August 19, 2025 • 30 mins
In Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, Harry Houdini embarks on a provocative journey to challenge the legacy of the man he once idolized, the esteemed magician Robert-Houdin. Initially inspired by Houdins brilliance, Houdini adopted his name, adding an i to pay homage. However, feeling slighted by the Robert-Houdin family, he penned this work as a means to dismantle their revered image. Ironically, Houdinis efforts to discredit his predecessor backfired, leading to unexpected revelations. Join us as we explore the intricate relationship between two of magics greatest figures. - Summary by Cavaet
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section four of The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, the civil
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Read by Caveat The Unmasking of Robert Houddin by Harry Houdini,
(00:23):
Chapter three The Writing and Drawing Figure. In his Memoirs,
Robert Houdin eulogizes the various automator which he claims to
have invented. The picturesque fashion in which he describes the
tremendous effort put forth are success crowned as labors would
render his arguments most convincing if stern historical facts did
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not contradict his every statement. One of the most extraordinary
mechanical figures which he exploits as his invention was the
writing and drawing figure, which he exhibited at the Quinquennial
Exhibition in eighteen forty four, but never used in his
public performance, though he asserts he planned to exhibit it
between performances at his own theater. This automaton, he says,
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lays the foundation of his financial success and opened the
way to realizing his dream of appearing as a magician.
On page one hundred ninety six of his Memoirs American edition,
he started his romantic description of his conception and manufacture.
According to this, he had just planned what promised to
be the most brilliant of his mechanical inventions. When financial
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difficulties intervened, he was obliged to rage two thousand francs
to meet a pressing debt. He applied to the ever
convenient Monsieur Gie, who had bought automat from him before.
He described the writing and drawing figure minutely to his patron,
who immediately agreed to advance two thousand, five hundred francs,
and if the figure was completed in eighteen months, two thousand,
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five hundred francs more would be paid for it, making
five thousand francs in all. If the figure was never completed,
then Missie Gie was to reimburse himself for the amount
advanced by selecting automatic toys from a Bebert Houdin's regular stock.
After liquidating his debt, Robert Houdin retired to Belleville, a
suburb of Paris, where for eighteen months he worked upon
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the figure, seeing his family only twice a week and
living in the most frugal fashion. He employed a wood
carver to make the head, but the result was so
unsatisfactory that in the end he was obliged not only
to make all the complicated machinery which operated the figure,
but to carve the head itself, which he adds, in
some miraculous fashion, resembled himself. This resemblance, however, cannot be
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traced in existing cuts of the figure. The chapter devoted
to this particular automaton is so diverting that I quote
literally from its pages, thus giving the reason as an
opportunity to take the true measure of the writer and
the literary style of his memoirs. Here is his description
of his moment of triumph. I had only to press
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a spring in order to enjoy the longer waited for result.
My heart beat violently, and though I was alone, I
trembled at the mere thought of this imposing trial. I
had just laid the first sheet of paper before my
writer and asked him for this question, who is the
author of your being? I pressed the spring, and the
clock work started began acting. I dared hardly breathe, through
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fear of disturbing the operations your automaton bowed to me.
I could not refrain from smiling on it as my
own son. When I saw the eyes fixed an attentive
glance on the paper. When the arm, a few seconds
before numb and lifeless, began to move and trace my
signature in a firm hand, the tears started my eyes,
and I fervently thanked Heaven for granted me success. It
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was not alone the satisfaction I experience as an inventor,
but the certainty I had been able to restore some
degree of comfort to my family that caused my deep
feeling of gratitude. After making my socia repeat my signature
a thousand times, I gave it this question, what a
clock is it? You? Automaton acting no obedience to the clock?
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I wrote, it is two in the morning. This was
a timely morning. I profited by it and went straight
to bed. Rovert Houdin injucts a little humor into this chapter,
for he relates that as Moliere and J. J. Rousseau
consulted their servants, he decided to do likewise. So early
next morning he invited his portress and her husband or Gooset,
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a stonemason, to be present at the first performance of
the figure. The mason's wife chose the question, what is
the emblem of fidelity? The automaton replied by drawing a
pretty little greyhound lying on a cushion. The stone mason
wished to see the work, saying I understand about this
sort of thing, for I have always greased the vein
on the church steeple, and have seen it taken down twice.
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When the work was completed. According to page two hundred
eight of the American edition of his memoirs, he returned
to Paris, collected the remaining two thousand, five hundred francs
due to him from Monsieur Gie, to whom he delivered
the figure, and two thousand francs more on an automatic
nightingale made for a rich merchant of Saint Petersburg. Incidentally,
he mentions that during his absence his business had prospered,
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but he fails to state who managed it for him.
And here is where I believe credits should be given
to Oupri, the Dutch inventor who was unquestionably Robert Houdin's
assistant for years. In eighteen forty four, he claims to
have buried them writing and drawing machine from the obliging
Monsieur Gie to exhibit it at the Quinquennial Exposition, where
it attracted the attention of Louis Philippe and his court,
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thus ensuring its exhibitor the silver medal. At this point,
Robert Houddain deliberately dropped the writing and drawing figure, leaving
his readers to believe that he returned it to its
rightful owner, Monsieur Gi. But unfortunately for his claims, another
historian steps in here to cast reflections on Monsieurges's ownership
of the figure. This writer is the world's greatest showman,
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the late P. T. Barnum, who purchased the figure at
this same exposition of eighteen forty four, paying for it
a goodly sum, And this incident is one of the
most significant admissions of the Robert Houdain memoirs. Either Robert
Houdain's soul there, mister Barnum, formercier Gie, or such a
person as Monsieur Gie never existed, for in his own book,
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mister Barnum's State. When I was abroad in eighteen forty four,
I went to Paris expressly to attend the Quinquennial Exposition,
an exhibition then held every five years, I met and
became well acquainted with the celebrated conjurer, as he called himself,
Robert Houdain, but who was not only a great prestient
digitator and legitimain performer, but a mechanic of absolute genius.
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I bought at the exposition the best automaton he exhibited,
and for which he obtained a gold medal. I paid
a round price for this most ingenious figure, which was
an automaton writer and artist. It sat on a small table,
pencil in hand, and if asked, for instance, for an
emblem of fidelity, would instantly draw the figure of a
handsome dog. If love was wanted, a cupid was exquisitely penciled.
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The automaton would also answer many questions in writing. I
took this curiosity to London, where it was exhibited for
some time at the Royal Adelaide Gallery, and I sent
it across the Atlantic to my American museum, where it
attracted great attention from the people and the press. During
my visit, Hoddain was giving evening leisure domain performances, and
by his pressing invitation, I frequently was present. He took
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great pains too to introduce me to other inventors and
exhibitors of moving figures, which I liberally purchased, making them
prominent features in the attractions of the American Museum. Barnum
then continued to describe Robert Houdin's greatness and his cleverness
in the use of electricity. The showman was always a
welcome guest at the magician's home, and he relates how
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at lunch time Robert Houdin would touch a knob and
through the floor would ride a table laden with inviting vayans.
These details in the Barnum book made all the more
inexplicable that Robert Houdin should admit all mention of the
Great Showman's name in his memoirs. Just at this time
the amusement seeking public seemed greatly interested in automata, so
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it was only natural that Barnum great showmen that he was,
should sky Europe for mechanical figures. Soon after he purchased
the writing and drawing machine, claimed Robert Houddin, he brought
to America a talking figure invented by Professor Faber of Vienna,
to which he refers most entertainingly in his address to
the public, dated Sir eighteen seventy three. The museum department
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contains a hundred thousand curiosities, including Professor Faber's wonderful talking Machine,
costing me twenty thousand dollars for its use for six months.
Also the National Portrait Gallery of one hundred life sized paintings,
including all the presidents of the United States, et cetera.
John Rogers, groups of historic statuary, almost an endless variety
of curiosities, including numberless automaton, musicians, mechanicians, and moving scenes,
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et cetera, et cetera. Made in Paris and Geneva. It
can be imagined how wonderful this talking machine must have
been when Barnum gave its special emphasis, slighting it from
the hundreds of curios he had on exhibition. As this
talking machine is probably forgotten, I will reproduce the bill
used at the time of its appearance in London, England.
When Barnum was in London in eighteen forty four with
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General Tom Thumb, who was then performing at the Egyptian Hall,
he first told the automatic talking machine and engaged it
to strengthen his show. Thirty years later, Professor Favero's nephew
was the lecturer who explained to the American public the
automaton's mechanism, and also the performer who manipulated the machine.
Barnum always speaks of the Torkia Automaton being a life
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sized figure, but the pictures used for advertising purpose showed
that it was only a head. The fate of both
the Torkia Automaton and the writing and drawing figure is
shrouded in mystery. If there were in the Barnum Museum
when the latter was swept by fire in eighteen sixty five,
they were destroyed. If they had been taken back to Europe,
they may now be lying in some cellar or loft,
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moth eaten and dust covered. Ignominious end for such an
ingenious brain work and handicraft. So much for the claims
of Robert Houdin, now to disprove them. The earliest record
of a writing figure I found is in the Dictionary
of Arts, Manufacturers and Mind, compiled by Andrew Yuhre, MD
and published in New York in eighteen forty two by
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Leroy Sutherland, one twenty six Fulton Street, on page eighty three,
under the heading of automaton is this statement Frederick von
Nass completing a writing machine at Vienna in the year
of seventeen sixty. It is now in the model cabinet
of the Polytechnic Institute and consists of a glow two
feet in diameter containing the mechanism upon which sits a
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figure seven inches high and writes upon a sheet of
paper fixed to a frame whatever has been placed beforehand,
upon a regulating cylinder. At the end of each line,
it rises and moves its head sideways in order to
begin a new line. This does not answer the description
of the figure which Robert Houdin claims, but it is
interestingly showing that the mechanical genius ran along such lines
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over one hundred years before Robert Houdin claims to invent
the famous automaton. The writing and drawing figure claimed by
Robert Houdin as his original invention can be traced back
directly to the shop of Switzerland's most noted inventor, Pierre
Jacquette Rose, who was with his son Aurie Luis, laid
the foundation of the famous Swiss watch and music box
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industry in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Probably
around seventeen seventy, the Jacquet de Roses turned out a
drawing figure, which also inscribed a few set phrases or
titles of the drawings in mechanism of appearance and results Italies,
almost exactly with the automaton claimed by Robert Houdin as
origitating in his brain. The Jacquet Droze figure showed a
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child clad in quaint flowing garments seated at a desk.
The Robert Hudau figure was modernized and showed a court
youth in knee breeches and powdered pericule, seated at a desk.
The Jacquet Deroze figure drew a dog, a cupid, and
heads of ringing monarchs. The Robert A Dave figure, made
seventy five years later by some inexplicable coincidence, drew a
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dog as a symbol of fidelity, a cupid as the
emblem of love, and the head to reigning monarchs. The
history of the Jacquard Dorzes is written in the Annals
of Switzerland as well as the equally reputable Annals of
scientific Inventions, and cannot be refuted. Pierre Jacquard Rose was
born July twenty eighth, seventeen twenty one in a small
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village La Chaux de Fonds near Neuchateaald, Switzerland. According to
some authorities, his father was a clockmaker, but the brochure
issued by the Society de Estoriques et der ala Jadique
of the city of Nuchatal, which has recently acquired many
of the jacquard Rouse automata, state that he was the
son of a farmer and was sent to the theological
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seminary at Basel. Here, the youth's natural talent for mechanics
overbalanced its interests in isms and ologies, and he spent
every spare moment at work with his tools. On return
to his native town, he turned his attention seriously to
clock and watchmaking, constructing a marvelous clock with two peculiar hands, which,
in passing each other, touched the dial and rewound the clock.
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At this time his work attracted the attention of Lord Keith,
governor of Knuchatal, then the Province of Prussia, who induced
the young inventor to visit the court of Ferdinand sixth
of Spain, providing the necessary introductions. Pierre jacquard Rose remained
for some time in Madrid and made a clock of
most complicated pattern. This was a perpetual calendar for hands.
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He utilized artificial sunbeams shooting out from the sun's face,
which formed the dial to note the hour's days, et cetera.
With the money received from the Spanish monarch, he returned
to Switzerland to find that his son R. V. Luis
had inherited his remarkable inventive gifts. He sent his boy
to Nanzi to study music, drawing, mechanics and physics during
his son's absence. In all probability, he produced the first
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of the marvelous automata which made the jacquard Roses famous
to the world over, namely the writing figure. With the
return of R. V. Louis Jacquard Rose from college commenced
what may be termed the Golden Age and mechanics in
Switzerland associated with the father and son with the reformers
pupils or apprentices Jean Frederic Lecheau, Jean David Malliered and
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Jean Pierre Drouse, a blood relation who after has became
director of the Mint at Paris, and a mechanism of
rare talent. Jean Pierre Droz is credited with having invented
a machine for cutting, stamping and embossing medals on the
face and on the edges at one insertion. The output
of this shop and its staff are gifted. Workers included
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the first Swiss music box, the singing birds which sprang
from watchers and jewel caskets, the drawing figure, which was
an improvement on the writing figure, the spinet player, and
the grotto with its many automatic animals of diminutive size
but exquisite workmanship. Years were spent in perfecting the various automata,
and none of them have been equaled or even approached
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by later mechanisms and inventors. Arie Luis Jacquard Dreuse was
considered to be the superior of his father, Pierre Jacquard Rose.
In a German encyclopedia which I found at the King's Library, Munich,
it is stated that when Barkhansen, celebrated as the inventor
of the flute player, the mechanical duck, the talking machine,
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et cetera, saw the work of the younger draws, he
cried loudly, why that boy commences where I left off.
According to the brochure issued by the Society of History
and Archaeology, Canton of Neuchtal, and an article contributed by
doctor Alfred Gredenwitz, to the Scientific American of June twenty second,
nineteen o seven. The writing and drawing figures are made
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and operated as follows. The writer represented a child of
about four years sitting at his little table, patiently waiting
with pen in his hand till the clockwork is started.
He then sets to work, and, after looking at the
sheet of paper before him, lifts his hand and moves
it to the inkstand in which he dips the pen.
The little fellow then throws off an excess of ink,
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and then slowly and calmly, like an industrial's child, begins
writing on the paper the prescribed sentence. His handwriting is careful,
conscientiously distinguishing between hair strokes and ground strokes, always observing
the proper intervals between letters and words, and generally showing
the sober and determined character of the handwriting usual at
the time of the country of New Chatau. In order,
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for instance, to write a T, the writer begins tracing
the letter at the top, and after slightly lifting his
hand half way, swiftly traces the transversal dash and continues
writing the original ground stroke. How complicated a mechanisms required
for ensuring these effects will be inferred from the illustration
in which the automaton is shown with its back opened.
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In the first place, a vertical disc will be noticed,
having it at its circumference as many notches as there
are letters and signs. Behind this, there will be seen
a whole column of cam wheels, each of a special shape,
placed one above another, and altogether forming a sort of
spinal column for the automaton. Whenever the little writer is
to write a given letter, a pall is introduced into
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the corresponding notch of the disc, thus lifting the wheeled
column and transmitting to the hand by aid of a
complicated lever system and cart and joints arranged at the
elbow the requisite movements for tracing the letter in question.
The mechanism comprises five centers of motion connected together by chains.
In the draftsmen, the mechanism is likewise arranged in the
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body itself, as in the case of the writer. The
broad chest thus entailed also required a large head, which
accounts for the somewhat bulky appearance of the tool. Automatons.
With the paper in position and the pencil in hand,
the draftsmen, at the first traces of a few dashes,
then swiftly marks the shadows, and a dog appears on
the paper. The little artist knowingly examines his work, and
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after blowing away the dust putting in the last few touches,
stops a moment and then quickly signs montou too, my
pet dog. The motions of the automaton are quite natural,
and the outlines of his drawings extremely The automaton wind
desired willingly draws certain ground heads now belonging to history,
for example a portrait of Lou the fifteenth, of Lou
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the sixteenth, and of Murray Antoinette. The automat made by
the Jacquard de Voses and their confreres were exhibited in
all the large cities of Great Britain and continental Europe.
According to the programmes and newspaper notices in my collection,
are Luis Jacquard de Vos acted as their first exhibitor.
As proof, I am reproducing a Duro's programme from the
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London Post dated seventeen seventy six in support of this advertisement.
Note what the same paper says in what is probably
a criticism of current amusements. This entertainment consists of three
capital figures in a pastoral scene and with figures of
inferious size. The figure on the left hand side, a
beautiful boy as large as life, writes anything that is
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dictated to him in a very fine hand. The second
on the right of the same size, draws various landscapes, etc.
Which he finishes in a most accurate and masterly style.
The third figure is a beautiful young lady who performs
several elegant heirs on the harpsichord, with all the base accompaniments,
her head gracefully moving to the tune, and her bosom
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discovering a delicate respiration during a performance. The pastoral scene
in the center discovers a variety of mechanical figures admirably grouped,
all of which seem endued, as it were, with animal
life the admiration of the spectator. The last curiosity is
a canary bird in a cage, which whistles two or
three heirs in the most natural manner imaginable upon the
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whole The united collection strikes as the most wonderful exertion
of art which ever trod before, so close on the
heels of nature. The ingenious artist is a young man,
a native of Switzerland. The inventory of Jacquard Dreause Junior,
dated seventeen eighty six quotes the piano player as valued
at four thousand, eight hundred livres the drawing figure at
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seven thousand, two hundred livres, while the writer had been
ceded to him by his father for four thousand, eight
hundred livres in consideration of certain improvements and modifications which
Arie Louis Jacquardreuse made in the original invention. This shows
that while the elder Herose did not die until seventeen ninety,
his son controlled the automata previous to this date for
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exhibition and other purposes. During his later years, Aril Louis
Jacquard Drose was induced to take the automator to Spain.
His tour was under the direction of an English manager who,
possibly for the purpose of securing greater advertisement, announced the
figures as possessed of supernatural power. This brought them under
the ban of the Inquisition, and Jacquard Droz was thrown
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into prison. Eventually he managed to secure his freedom and
breathing free air once more, like the proverbial Arab, he
silently folded his tent and stole away, leaving the automata
to their fate. Aril Luis Jacquardrese died in Naples, Italy
in seventeen ninety one, a year after his father's death.
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The English manager, however, tarried in Spain. The figures were tried,
and as they proved motionless, the case was dropped. The
Englishman then claimed the automator as his property and sold
them to a French nobleman. Their owner did not know
how to operate them, so their great value was never
realized by his family. After his death, during a voyage
to America, they lay neglected in the castle of Mattingor
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near Bayonne. After changing hands many times, about eighteen o three,
he passed at the hands of an inventor named Martin,
and were controlled by his descendants for nearly one hundred years.
One of his family, Orrie Martin of Dresden, Germany, exhibited
them in many large cities and appetized them for sale
at fifteen thousand marks in the Muchner Blatter of May thirteenth,
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eighteen eighty three. After Martin's death, his widow succeeded in
disposing them to her Marvels of Berlin, who had them
repaired with such good results that in the fall of
nineteen o six he sold them for seventy five thousand
francs or about fifteen thousand dollars to the Historical Society
of New Chatelle. In April nineteen o seven, the writing figure,
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the drawing figure and the Spinett player were on exhibition
at the Le l'cal Chateau France and New Chateau. So
far we have traced only the original writing and drawing figure.
This has been done purely to show that even if
Robert Hudden had been capable of building such an automaton,
he would not have been its real inventor, but merely
copied the marvelous work of the Jacquard Droses. Now to
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trace the figure, which in eighteen forty four he claimed
as his invention. With the fame of the New Chatelle's
shop spreading and the demand for Swiss watches increasing, Malierre
and Jean Pierre Dreuse, apprentices or perhaps partners of Pierre
Jacquard Treause and are Luis Jacquard de Rose, removed to
London and there set up a watch factory. About this
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time malierd invented a combination writing and drawing figure, which
is pronounced by experts of the day's slightly inferior to
the work of the two Jacquard de Roses. However, it
must have been worthy of exhibition, for it appeared at
intervals for the next fifty years in the amusement world,
particularly in London. At first, Malad was not his exhibitor,
nor was his name ever mentioned on the programs and
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newspaper notices, but later his name appeared as part owner
and exhibitor. As the Swiss Watchers had created a veritable
sensation and was snapped up as fast produced, It's quite
likely that he had no time to play the role
of showman. The figure first appeared in London in seventeen
ninety six, when the London Telegraph of January two carried
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the advertisement reproduced on the next page. Haddock had no
particular standing in the world of magic, and it is
more likely that he read the autometer which he exhibited,
or merely acted as showman for the real inventors in
quite a few works on an autometer, notably Sir David
Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic Collins and his quotas as
having interviewed Maliad as the inventor of the combination writing
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and drawing figure. The Franklin Journal of June eighteen twenty seven,
public in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, treadits this figure too Malliard and
gives the following description. It was the figure of a
boy kneeling on one knee, holding a pencil in his hand,
with which he executed not only writing, but drawings equals
to those of his masters. When the figure began to work,
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an attendant to dip the pencil in ink and fix
the paper. When on touching a spring, the figure wrote
a line, carefully dotting and stroking the letters. The Robert
Houdin figure did not kneel, for this change could be
made by a mechanism of ordinary ability. The writing and
drawing figure does not reappear on the amusement programs in
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my collection until eighteen twelve, when it is featured by D.
Philip stars the inventor of the fasbaitagoria. The nature of
the inventions grouped under this title can bet described from
the reproduction of D. Philip Starles's program, dating in eighteen
o three eighteen o four and reproduced in the course
of this chapter. All evidence goes to prove, however, that
De Philip Styles did not control the writing and drawing
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figure exclusively, but it was the joint property of himself
and his partner Maliad. One of their joint programs is
also reproduced. Wherever De Philip Style appears as an independent
entertainer for writing and drawing figure is missing from his billing.
Later for writing and drawing automaton came into the possession
of a Monsieur Louis, who, as it will be seen
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from the billing, acted as an assistant engineer to De
Philip Style and Maliad. Louis evidently controlled the wonderful Little
Autometer in the years eighteen fourteen eighteen fifteen. The last
d Philip Style program in my possession is dated Summer
theaterre Hull, September fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth eighteen
twenty eight, when he advertises only rope dancers and mechanical
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peacock and features special uniting fire and water and firework experiments.
He must have died between the date and April eighteen
twenty nine for a program dated at the later time
announce as a benefit at the theatre Wakefield for the
widow and children of De Philip Style. The late proprietor
of the me Royal Mechanical and Optical Museum. This benefit
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program contains no allusion to the writing and drawing figure,
which goes to prove that it had not been his property,
or he would have been handed down to his estate.
In May eighteen sixty two, an automaton was exhibited at
one sixty one Strand. A bill regarding which is reproduced.
This mechanical figure, however, should not be confounded with the
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original and genuine writing and drawing figure. He seems to
have lacked legitimacy, and from what I can learn from
the newspaper clippings, worked like Zoe with a concealed confederate,
or like the famous Psycho featured by Mascalaine, it was
worked by compressed air. This bill is interesting solely because
I believe that this fake automaton exhibited at one sixty
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one Strand was the first figure of the sort foisted
on the public, after Baron von Klempen chess player, which
is described in Halley's work on Magic, published seventeen eighty four.
In nineteen oh one, while in Germany, I saw a
number of these automaton artists, all frauds. The figure sat
in a small chair before an easel ready to draw portraits.
In short order, the figure was shown to the audience,
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then replaced on the chair, whereupon a man under the
platform would thrust his arm through the figure and draw
all that was acquired of the automaton. The fake were
short lived even at the yearly fairs, and now as
sunk too low for them. During this interim, that is
between eighteen twenty one and eighteen thirty three, the famous
little figure seems to be in the possession of one Schmidt,
who were, according to the programs in my collection, exhibited
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it regularly. In eighteen thirty three, Schmidt is programmed in
London playing at the Surrey Theatre, when the writing and
drawing machine is one of twenty four automatic devices. A
program which, judging from its printing, is of a still
later date, announces mister Schmitt and the famous figure at
New Gothic Hall, seven Haymarket for a short period previous
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to the removal of the exhibit to Saint Petersburg. The
dates of other programs in Michael actions can be judged
only from the style of printing, which changed at different
periods of the arts development. Some of these indicate that
the writing and drawing figure was on exhibition during the
early forties in London Paul's Head Ascendly rooms are guile rooms,
Figen Street, et cetera. It is more than likely, according
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to Robert Houdin's own admission regarding his study of automata
and his opportunity to repair those left to his shop,
that at some time the writing and drawing figure was
brought to Paris to be exhibited, needed repairing, and thus
reached his shop. Whether it is brought by Monsieur Gie,
whose interest in autometer is featured in Robert Houdain's memoirs,
and brought to Robert Houdin to repair, or whether Rovert
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Houddan bought it for a song and repaired it to
sell to his advantage to his wealthy patron, cannot be stated.
But I am morally certain that Rovert Houddan never constructed
in eighteen months a complicated mechanism on which the Jacquard
de Rosses spent six years of their inventive genius and efforts.
Modern mechanicians agreed that such a performance would have been
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a physical impossible, even had Robert Houddan been the expert
mechanism he pictured himself to sum up the evidence. The
writing and drawing figure, as turned out by the Jacquard DeRoses,
was known all over Europe. It is not possible that
a man so well read and posted in magic and
automata as Robert Houdin did not know of its existence
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and mechanism. And if Robert Houdin had invented the same mechanism,
it is hardly possible that his design would have run
in precisely the same channel as that of the Jacquard
Drous and Maliird in having the figure draw the dog,
the cupid, and the heads of monarchs in those humble days. Mechanisms, however,
while they were known in their own trade, were not
exploited by the public press, nor did they employ clever
(29:43):
journalists to write memoirs lauding their achievements. And so it
happened that for years the name of Jacquard Drous and
Maliard were unsung. Their brain work and handicraft were claimed
by Robert Houdin, who had mastered the art of self exploitation. Today,
after a century and a half of neglect, the laurel
wreath has been lifted from the brow for Aubert Houdin.
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Which should never have been placed, has been laid on
the graves of the real inventors of the writing and
drawing machine, Pierre Jacquard d Rose and all Res Louis
Jacquard de Rose and Jean David Mariard. End of Section
four
Section four of The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, the civil
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Read by Caveat The Unmasking of Robert Houddin by Harry Houdini,
(00:23):
Chapter three The Writing and Drawing Figure. In his Memoirs,
Robert Houdin eulogizes the various automator which he claims to
have invented. The picturesque fashion in which he describes the
tremendous effort put forth are success crowned as labors would
render his arguments most convincing if stern historical facts did
(00:45):
not contradict his every statement. One of the most extraordinary
mechanical figures which he exploits as his invention was the
writing and drawing figure, which he exhibited at the Quinquennial
Exhibition in eighteen forty four, but never used in his
public performance, though he asserts he planned to exhibit it
between performances at his own theater. This automaton, he says,
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lays the foundation of his financial success and opened the
way to realizing his dream of appearing as a magician.
On page one hundred ninety six of his Memoirs American edition,
he started his romantic description of his conception and manufacture.
According to this, he had just planned what promised to
be the most brilliant of his mechanical inventions. When financial
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difficulties intervened, he was obliged to rage two thousand francs
to meet a pressing debt. He applied to the ever
convenient Monsieur Gie, who had bought automat from him before.
He described the writing and drawing figure minutely to his patron,
who immediately agreed to advance two thousand, five hundred francs,
and if the figure was completed in eighteen months, two thousand,
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five hundred francs more would be paid for it, making
five thousand francs in all. If the figure was never completed,
then Missie Gie was to reimburse himself for the amount
advanced by selecting automatic toys from a Bebert Houdin's regular stock.
After liquidating his debt, Robert Houdin retired to Belleville, a
suburb of Paris, where for eighteen months he worked upon
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the figure, seeing his family only twice a week and
living in the most frugal fashion. He employed a wood
carver to make the head, but the result was so
unsatisfactory that in the end he was obliged not only
to make all the complicated machinery which operated the figure,
but to carve the head itself, which he adds, in
some miraculous fashion, resembled himself. This resemblance, however, cannot be
(02:31):
traced in existing cuts of the figure. The chapter devoted
to this particular automaton is so diverting that I quote
literally from its pages, thus giving the reason as an
opportunity to take the true measure of the writer and
the literary style of his memoirs. Here is his description
of his moment of triumph. I had only to press
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a spring in order to enjoy the longer waited for result.
My heart beat violently, and though I was alone, I
trembled at the mere thought of this imposing trial. I
had just laid the first sheet of paper before my
writer and asked him for this question, who is the
author of your being? I pressed the spring, and the
clock work started began acting. I dared hardly breathe, through
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fear of disturbing the operations your automaton bowed to me.
I could not refrain from smiling on it as my
own son. When I saw the eyes fixed an attentive
glance on the paper. When the arm, a few seconds
before numb and lifeless, began to move and trace my
signature in a firm hand, the tears started my eyes,
and I fervently thanked Heaven for granted me success. It
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was not alone the satisfaction I experience as an inventor,
but the certainty I had been able to restore some
degree of comfort to my family that caused my deep
feeling of gratitude. After making my socia repeat my signature
a thousand times, I gave it this question, what a
clock is it? You? Automaton acting no obedience to the clock?
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I wrote, it is two in the morning. This was
a timely morning. I profited by it and went straight
to bed. Rovert Houdin injucts a little humor into this chapter,
for he relates that as Moliere and J. J. Rousseau
consulted their servants, he decided to do likewise. So early
next morning he invited his portress and her husband or Gooset,
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a stonemason, to be present at the first performance of
the figure. The mason's wife chose the question, what is
the emblem of fidelity? The automaton replied by drawing a
pretty little greyhound lying on a cushion. The stone mason
wished to see the work, saying I understand about this
sort of thing, for I have always greased the vein
on the church steeple, and have seen it taken down twice.
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When the work was completed. According to page two hundred
eight of the American edition of his memoirs, he returned
to Paris, collected the remaining two thousand, five hundred francs
due to him from Monsieur Gie, to whom he delivered
the figure, and two thousand francs more on an automatic
nightingale made for a rich merchant of Saint Petersburg. Incidentally,
he mentions that during his absence his business had prospered,
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but he fails to state who managed it for him.
And here is where I believe credits should be given
to Oupri, the Dutch inventor who was unquestionably Robert Houdin's
assistant for years. In eighteen forty four, he claims to
have buried them writing and drawing machine from the obliging
Monsieur Gie to exhibit it at the Quinquennial Exposition, where
it attracted the attention of Louis Philippe and his court,
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thus ensuring its exhibitor the silver medal. At this point,
Robert Houddain deliberately dropped the writing and drawing figure, leaving
his readers to believe that he returned it to its
rightful owner, Monsieur Gi. But unfortunately for his claims, another
historian steps in here to cast reflections on Monsieurges's ownership
of the figure. This writer is the world's greatest showman,
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the late P. T. Barnum, who purchased the figure at
this same exposition of eighteen forty four, paying for it
a goodly sum, And this incident is one of the
most significant admissions of the Robert Houdain memoirs. Either Robert
Houdain's soul there, mister Barnum, formercier Gie, or such a
person as Monsieur Gie never existed, for in his own book,
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mister Barnum's State. When I was abroad in eighteen forty four,
I went to Paris expressly to attend the Quinquennial Exposition,
an exhibition then held every five years, I met and
became well acquainted with the celebrated conjurer, as he called himself,
Robert Houdain, but who was not only a great prestient
digitator and legitimain performer, but a mechanic of absolute genius.
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I bought at the exposition the best automaton he exhibited,
and for which he obtained a gold medal. I paid
a round price for this most ingenious figure, which was
an automaton writer and artist. It sat on a small table,
pencil in hand, and if asked, for instance, for an
emblem of fidelity, would instantly draw the figure of a
handsome dog. If love was wanted, a cupid was exquisitely penciled.
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The automaton would also answer many questions in writing. I
took this curiosity to London, where it was exhibited for
some time at the Royal Adelaide Gallery, and I sent
it across the Atlantic to my American museum, where it
attracted great attention from the people and the press. During
my visit, Hoddain was giving evening leisure domain performances, and
by his pressing invitation, I frequently was present. He took
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great pains too to introduce me to other inventors and
exhibitors of moving figures, which I liberally purchased, making them
prominent features in the attractions of the American Museum. Barnum
then continued to describe Robert Houdin's greatness and his cleverness
in the use of electricity. The showman was always a
welcome guest at the magician's home, and he relates how
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at lunch time Robert Houdin would touch a knob and
through the floor would ride a table laden with inviting vayans.
These details in the Barnum book made all the more
inexplicable that Robert Houdin should admit all mention of the
Great Showman's name in his memoirs. Just at this time
the amusement seeking public seemed greatly interested in automata, so
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it was only natural that Barnum great showmen that he was,
should sky Europe for mechanical figures. Soon after he purchased
the writing and drawing machine, claimed Robert Houddin, he brought
to America a talking figure invented by Professor Faber of Vienna,
to which he refers most entertainingly in his address to
the public, dated Sir eighteen seventy three. The museum department
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contains a hundred thousand curiosities, including Professor Faber's wonderful talking Machine,
costing me twenty thousand dollars for its use for six months.
Also the National Portrait Gallery of one hundred life sized paintings,
including all the presidents of the United States, et cetera.
John Rogers, groups of historic statuary, almost an endless variety
of curiosities, including numberless automaton, musicians, mechanicians, and moving scenes,
(08:41):
et cetera, et cetera. Made in Paris and Geneva. It
can be imagined how wonderful this talking machine must have
been when Barnum gave its special emphasis, slighting it from
the hundreds of curios he had on exhibition. As this
talking machine is probably forgotten, I will reproduce the bill
used at the time of its appearance in London, England.
When Barnum was in London in eighteen forty four with
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General Tom Thumb, who was then performing at the Egyptian Hall,
he first told the automatic talking machine and engaged it
to strengthen his show. Thirty years later, Professor Favero's nephew
was the lecturer who explained to the American public the
automaton's mechanism, and also the performer who manipulated the machine.
Barnum always speaks of the Torkia Automaton being a life
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sized figure, but the pictures used for advertising purpose showed
that it was only a head. The fate of both
the Torkia Automaton and the writing and drawing figure is
shrouded in mystery. If there were in the Barnum Museum
when the latter was swept by fire in eighteen sixty five,
they were destroyed. If they had been taken back to Europe,
they may now be lying in some cellar or loft,
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moth eaten and dust covered. Ignominious end for such an
ingenious brain work and handicraft. So much for the claims
of Robert Houdin, now to disprove them. The earliest record
of a writing figure I found is in the Dictionary
of Arts, Manufacturers and Mind, compiled by Andrew Yuhre, MD
and published in New York in eighteen forty two by
(10:04):
Leroy Sutherland, one twenty six Fulton Street, on page eighty three,
under the heading of automaton is this statement Frederick von
Nass completing a writing machine at Vienna in the year
of seventeen sixty. It is now in the model cabinet
of the Polytechnic Institute and consists of a glow two
feet in diameter containing the mechanism upon which sits a
(10:27):
figure seven inches high and writes upon a sheet of
paper fixed to a frame whatever has been placed beforehand,
upon a regulating cylinder. At the end of each line,
it rises and moves its head sideways in order to
begin a new line. This does not answer the description
of the figure which Robert Houdin claims, but it is
interestingly showing that the mechanical genius ran along such lines
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over one hundred years before Robert Houdin claims to invent
the famous automaton. The writing and drawing figure claimed by
Robert Houdin as his original invention can be traced back
directly to the shop of Switzerland's most noted inventor, Pierre
Jacquette Rose, who was with his son Aurie Luis, laid
the foundation of the famous Swiss watch and music box
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industry in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Probably
around seventeen seventy, the Jacquet de Roses turned out a
drawing figure, which also inscribed a few set phrases or
titles of the drawings in mechanism of appearance and results Italies,
almost exactly with the automaton claimed by Robert Houdin as
origitating in his brain. The Jacquet Droze figure showed a
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child clad in quaint flowing garments seated at a desk.
The Robert Hudau figure was modernized and showed a court
youth in knee breeches and powdered pericule, seated at a desk.
The Jacquet Deroze figure drew a dog, a cupid, and
heads of ringing monarchs. The Robert A Dave figure, made
seventy five years later by some inexplicable coincidence, drew a
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dog as a symbol of fidelity, a cupid as the
emblem of love, and the head to reigning monarchs. The
history of the Jacquard Dorzes is written in the Annals
of Switzerland as well as the equally reputable Annals of
scientific Inventions, and cannot be refuted. Pierre Jacquard Rose was
born July twenty eighth, seventeen twenty one in a small
(12:17):
village La Chaux de Fonds near Neuchateaald, Switzerland. According to
some authorities, his father was a clockmaker, but the brochure
issued by the Society de Estoriques et der ala Jadique
of the city of Nuchatal, which has recently acquired many
of the jacquard Rouse automata, state that he was the
son of a farmer and was sent to the theological
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seminary at Basel. Here, the youth's natural talent for mechanics
overbalanced its interests in isms and ologies, and he spent
every spare moment at work with his tools. On return
to his native town, he turned his attention seriously to
clock and watchmaking, constructing a marvelous clock with two peculiar hands, which,
in passing each other, touched the dial and rewound the clock.
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At this time his work attracted the attention of Lord Keith,
governor of Knuchatal, then the Province of Prussia, who induced
the young inventor to visit the court of Ferdinand sixth
of Spain, providing the necessary introductions. Pierre jacquard Rose remained
for some time in Madrid and made a clock of
most complicated pattern. This was a perpetual calendar for hands.
(13:24):
He utilized artificial sunbeams shooting out from the sun's face,
which formed the dial to note the hour's days, et cetera.
With the money received from the Spanish monarch, he returned
to Switzerland to find that his son R. V. Luis
had inherited his remarkable inventive gifts. He sent his boy
to Nanzi to study music, drawing, mechanics and physics during
his son's absence. In all probability, he produced the first
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of the marvelous automata which made the jacquard Roses famous
to the world over, namely the writing figure. With the
return of R. V. Louis Jacquard Rose from college commenced
what may be termed the Golden Age and mechanics in
Switzerland associated with the father and son with the reformers
pupils or apprentices Jean Frederic Lecheau, Jean David Malliered and
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Jean Pierre Drouse, a blood relation who after has became
director of the Mint at Paris, and a mechanism of
rare talent. Jean Pierre Droz is credited with having invented
a machine for cutting, stamping and embossing medals on the
face and on the edges at one insertion. The output
of this shop and its staff are gifted. Workers included
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the first Swiss music box, the singing birds which sprang
from watchers and jewel caskets, the drawing figure, which was
an improvement on the writing figure, the spinet player, and
the grotto with its many automatic animals of diminutive size
but exquisite workmanship. Years were spent in perfecting the various automata,
and none of them have been equaled or even approached
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by later mechanisms and inventors. Arie Luis Jacquard Dreuse was
considered to be the superior of his father, Pierre Jacquard Rose.
In a German encyclopedia which I found at the King's Library, Munich,
it is stated that when Barkhansen, celebrated as the inventor
of the flute player, the mechanical duck, the talking machine,
(15:13):
et cetera, saw the work of the younger draws, he
cried loudly, why that boy commences where I left off.
According to the brochure issued by the Society of History
and Archaeology, Canton of Neuchtal, and an article contributed by
doctor Alfred Gredenwitz, to the Scientific American of June twenty second,
nineteen o seven. The writing and drawing figures are made
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and operated as follows. The writer represented a child of
about four years sitting at his little table, patiently waiting
with pen in his hand till the clockwork is started.
He then sets to work, and, after looking at the
sheet of paper before him, lifts his hand and moves
it to the inkstand in which he dips the pen.
The little fellow then throws off an excess of ink,
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and then slowly and calmly, like an industrial's child, begins
writing on the paper the prescribed sentence. His handwriting is careful,
conscientiously distinguishing between hair strokes and ground strokes, always observing
the proper intervals between letters and words, and generally showing
the sober and determined character of the handwriting usual at
the time of the country of New Chatau. In order,
(16:19):
for instance, to write a T, the writer begins tracing
the letter at the top, and after slightly lifting his
hand half way, swiftly traces the transversal dash and continues
writing the original ground stroke. How complicated a mechanisms required
for ensuring these effects will be inferred from the illustration
in which the automaton is shown with its back opened.
(16:42):
In the first place, a vertical disc will be noticed,
having it at its circumference as many notches as there
are letters and signs. Behind this, there will be seen
a whole column of cam wheels, each of a special shape,
placed one above another, and altogether forming a sort of
spinal column for the automaton. Whenever the little writer is
to write a given letter, a pall is introduced into
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the corresponding notch of the disc, thus lifting the wheeled
column and transmitting to the hand by aid of a
complicated lever system and cart and joints arranged at the
elbow the requisite movements for tracing the letter in question.
The mechanism comprises five centers of motion connected together by chains.
In the draftsmen, the mechanism is likewise arranged in the
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body itself, as in the case of the writer. The
broad chest thus entailed also required a large head, which
accounts for the somewhat bulky appearance of the tool. Automatons.
With the paper in position and the pencil in hand,
the draftsmen, at the first traces of a few dashes,
then swiftly marks the shadows, and a dog appears on
the paper. The little artist knowingly examines his work, and
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after blowing away the dust putting in the last few touches,
stops a moment and then quickly signs montou too, my
pet dog. The motions of the automaton are quite natural,
and the outlines of his drawings extremely The automaton wind
desired willingly draws certain ground heads now belonging to history,
for example a portrait of Lou the fifteenth, of Lou
(18:08):
the sixteenth, and of Murray Antoinette. The automat made by
the Jacquard de Voses and their confreres were exhibited in
all the large cities of Great Britain and continental Europe.
According to the programmes and newspaper notices in my collection,
are Luis Jacquard de Vos acted as their first exhibitor.
As proof, I am reproducing a Duro's programme from the
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London Post dated seventeen seventy six in support of this advertisement.
Note what the same paper says in what is probably
a criticism of current amusements. This entertainment consists of three
capital figures in a pastoral scene and with figures of
inferious size. The figure on the left hand side, a
beautiful boy as large as life, writes anything that is
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dictated to him in a very fine hand. The second
on the right of the same size, draws various landscapes, etc.
Which he finishes in a most accurate and masterly style.
The third figure is a beautiful young lady who performs
several elegant heirs on the harpsichord, with all the base accompaniments,
her head gracefully moving to the tune, and her bosom
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discovering a delicate respiration during a performance. The pastoral scene
in the center discovers a variety of mechanical figures admirably grouped,
all of which seem endued, as it were, with animal
life the admiration of the spectator. The last curiosity is
a canary bird in a cage, which whistles two or
three heirs in the most natural manner imaginable upon the
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whole The united collection strikes as the most wonderful exertion
of art which ever trod before, so close on the
heels of nature. The ingenious artist is a young man,
a native of Switzerland. The inventory of Jacquard Dreause Junior,
dated seventeen eighty six quotes the piano player as valued
at four thousand, eight hundred livres the drawing figure at
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seven thousand, two hundred livres, while the writer had been
ceded to him by his father for four thousand, eight
hundred livres in consideration of certain improvements and modifications which
Arie Louis Jacquardreuse made in the original invention. This shows
that while the elder Herose did not die until seventeen ninety,
his son controlled the automata previous to this date for
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exhibition and other purposes. During his later years, Aril Louis
Jacquard Drose was induced to take the automator to Spain.
His tour was under the direction of an English manager who,
possibly for the purpose of securing greater advertisement, announced the
figures as possessed of supernatural power. This brought them under
the ban of the Inquisition, and Jacquard Droz was thrown
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into prison. Eventually he managed to secure his freedom and
breathing free air once more, like the proverbial Arab, he
silently folded his tent and stole away, leaving the automata
to their fate. Aril Luis Jacquardrese died in Naples, Italy
in seventeen ninety one, a year after his father's death.
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The English manager, however, tarried in Spain. The figures were tried,
and as they proved motionless, the case was dropped. The
Englishman then claimed the automator as his property and sold
them to a French nobleman. Their owner did not know
how to operate them, so their great value was never
realized by his family. After his death, during a voyage
to America, they lay neglected in the castle of Mattingor
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near Bayonne. After changing hands many times, about eighteen o three,
he passed at the hands of an inventor named Martin,
and were controlled by his descendants for nearly one hundred years.
One of his family, Orrie Martin of Dresden, Germany, exhibited
them in many large cities and appetized them for sale
at fifteen thousand marks in the Muchner Blatter of May thirteenth,
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eighteen eighty three. After Martin's death, his widow succeeded in
disposing them to her Marvels of Berlin, who had them
repaired with such good results that in the fall of
nineteen o six he sold them for seventy five thousand
francs or about fifteen thousand dollars to the Historical Society
of New Chatelle. In April nineteen o seven, the writing figure,
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the drawing figure and the Spinett player were on exhibition
at the Le l'cal Chateau France and New Chateau. So
far we have traced only the original writing and drawing figure.
This has been done purely to show that even if
Robert Hudden had been capable of building such an automaton,
he would not have been its real inventor, but merely
copied the marvelous work of the Jacquard Droses. Now to
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trace the figure, which in eighteen forty four he claimed
as his invention. With the fame of the New Chatelle's
shop spreading and the demand for Swiss watches increasing, Malierre
and Jean Pierre Dreuse, apprentices or perhaps partners of Pierre
Jacquard Treause and are Luis Jacquard de Rose, removed to
London and there set up a watch factory. About this
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time malierd invented a combination writing and drawing figure, which
is pronounced by experts of the day's slightly inferior to
the work of the two Jacquard de Roses. However, it
must have been worthy of exhibition, for it appeared at
intervals for the next fifty years in the amusement world,
particularly in London. At first, Malad was not his exhibitor,
nor was his name ever mentioned on the programs and
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newspaper notices, but later his name appeared as part owner
and exhibitor. As the Swiss Watchers had created a veritable
sensation and was snapped up as fast produced, It's quite
likely that he had no time to play the role
of showman. The figure first appeared in London in seventeen
ninety six, when the London Telegraph of January two carried
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the advertisement reproduced on the next page. Haddock had no
particular standing in the world of magic, and it is
more likely that he read the autometer which he exhibited,
or merely acted as showman for the real inventors in
quite a few works on an autometer, notably Sir David
Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic Collins and his quotas as
having interviewed Maliad as the inventor of the combination writing
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and drawing figure. The Franklin Journal of June eighteen twenty seven,
public in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, treadits this figure too Malliard and
gives the following description. It was the figure of a
boy kneeling on one knee, holding a pencil in his hand,
with which he executed not only writing, but drawings equals
to those of his masters. When the figure began to work,
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an attendant to dip the pencil in ink and fix
the paper. When on touching a spring, the figure wrote
a line, carefully dotting and stroking the letters. The Robert
Houdin figure did not kneel, for this change could be
made by a mechanism of ordinary ability. The writing and
drawing figure does not reappear on the amusement programs in
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my collection until eighteen twelve, when it is featured by D.
Philip stars the inventor of the fasbaitagoria. The nature of
the inventions grouped under this title can bet described from
the reproduction of D. Philip Starles's program, dating in eighteen
o three eighteen o four and reproduced in the course
of this chapter. All evidence goes to prove, however, that
De Philip Styles did not control the writing and drawing
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figure exclusively, but it was the joint property of himself
and his partner Maliad. One of their joint programs is
also reproduced. Wherever De Philip Style appears as an independent
entertainer for writing and drawing figure is missing from his billing.
Later for writing and drawing automaton came into the possession
of a Monsieur Louis, who, as it will be seen
(25:23):
from the billing, acted as an assistant engineer to De
Philip Style and Maliad. Louis evidently controlled the wonderful Little
Autometer in the years eighteen fourteen eighteen fifteen. The last
d Philip Style program in my possession is dated Summer
theaterre Hull, September fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth eighteen
twenty eight, when he advertises only rope dancers and mechanical
(25:47):
peacock and features special uniting fire and water and firework experiments.
He must have died between the date and April eighteen
twenty nine for a program dated at the later time
announce as a benefit at the theatre Wakefield for the
widow and children of De Philip Style. The late proprietor
of the me Royal Mechanical and Optical Museum. This benefit
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program contains no allusion to the writing and drawing figure,
which goes to prove that it had not been his property,
or he would have been handed down to his estate.
In May eighteen sixty two, an automaton was exhibited at
one sixty one Strand. A bill regarding which is reproduced.
This mechanical figure, however, should not be confounded with the
(26:29):
original and genuine writing and drawing figure. He seems to
have lacked legitimacy, and from what I can learn from
the newspaper clippings, worked like Zoe with a concealed confederate,
or like the famous Psycho featured by Mascalaine, it was
worked by compressed air. This bill is interesting solely because
I believe that this fake automaton exhibited at one sixty
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one Strand was the first figure of the sort foisted
on the public, after Baron von Klempen chess player, which
is described in Halley's work on Magic, published seventeen eighty four.
In nineteen oh one, while in Germany, I saw a
number of these automaton artists, all frauds. The figure sat
in a small chair before an easel ready to draw portraits.
In short order, the figure was shown to the audience,
(27:11):
then replaced on the chair, whereupon a man under the
platform would thrust his arm through the figure and draw
all that was acquired of the automaton. The fake were
short lived even at the yearly fairs, and now as
sunk too low for them. During this interim, that is
between eighteen twenty one and eighteen thirty three, the famous
little figure seems to be in the possession of one Schmidt,
who were, according to the programs in my collection, exhibited
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it regularly. In eighteen thirty three, Schmidt is programmed in
London playing at the Surrey Theatre, when the writing and
drawing machine is one of twenty four automatic devices. A
program which, judging from its printing, is of a still
later date, announces mister Schmitt and the famous figure at
New Gothic Hall, seven Haymarket for a short period previous
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to the removal of the exhibit to Saint Petersburg. The
dates of other programs in Michael actions can be judged
only from the style of printing, which changed at different
periods of the arts development. Some of these indicate that
the writing and drawing figure was on exhibition during the
early forties in London Paul's Head Ascendly rooms are guile rooms,
Figen Street, et cetera. It is more than likely, according
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to Robert Houdin's own admission regarding his study of automata
and his opportunity to repair those left to his shop,
that at some time the writing and drawing figure was
brought to Paris to be exhibited, needed repairing, and thus
reached his shop. Whether it is brought by Monsieur Gie,
whose interest in autometer is featured in Robert Houdain's memoirs,
and brought to Robert Houdin to repair, or whether Rovert
(28:38):
Houddan bought it for a song and repaired it to
sell to his advantage to his wealthy patron, cannot be stated.
But I am morally certain that Rovert Houddan never constructed
in eighteen months a complicated mechanism on which the Jacquard
de Rosses spent six years of their inventive genius and efforts.
Modern mechanicians agreed that such a performance would have been
(28:59):
a physical impossible, even had Robert Houddan been the expert
mechanism he pictured himself to sum up the evidence. The
writing and drawing figure, as turned out by the Jacquard DeRoses,
was known all over Europe. It is not possible that
a man so well read and posted in magic and
automata as Robert Houdin did not know of its existence
(29:20):
and mechanism. And if Robert Houdin had invented the same mechanism,
it is hardly possible that his design would have run
in precisely the same channel as that of the Jacquard
Drous and Maliird in having the figure draw the dog,
the cupid, and the heads of monarchs in those humble days. Mechanisms, however,
while they were known in their own trade, were not
exploited by the public press, nor did they employ clever
(29:43):
journalists to write memoirs lauding their achievements. And so it
happened that for years the name of Jacquard Drous and
Maliard were unsung. Their brain work and handicraft were claimed
by Robert Houdin, who had mastered the art of self exploitation. Today,
after a century and a half of neglect, the laurel
wreath has been lifted from the brow for Aubert Houdin.
(30:03):
Which should never have been placed, has been laid on
the graves of the real inventors of the writing and
drawing machine, Pierre Jacquard d Rose and all Res Louis
Jacquard de Rose and Jean David Mariard. End of Section
four
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