regulator of the set." "The figure is built in such a way that it can be moved easily, and it can be opened in its median part. It is locked away in a big display cabinet and leans on a mahogany pedestal and which contains the main movement, as well as it is showed by the artist." In "The world of automatons" (Le monde des automates), Alfred Chapuis notices that "it is amazing that an automaton of this value was no longer mentionned… It is also very likely that she was a member of the much famous "American Museum". |
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