Category: Timeline Stories

On 16 September 1886, Samuel E. Austin, an American inventor from Fort Valley, Georgia, filed a patent application for a keyboard-operated adding machine. The patent (see US patent Nr. 370719) was granted on 27 September 1887. In the same 1887, Austin filed another patent application for a keyboard-operated adding machine, an improved version of his first device, and on 28 May 1889 received another patent (see US patent Nr. 403900).

Besides patent applications, nothing is known about the calculating machines of Samuel Austin so (most probably) they remained only on paper and had not been implemented in practice. Nevertheless, they deserve our attention and respect.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an improved adding machine for accurately and rapidly adding together columns of figures, which shall possess superior advantages in points of simplicity, durability, strength of construction, efficiency of operation, and cheapness of manufacture. A further object of the invention is to provide improved means for instantly arresting the rotation of the hands arbor or shaft when one of the finger-levers is released so that the said arbors are prevented from moving too far to indicate upon the dial the sum of the column of figures to be added together, which is liable to produce the wrong sum total; to provide improved means for simultaneously returning the tens and hundreds hands to zero by the single movement of the lever, and, finally, to provide an improved swinging yoke, which is arranged in the path of a series of finger-levers to be actuated by either one of the said levers and without undue friction and wear on the parts in contact.

Biography of Samuel Austin

Little is known about the inventor of these two calculating machines—Samuel E. Austin. Samuel Elkanah Austin was born on 20 February 1847 in Fort Valley, a small town in Houston County, Georgia. He was the son of Dr. Davis Naylor Austin (1817-1879), an early settler and town commissioner of Fort Valley, and his wife Emily M. Braswell Austin (1821-1858). Samuel had an elder sister—Mariah McGee Austin (1845-1930).

Still a teenager, Samuel took part in the American Civil War in Confederate States Army. Samuel Austin died on 16 May 1908 (aged 61) and was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Fort Valley, Georgia.

U.S. Patent 2455992 (see the patent US2455992), filed by two American physicists—Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. (1910–2009), director of research for DuMont Laboratories in New Jersey, and his colleague Estle Ray Mann (1904-1965), on 25 January 1947, describes the world’s first cathode ray tube based game, so-called “Cathode-ray tube amusement device”. Goldsmith and Mann were granted their patent on 14 December 1948, making it the first-ever patent for an electronic game.

The patent of Goldsmith and Mann describes a game in which a player controls the CRT’s electron gun. The beam from the gun was focused at a single point on the screen to form a dot representing a missile, and the player tried to control the dot to hit paper targets put on the screen, with all hits detected mechanically. By connecting a cathode ray tube to an oscilloscope and devising knobs that controlled the angle and trajectory of the light traces displayed on the oscilloscope, Goldsmith and Mann were able to invent a missile game that, when using screen overlays, created the effect of firing missiles at various targets. To make the game more challenging, its circuits can alter the player’s ability to aim the dot. However, the company simply could not afford to take it further, beyond the patent, so the “Cathode-ray tube amusement device” was never sold. Only several handmade prototypes were ever created.

Biography of Thomas Goldsmith

Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on 9 January 1910. He was the younger of two sons of the insurance and real estate broker Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Sr. (1880-1951), son of Mary Jane Bozeman (1856-1936) and Charles Homer Goldsmith (1854-1919), and Charlotte Broadus Manly-Goldsmith (1882-1978), a concert pianist and Master of Music (1899), Bachelor of Arts (1902) and Master of Arts (1903) from Greenville Female College.

After building crystal radio sets as a teenager, Thomas graduated from Furman University in Greenville (B.S. in physics) in 1931. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell in 1936. For his doctoral research, he needed to build an oscilloscope. He contacted Allen Balcom DuMont (1901–1965), an American electronics engineer, scientist, and inventor best known for improvements to the cathode ray tube in 1931 for use in television receivers, bought a cathode ray tube, and began a correspondence that soon led to his hiring at the DuMont Laboratories, initially as a director of research, and (after 1953) vice president and the chief engineer for the DuMont Television Network. In 1966 he left DuMont to become a professor of physics at Furman, and he retired to become an emeritus professor in 1975. He was a Fellow of IEEE, SMPTE, and Radio Club of America, a chair of the Synchronization Panel of the National Television System Committee and also the Radio Manufacturers Association Committee on Cathode-Ray Tubes, and started WTTG TV Station in Washington, D.C. in 1945.

In 1938 in Tacoma, Washington, Thomas Goldsmith married Helen Wilcox (16 November 1910-7 June 2009), a graduate of the University of Washington with a B.A. in Public School music and a daughter of Judson M. and Elizabeth Cohoe Wilcox from Roy, Washington. They had two sons, Judson Wilcox Goldsmith and Thomas T. Goldsmith III, and a daughter, Virginia Goldsmith-Beekman.

Goldsmith was known for his radiant personality and pioneering work in television development. He died on 5 March 2009, in Lacey, Washington at the age of 99 due to a hip fracture leading to infection.

1. Herbert Televox
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co’s first robot was Herbert Televox, built in 1927 by Roy Wensley at their East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania plant. The robot was based on the patents of Wensley, filed in 1923, 1927and 1929. The Televox could accept a telephone call by lifting the telephone receiver. It could then control a few simple processes by operating some switches, depending on the signals that were received. Televox could utter a few primordial buzzes and grunts and could wave his arms a bit. Although speechless when first created, Televox later learned to say two simple sentences. What follows is a description of the Televox from the January 1928, issue of Popular Science Monthly journal.

…Look first at that mechanical creature answering the telephone. He is the invention of R. J. Wensley, an engineer of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and goes by the name of Televox. If you could dissect him you would find his inner workings much like those of your radio receiver, and little more complicated. Yet if you should establish him at home in your absence—which the inventor says is not at all impracticable—he would serve you as a trustworthy and obedient caretaker.
The mechanism consists primarily of a series of electrical relays, each sensitive to a sound of a certain pitch, and capable of translating that sound into specified mechanical action, such as opening and cloning the switches of electrical appliances. Each relay is actuated through a tuned electrical circuit responsive to vibration of a given frequency and no other, somewhat as the circuits of your radio can be tuned to a broadcasting station of a given wave length.
The mechanical man is not connected electrically to the telephone, but listens much as you would. His ear is a sensitive microphone placed close to the receiver. His voice is a loudspeaker close to the transmitter. And the language he speaks is a series of mechanically operated signal buzzes.
Experimentally, he has been made to understand and respond to words uttered by human voices, but for practical operation the language which spurs him to action has been simplified to three different sounds of different pitches. These sounds are made either by three tuned pitch pipes or, as in the New York demonstration, by three electrically operated tuning forks.
For illustration, imagine you are at the house of a friend and are calling your home equipped with a Televox. In the ordinary way, you telephone your home. Why, your phone rings. Televox lifts the receiver and utters a combination of buzzes which tell you that you have the right number.
Now you sound a single high note from the first pipe, which means, “Hello, get set for action.” Televox stops buzzing and responds with a series of clicks, saying “All set: what do you want?”.
Next you sound two short notes from the same pipe. These tell Televox to connect you with the switch on the electric oven. The reply is two short buzzes saying, “You are now connected,” followed by a long buzz-z-z-z, which informs you that “the switch is open.”
At this, you sound a deeper note on the second pitch pipe, meaning “Close the switch and start the oven.” Immediately Televox ceases the long buzz, closes the switch, then replies with a short, snappy buzz informing you that the switch has been closed and the oven is going.
Next you may wish to inquire about the furnace, and with the first pitch pipe you sound three shrill notes. This means “Connect me with the furnace and tell me how hot it is.” The reply is three short buzzes, telling you that the connection has been made, followed by a pause, then two more buzzes which say, “The furnace is pretty low.”
So you blow four blasts from the same pitch pipe, meaning “Connect me with the switch operating the drafts.” Televox replies with four buzzes, signifying that the connection has been made; then one short buzz informing you that the drafts are closed. With one blast from the second pitch pipe you order the drafts opened. Televox instantly opens them, then gives the long buzz to say that the job is done.
If nothing further requires attention, you blow the third pitch pipe, the lowest in tone of the three, which says “Good bye.” Televox hangs up the receiver, and stands ready for the next call.
Each of these astonishing actions, as already explained, is accomplished by a different sound-sensitive relay. When the bell rings, the noise causes the first relay to lift the telephone hook and start the signal buzzer. The high note of the first pipe serves to connect any desired one of a number of relays, each of which has been arranged to control a certain operation. Thus, when the note is sounded twice, it moves a switch that connects relay number two, controlling the electric oven. When sounded three times, it connects relay number three, and so on, according to the number of operations for which the apparatus is designed. Each time a relay is connected, Televox gives a corresponding number of buzzes, indicating that the connection has been made. Moreover, it sounds an additional long or short buzz indicating whether the switch to be operated by the relay is open or closed.
The lower note of the second pitch pipe is the operating note; that is, it causes the connected relay to open or close the switch as may be required; also to report the fact by changing its long buzz to a short one, or vice versa. The deep note of the third pitch pipe simply causes Televox to quit work and ring off.
To demonstrate that Televox will respond to spoken words as well as musical notes, the inventor has set up in the Westinghouse laboratories at East Pittsburgh, Pa., a mechanism which will open a door to the call of “Open sesame!”. The sounds of the voice, however, are too highly complicated for use in general practice. Still, a person with a good ear for music can get response from Televox by whistling or singing in the exact notes to which the relays of the machine are tuned.
Three of the machines already are in actual use in Washington, D. C., replacing watchmen at reservoirs. By their buzzes, they tell the distant caller the height of water as shown by the gage in the reservoir, and also control the flow of water at his bidding…

The Herbert Televox robot became a national sensation and was followed by a parade of increasingly advanced machines.

2. Mr. Telelux
After Televox, Westinghouse created Mr. Telelux, a robot operated by light instead of by sound. The brain of the robot consists of two photo-electric cells, able to translate variations into corresponding electric impulses. Let’s see the description of the Telelux from The San Antonio Light magazine from September 1931.

…a robot who ignores everything but light rays. As she walked toward him she stepped in the path of several beams of light casting a shadow on each of his several photo-electric cells, which caused electric motors to make him get up and sit down, and turned phonograph records prompting him to make his remarks. He would just as soon have rung a burglar alarm or fired a pistol at her, had his creators designed him that way.
Mr. Telelux was trained in other ways also. Using a large, specially built flashlight to convey his orders, the scientist ordered Telelux to turn on a fan, to extinguish the light, to turn on and off a Vacuum cleaner, and to perform other tasks. A row of buttons on the flashlight grip, each button turning on a light of different frequently did the trick. Each light was picked up by the photo-electric cell, which represents the robot’s contact with the world, translated it into a definite order, and shot an electric current to the clay, which actuated the appropriate mechanism. Telelux can turn on the vacuum cleaner, but he cannot be trusted to take over the housewife’s job of sweeping and dusting—not yet. However, he can stand at a turnstile and count-passengers or customers with 100 per cent accuracy and honesty. This forces the ticket seller to be 100 per cent honest also, because Telelux can’t be bribed. For 24 hours a day he will stand over a factory conveyor belt, count every package that passes and reject all that are faulty in size or labeling.
When ships fill their bunkers with coal, it comes sliding along in irregular amounts over a road conveyor belt. Except by measuring the size of the coal bunkers filled there would be no way of estimating how much the steamer had received, but a robot sensitive to weight records electro-magnetically just how much the conveyor is depressed by the height of coal at a certain point reckons it all up in tons. There is no chance for mistakes or short-weight.

3. Elektro the Moto-Man
After the Telelux, Westinghouse built several other robots—Katrina Van Televox, Rastus Robot & Willie Jr., Willie Vocalite, succeeded by the most successful Elektro the Moto-Man, built in 1937/38 at the Westinghouse’s factory in Mansfield.

The Elektro, created by the engineer Joseph Barnett, was constructed from aluminium on a steel frame. It was 210 cm tall, weighting 120 kg. He relied on a series of record players, photo voltaic cells, motors and telephone relays to carry out its actions. It was capable to perform 26 routines (movements), and a vocabulary of 700 words. Sentences were formulated by a series of 78 RPM record players connected to relay switches.

Elektro had no remote control, instead responding to voice commands using a telephone handset connected to its chest. The chest cavity even lit up as it recognized each word. Each word set up vibrations which were converted into electrical impulses, which in turn operated the relays controlling eleven motors.

A series of words properly spaced selected the movement Elektro was to make. His fingers, arms, and turntable for talking were operated by nine motors, while another small motor worked the bellows so the giant could smoke. The eleventh motor drove the four rubber rollers under each foot, enabling him to walk.

With a loud electrical whine, Elektro would walk about the stage in a slow slide that betrayed the rollers on his feet. Despite his bulk, he was pretty much a hollow tin, as his operator could turn Elektro with a light push of one hand. Other exciting things that Elektro could do was move his head and arms, count on his fingers, recognize colors (his photoelectric “eyes” could distinguish red and green light), smoke cigarettes, and talk.

Spoken words set up vibrations that are converted into electrical waves by a grid-glow tube. The electric impulse then lifts a shutter in front of an electric lamp and sends a flash of light across the room to a photoelectric tube or electric eye in the control unit, which serves as a brain. The control unit—Elektro’s brain, weighs approximately 25 kg and occupies more than 0,5 cubic meters of space outside its body. The brain (control unit) includes an electric eye, 48 electric relays and signal lights, in addition to the controlling photo-electric cell.

Talking to Elektro is like dialing an automatic telephone, using light impulses instead of numbers to cause the relays to act. It makes no difference what words are used to give the command so long as the proper number of light impulses are produced. One word or impulse places a series of relays in position to act. Two words close the electrical circuit and release current to the motors employed in any particular movement of the robot. Three words activate relays to stop Elektro, while four words bring all of the relays back to their normal position of rest.

Just as the electric eye converts light waves into electric currents to put life into the robot, two other electric eyes enable it to discern colors. These photoelectric cells are placed directly back of Elektro’s glass eye. A filter in front of one tube lets only the relatively hot rays from red light through to the cell. A filter in front of the other tube permits only the relatively cool heat waves of green light to reach the tube. When the proper lights are flashed in Elektro’s eyes, one or the other of these electric eyes energizes a relay to start a record revolving on a turntable to produce the word —”red” or “green.”

Electro’s walking is accomplished by means of four rubber rollers under each foot, which are driven by chains and shafts connected to a motor in the middle of the automaton. Nine motors are required to operate the fingers, arms, head and turntables for talking. Another small motor works the bellows for Elektro’s smoking.

Like some radio programs, Elektro does his talking by means of transcriptions. His speech usually lasts about 1 minute and uses only 75 words. He has 8 turntables, each of which could be used to give 10-minute talks. Actually, except for an opening talk of about a minute, his other speeches will be only a few seconds long. A solenoid (a tubular coil) activated by electrical impulses in proportion to the harshness or softness of spoken words makes Elektro’s aluminum lips move in rhythm to his speech-making.

Elektro was on exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and reappeared at that fair in 1940, with a new robot, Sparko, a dog that could bark, sit, and beg.

On 31 December 1895, Fred Wendt, an inventor from Marshfield, Wisconsin, filed a patent application for a keyboard-operated adding machine. The patent (see US patent Nr. 563435) was granted on 7 July 1896. Besides the patent application, nothing is known about this calculating machine, so obviously it remained only on paper and was not put into production. In fact, Fred Wendt assigned his patent to the brothers Matthias and Jacob Nick, who were the owners of successful furniture and undertaking business in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, so we can easily guess that the adding machine was ordered by the brothers to be used in their daily business tasks.

The keyboard has only five square keys (similar to piano keys), the remaining four figures being obtained by striking combinations of the other five. The sums not exceeding one hundred are indicated upon a units dial (large side wheel), while the sums exceeding one hundred are indicated upon a hundreds-dial (the small wheel in front), which is actuated by means connected with the units dial to register the hundreds successively as they are indicated upon the units-dial.

Upon one extremity of the main shaft and contiguous to the outer surface of one side of the case is a units-dial, preferably provided with an upstanding flange, which is graduated from “1” to “100,” and which operates contiguous to a stationary pointer, secured to the side of the case. This dial is preferably provided with a knob or handle, whereby the main shaft and gear may be turned with the units-dial to its initial position.

Biography of Fred Wendt

Little is known about the inventor Fred H. Wendt. Besides the patent for the adding machine, he was a holder of some ten other patents in the USA and Canada (dated from 1890 to 1922) mainly for railway machinery like car-coupling, railway signal, knuckle opener, and a design patent for a bottle. In all his patents Wendt is specified as living in Marshfield, Wisconsin, except the last one (USD61075 from 1922), where he is specified as living in Watertown, Wisconsin.

Fred’s parents—Christoph Albert Heinrich Wendt (1827-1912) and Charlotte Karoline Luisa Gaulke-Wendt (1834-1917) were natives of Germany who came to America with their children in 1867. The family had seven children: the boys Herman Frederick (born 1856, obviously he is our hero Fred H. Wendt), Anton L. (1858-1940), Wilhelm (William) (1860-1927), Albert C. (1866-1952), and Louis August Karl (1870-1954), and two daughters—Alvina (1862-1947) and Auguste Henriette Carolin (1863-1925). Initially, Wendts settled in Watertown, Wisconsin, but in 1885, the family (except Anton) moved to Marshfield, Wisconsin. In 1892, Fred Wendt together with his brother Albert C. and several other citizens of Marshfield, incorporated a company to produce the patented Wendt car coupler, and in 1893 his invention was presented at World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but obviously without big success, although the invented device was used by Wisconsin Central Railroad in the 1890s.

Fred Wendt married Johannah Kellerman (born 1860) and they had three sons—Fred Henry (1884-1949), Elias Richard Albert (1884–1974), and Arthur William (1889-1954), and a daughter—Dora Maria (b. 1893). Fred Wendt Sr. remained in Marshfield until 1915 when he returned to Watertown, where he died in 1933.

Luckily, there is some more information about the assignees of the patent, Nick brothers from Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
Jacob (1860-1937) and Matthias (aka Mathew and Matt) (1862-1949) Nick were born in Germany, on the Rhine, as sons of Johann (John) (1819-1893) and Katherine Margaretha Nick (1826-1912). Johann was a baker by trade, and after conducting a bakery for some time in Germany, he emigrated with his wife and family to the United States, settling in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Jacob as a boy attended school in his native place and subsequently learned the cabinet and burial casket maker’s trade, which for a time he followed there. It was in 1882 that he came to the United States, settling in Milwaukee, and he there followed his trade until 1889. He then came to Tomahawk and with his brother Matt opened a furniture store and undertaking business (one the first funeral homes in Tomahawk), adopting the business style of Nick Bros. The business prospered and at the end of eight years, Jacob bought out his brother Matt and carried on with the assistance of his two sons, the firm becoming Jacob Nick & Sons. They manufacture burial caskets for the trade, making 14 complete caskets a day, which were sold in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and also manufactured tables and carries on a general furniture business.
In 1903 Jacob built a sawmill, a shingle mill, and excelsior (a type of packing material) mill at Spirit Falls, which he operated subsequently for six years, at the end of which time he turned them over to his brother Matt. Jacob Nick, Sr., married in Milwaukee in 1887 to Katherine Herte, and they had five children, namely, Jacob J., William M., Isabelle M., Benjamin L. and George M. All the sons were associated with their father in business.

Note: Biographical information for Fred Wendt Sr. was kindly provided by Kim Krueger, the Coordinator of the North Wood County Historical Society.

It seems almost at the same time as Peter Landin (around 1890), his compatriot Knut Edward Wiberg from Stockholm invented a very similar adding machine. However, in contrast with Landin’s device, Wiberg’s adding apparatus remained only on paper and besides the patent applications, nothing is known about it.

In the early 1890s, Wiberg received (at least) two patents for his machine—in France (pat. Nr. 229008 from 29 March 1893), and in the USA (pat. Nr. 517319 from 27 March 1894). In both patents, Wiberg specified as coinventor or assignor his compatriot Gustaf Fredrik Berndes.

The adding apparatus of Knut Wiberg is a simple chain adder, similar to the invented in 1670s Abaque Rhabdologique of Claude Perrault, which was implemented into the later adding devices of César Caze and Heinrich Kummer. The principal defect of these machines is the characteristic feature of rebounding bars, which are noisy, confusing, and unreliable when rapidly operated, as well as the weakness and insufficiency of the carrying mechanisms.

The device of Wiberg made use of a series of number rings and these are actuated by rocking number plates, and there are connections from the same acting through peculiarly constructed pawl mechanism to turn the number rings progressively the extent of the numbers that are added from time to time, and the total footings are visible through an opening in the case that contains the number rings. There is a pusher for returning the rack plates to their normal positions. In the drawings, three sets of devices are made use of, for units, tens, and hundreds, but the number of sets of devices may be increased as desired.

Biographycal Data for Wiberg and Berndes

Almost nothing is known about the inventor of this adding device—Knut Edward (Edvard) Wiberg from Stockholm. There is a famous 19th-century Swedish inventor with the same surname, Martin Olsson Wiberg, but a connection between the two Wibergs cannot be found. Interestingly, Martin Wiberg had a son, Knut Alexis Wiberg (1854-1918). There is, however, some information about the coinventor of this machine—Gustaf Berndes, a Swedish politician, mill-owner, and landowner.

Gustaf Fredrik Berndes was born on 25 January 1834 in Stockholm, Adolf Fredriks parish. He was the son of the councilor of the Swedish Board of Mines Fredrik Anton Berndes (1791-1871) and Maria Isabella Wegelin (1800-1875). Gustaf enrolled at the University of Uppsala in 1852 and took his mining degree there in 1856. Then he studied for two years at the Bergsskolan i Falun (a technical college) in 1857-58. From 1859 until 1871, he took a scholarship at the Jernkontorets Metallurgical State (Sweden’s oldest industry organization). He was manager of Ljusne järnverk (iron mill) from 1871 to 1886 and was appointed by Jernkontoret as a member of the board of the Royal Institute of Technology from 1896 to 1912. Berndes was a member of the Lantmanna Party, was also active as a municipal official, and was a member of Sweden’s Riksdag for a couple of terms.

Gustaf Berndes married twice. First, in 1874 to Johanna Fredrika Larsson (1854-10 May 1875). Second marriage—in Dec 1883 to Elin Sofia Pettersson (1860-1933). They had three children: Johanna Maria (1885-1969), Eleonor Maria Berndes-Lilliehöök (1887-1977), and Gustaf (Gösta) Fredrik (1888-1957).

Gustaf Fredrik Berndes died on 28 February 1913 on his farm Molnsättra in Jakobsberg, Järfälla.

The Kaufmann family from Dresden (see the nearby image), Saxony (Johann Gottfried Kaufmann (1752-1818), his son Johann Friedrich Kaufmann (1785–1866), and his grandson Friedrich Theodor Kaufmann (1823–1872), are famous with the construction of several ingenious musical instruments at the beginning of the 19^th century—Belloneon (made around 1806, a mechanical musical instrument consisting of twenty-four trumpets and two kettle drums), Harmonichord (in 1810, one of the many attempts to fuse the piano and violin), Chordaulodion (in 1811), Acoustic Cabinet, and Trumpet Player automaton, which will be explored in this article.

The Trumpet Player was made around 1810 by Johann Friedrich Kaufmann and was presented in 1812 in Dresden. It is certainly one of the most famous androids, survived to our time (it is kept now in the collection of Deutsches Museum, München). The Trumpet Player is a figure of a man, dressed in a Spanish costume, with a height of approximately 180 cm. It had leather bellows for lungs and reeds, which imitated the sound of a trumpet. It was even able to simultaneously blow two different tones.

The mechanism of the Trumpet Player is managed by means of two rotatably mounted brass stepped drums. The notches mounted on the drums are in contact with 6 impacting tongues (pins) and four scanning levers, which activate wind valves, that let the air pass by 12 tongues, thus producing a sound, modulated through a trumpet, so it does sound like a trumpet.

The stepped drum and the bellows are powered by a spring mechanism (two helical springs) that needs to be wound up, by the visible hand crank on the right.

In the book Clockwork Music of Ord-Hume (London, Allen and Unwin, 1973), the Trumpet Player is described as follows:
The Trumpet Automaton is a figure not unlike Mario in the “Puritani,” with the instrument at its mouth. It was invented many years ago by Herr Kaufmann, and won the admiration of Carl Maria von Weber. What is most remarkable and inconceivable in this extraordinary piece of mechanism, is, that it produces double sounds of equal strength and purity, and flourishes in octaves, tierces, quints, Re., are heard. Perhaps this acoustic curiosity may supply some key to Vivier’s wondrous horn effects, certain notes accompanying particular chords. If this discovery should be established, that one instrument can do the same with equal perfection as two instruments, it may lead to something, as natural intonation may surely affect what a piece of machinery can do… To construct such instruments without models, for they are quite original, the maker must be a musician, a mechanic, a mathematician, and a philosopher.

An 1817 issue of the American Monthly Magazine described a demonstration of Kaufmann’s musical machines, as follows:
Messrs. Kaufmann, senior and junior, of Dresden, have exhibited four instruments composing an orchestra, which they call the Belloneon, the Cordelauidion, the Automaton Trumpeter, and the Harmonicord. The upper part of the Belloneon exhibits a trophy of arms, in the midst of which are placed twenty-four trumpets reversed: and the lower part encloses two kettle-drums with their sticks. It executes flourishes and marches, with extraordinary perfection. If it contained other wind instruments, it might be compared with Maelzel’s Panharmonicon, exhibited some time since in London and Paris. The Cordalaudion produces together and separately the sounds of the piano-forte, and of four flutes, which play with such precision and accuracy, that the illusion is complete. The Automaton gives out notes with double sounds. But these instruments, though highly curious, are surpassed by the Harmonicord. It is shaped like an upright piano-forte; a cylinder is adapted to it and turns at a very small distance from the springs, which are the same as those of the piano. By pressing down the keys, which embrace four octaves and a half, the friction is affected. Two pedals serve to make the rotation of the cylinder quicker and slower or weaker. Under the hands of Messrs. Kaufmann, this instrument gives out sweeter tones than the Harmonica and produces a truly celestial harmony.

The great composer Carl Maria von Weber was a friend of Friedrich Kaufmann (he met Kaufmanns in 1811 during a demonstration of their instruments). Weber admired Trumpet Player (he called it Trompetenwerk) and in 1812 he wrote an article for Kaufmann’s instruments, and a Concertino (Adagio and Rondo) for the Harmonichord with orchestral accompaniment.

Biography of Friedrich Kaufmann

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Kaufmann was born on 5 February 1785, in Dresden, a son of the capable clockmaker and instrument maker Johann Gottfried Kaufmann (1752-1818), and a grand grandson of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679-1735), a good Saxon court and cathedral organist and kapellmeister.

In 1799 Johann Friedrich, only 14 years old, started his apprenticeship in mechanics as a watchmaker. In 1803-1806 he traveled to Germany, France, and Switzerland as a watchmaker assistant. A longer stay in Vienna also gave him the opportunity to continue the musical studies he had begun in his early youth. In 1806 Friedrich returned to Dresden, to work together with his father in the construction of musical clocks and invention of new tools. Later Kaufmanns made numerous trips to many European cities, demonstrating their four instruments: Belloneon, Harmonichord, Chordalaudion, and Automaton Trumpeter.

Sadly, during one of their trips, while in Frankfurt am Main, Johann Gottfried died on 10 April 1818. Johann Friedrich worked alone for some time, aiming to perfect himself more and more in the art of building music automata, and was joined in the early 1840s by his son Friedrich Theodor (born 9 April 1823 in Dresden). Around 1840 Symphonion automaton was created, which combined fortepiano, clarinets, flutes, piccolo, tambourines, and timpani.

Between the years 1842 and 1844, the Kaufmann family traveled again. They took five instruments with them on their journey. After a very successful tour, a catastrophe happens. The ship on which they traveled home from Copenhagen got caught in a storm and they lost all their instruments, but they soon set about building a new and improved Chordalaudion and a Symphonium. From 1844 to 1851 both worked on rebuilding the lost instruments using new ideas and experiences; This is how the “Orchestrion” came into being according to the plans of the younger Kaufmann. During the years 1851 and 1852 father and son undertook another journey, the last one to England, Ireland, and Scotland.

After 1852 the Kaufmanns lived quietly in Dresden, constantly busy with the construction of more and more perfected self-playing instruments and harmoniums. In 1865, the venerable veteran celebrated his 80th birthday with rare mental and physical freshness. King Johann honored him by awarding him the Knight’s Cross of the Albrecht Order. After a long period of suffering, the amiable old man passed away peacefully and gently on 1 December 1866 in Dresden. His talented son continued to work with tireless diligence in the spirit of his grandfather and father, although this was often made very difficult for him by severe physical ailments. Friedrich Theodor died on 5 February 1872.

The German-Austrian mathematician and inventor Joseph Faber was born circa 1786 in Freiburg im Breisgau, a vibrant university city in southwest Germany’s Schwarzwald, but came at a young age to Vienna, where he attended high school and then entered the Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute, to study mathematics. He was fond also of occupying himself with physics and music.

After graduation from Polytechnikum in Wien, Faber joined the Austrian artillery as a soldier and then worked for some time as an astronomer at the Vienna Observatory, until an infection damaged his eyesight. He was forced to start in the cadastral office as an accountant, but there, a mental illness turned out, which was interpreted as hypochondria. His doctor prescribed him “mechanical activities”, and his land registry employer, the Austrian general and cartographer Ludwig von Fallon, paid him a year’s leave.

Thus from the early 1820s, Faber was undertaking mechanical tasks. At first, he applied himself to wood-carving, but when in 1823 Wolfgang von Kempelen‘s book for his speaking machine (“On the Mechanism of Human Speech”) from 1791 came into his hands, he got the idea of constructing a talking machine.

His employer thought Faber’s idea, and now he himself was crazy and cut his salary, after which he retired to Freiburg to live with his sister who was rather wealthy. At the University of Freiburg, Faber was given access to the Pathological Institute of Medicine, where he dissected over 100 skulls from corpses in order to get an idea of the human vocal tract. After 12 years the first prototype of the Euphonia was ready. The machine could utter all the consonants and vowels of the German language, but not yet the i. After another three years, this also succeeded, and Faber returned to Vienna (for the first time in 15 years) to present his machine.

The first talking machine of Joseph Faber was demonstrated initially in Vienna in 1840 and to the King of Bavaria in 1841, but it excited little interest. Thus Faber reportedly destroyed his first talking machine and in 1843 decided to move to the United States and try his fortune there. In America, Faber struggling to earn a living and learn to speak English, recreated his “Wonderful Talking Machine” and showed his invention in New York City in early 1844. The scientist and Director of the U.S. Mint Robert M. Patterson saw it and was impressed. Patterson even spoke about the automaton to the American Philosophical Society in May 1844 and tried to raise financial backing for Faber but, discouraged, the inventor destroyed again his machine.

In 1845 Patterson accompanied his fellow—the famous American physicist Joseph Henry (the inventor of the electromechanical relay) to Faber’s workshop where he was re-assembling his talking machine, this time with a female face. Henry, who was often asked to distinguish fraudulent from genuine inventions, agreed to go with Patterson to look at the machine. If an act of ventriloquism was at work, he was sure to detect it.

Instead of a hoax, however, which he had suspected, Henry found a “wonderful invention” with a variety of potential applications. “I have seen the speaking figure of Mr. Wheatstone of London,” Henry wrote in a letter to a former student, “but it cannot be compared with this which instead of uttering a few words is capable of speaking whole sentences composed of any words whatever.” Henry encouraged Faber to continue and to demonstrate its capabilities at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia in December 1845. However, that showing was another failure.

Henry observed that sixteen levers or keys “like those of a piano” projected sixteen elementary sounds by which “every word in all European languages can be distinctly produced.” A seventeenth key opened and closed the equivalent of the glottis, an aperture between the vocal cords. “The plan of the machine is the same as that of the human organs of speech, the several parts being worked by strings and levers instead of tendons and muscles.”

Henry, who in 1831 had invented a demonstration telegraph while pursuing his electromagnetic investigations, believed that many applications of Faber’s machine “could be imagined” in connection with the telegraph. “The keys could be worked by means of electromagnetic magnets and with a little contrivance not difficult to execute words might be spoken at one end of the telegraphic line which have their origin at the other.” A devout Presbyterian, Henry even seized upon the possibility of having a sermon delivered over the wires to several churches simultaneously.

In 1846, Phineas Taylor Barnum (an American showman, businessman, scam artist, and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes) looking for a fresh novelty, contacted Faber, named the speaking automaton “Euphonia” and took the inventor to London, where the machine was exposed at the Egyptian Hall. “A complex device controlled by seventeen levers, a bellows, and a telegraphic line, this machine was adorned with the movable replica of a human face, which was able to faithfully replicate the sounds of human speech”. At the exhibition, Faber made the Euphonia sing a haunting rendition of God Save the Queen.

As author David Lindsay described it, “By pumping air with the bellows… and manipulating a series of plates, chambers, and other apparatus (including an artificial tongue…), the operator could make it speak any European language.” Separate levers controlled the movements of the tongue, lips, jaw, and vocal chords.

People remarked that they could even feel the breath of the “Euphonia” emanating from the Indian rubber lips set into a “stoney-eyed” mask of a female face, but that was because the basic driver of the apparatus was a large bellow operated by a foot-pedal. The compressed air was driven through a collection of reeds, whistles, and whoopie-cushion-type resonators, modified by various shutters and baffles, and these were controlled individually or in concert by the board of 17 keys or levers.

The 16 or 17 elemental sounds could be combined to sound out words and phrases—”the letters represented on the keyboard were A, O, U, I, E, L, R, W, F, S, Sh, B, G, and these were declared by the professor to be all that was necessary, with the judicious opening and closing of the rubber lips to produce all combinations of sounds known to the phonetic economy”. The speaking was, not surprisingly, slow and deliberate.

For the inventor and his machine, the London theater manager John Hollingshead provided the most complete, but also the most depressing description:
“The exhibitor, Professor Faber, was a sad-faced man, dressed in respectable well-worn clothes that were soiled by contact with tools, wood, and machinery. The room looked like a laboratory and workshop, which it was. The Professor was not too clean, and his hair and beard sadly wanted the attention of a barber. I had no doubt that he slept in the same room as the figure—his scientific Frankenstein monster—and I felt the secret influence of an idea that the two were destined to live and die together. The Professor, with a slight German accent, put his wonderful toy in motion. He explained its action: it was not necessary to prove the absence of deception. The keyboard, touched by the Professor, produced words which, slowly and deliberately in a hoarse sepulchral voice came from the mouth of the figure, as if from the depths of a tomb. It wanted little imagination to make the very few visitors believe that the figure contained an imprisoned human—or half-human—being, bound to speak slowly when tormented by the unseen power outside. No one thought for a moment that they were being fooled by a second edition of the “Invisible Girl” fraud. There were truth, laborious invention, and good faith, in every part of the melancholy room. As a crowning display, the head sang a sepulchral version of “God save the Queen”, which suggested inevitably, God save the inventor. This extraordinary effect was achieved by the Professor working two keyboards—one for the words, and one for the music. Never probably, before or since, has the National Anthem been so sung. Sadder and wiser I, and the few visitors, crept slowly from the place, leaving the Professor with his one and only treasure—his child of infinite labour and unmeasurable sorrow. He disappeared quietly from London and took his marvel to the provinces, where it was even less appreciated. The end came at last, and not the unexpected end. One day, in a dull matter-of-fact town—a town that could understand nothing but a Circus or a Jack Pudding—he destroyed himself and his figure. The world went on just the same, bestowing as little notice as it had on his exhibition. As a reward for this brutality, the world, thirty years afterward, was presented with the phonograph.”

Even after being promoted by Barnum (Euphonia remained a part of Barnum’s repertoire for the next several decades), Faber and his Euphonia generated little profit and received minimal respect, often finding themselves the subjects of mockery. One of the Euphonia’s few devotees was a Scottish professor of speech named Melville Bell. His son, the famed Alexander Graham Bell, made various attempts to reproduce speech, the most successful of which resulted in his device known as the telephone.

After taking Faber to London for the Egyptian Hall exhibition, Barnum showed it at his American Museum of Curiosities in New York City, where Mathew Brady’s studio photographed it (see the nearby photo), c. 1860, and later in his touring circus. Faber’s talking machine was still being shown in Barnum’s Circus when it played at the Exhibition Grounds on Grenville Street in Toronto in August 1874. The newspaper Toronto Mail noted large crowds around the machine but observed that it must have had a cold or a dislocated jaw because all of its words sounded monotonous and similar.

Little can be said about Joseph Faber’s life and work beyond 1846. It seems at the end of his life, he returned to Vienna, where he died on 2 September 1866 (although several sources speak of suicide in America in 1850, without naming the place and day).

In December 1929, the Italian inventor and linguist Federico Pucci presented in Salerno, a port city southeast of Naples, Italy, his study on “automatic translator”. The next year, 1930, the study was presented to the Italian press. In the same year, 1930, the text of “French-Italian Mechanical Translator” was exhibited for six months (from June to November 1930) at the Prima esposizione dopolavoristica nazionale di arte e mestieri in Bolzano and was awarded a silver medal. Later, the study was presented to and was awarded at several other exhibitions—Cuneo Trade Fair (1930), Levante Trade Fair in Bari (1934), Paris Trade Fair (1935 and 1949), International Inventions Exhibition in Leipzig (1936), and Liège Inventions Competition (1950). In 1931 Pucci published a book, entitled “Il traduttore meccanico ed il metodo per corrispondersi fra Europei conoscendo ciascuno solo la propria lingua: Parte I.”, which is probably the first text in world on an automatic translation device. Up to 1960, he published a total of ten books about his “translating machines”.

From the preface to the reader, written in Salerno on 10 December 1930, the author tells us that he intends to demonstrate that it would be possible to make foreigners correspond with each other knowing only their own language respectively. In the report of a conference held on 21 January 1930 in Salerno by Pucci, published on 6 February 1930 in the Salerno edition of the daily newspaper “Il Mattino”, the journalist reports that:
Mr. Pucci, after having shown that all the attempts made during three centuries by foreign scientists had obtained no concrete result, proceeded to a practical exposition of his own method by having a few sentences translated into English and German by people who have never studied these languages.

In 1949, Pucci developed a new version of his machine, the so-called Dynamo-mechanical translator.

Pucci’s invention was based on the following main ideas:
1. To divide the text into the smallest units of meaning (morphemes).
2. To transpose these units into a foreign language.
3. And finally, the receiver puts the words (generated by the machine) back into the order of the target language, of which he is a native speaker.

It seems Pucci never built a working prototype of his mechanical translator, so his contribution to the area of machine translation was only theoretical. In the early 1930s, two other scientists created devices for language translation—the Frenchman Georges Artsrouni and the Russian Pyotr Trojanskii.

Biography of Federico Pucci

Federico Erminio Raniero Carmine Filiberto Pucci, known simply as Federico Pucci, was born in Naples, via Foria 10, on 23 March 1896. His father, Arturo Enrico Emmanuele Pucci, born in Naples on 13 April 1863, was the youngest son of Captain Emmanuele Pucci, an officer of the Royal Navy. The Puccis of Naples descend from a branch of the Pucci family of Florence and had moved to Sicily at the end of the 16^th century for political reasons. Emmanuele’s father, Vice Admiral Ferdinando Pucci (1800-1877), after having served in the Royal Bourbon Navy from the Napoleonic wars to 1860, had then concluded his career as commander of the 1st Maritime District of the Kingdom of Italy and Aide-de-Camp of the King. Emmanuele’s wife, Agata Benzo e Sammartino dei Duchi di Verdura, came from a family of Sicilian high aristocracy and was the sister of Giulio Benso della Verdura, magistrate and first mayor of Palermo after the unification of Italy, as well as Senator of the Kingdom.

Enrolling at the Istituto di Ragioneria, which at the time was the only high school that included the in-depth study of foreign languages as well as mathematics in the training of students, Federico Pucci wanted to study various foreign languages on his own. The extraordinary love for culture and languages was a characteristic that he had taken from his family of origin, together with the habit of expressing himself in the French language even in everyday life, which he maintained throughout his life and passed on to his daughters.

Given this extraordinary predisposition for foreign languages, after graduating in accounting, Federico enrolled at the Regio Istituto Orientale di Napoli, the oldest center of sinology and oriental studies on the European continent. Here, he learned several oriental languages, including Chinese and Korean, but he did not graduate because, during the final written exam, he was unjustly accused of having had his paper copied by another candidate. Deeply offended by this unjust accusation, he refused to repeat the exam.

In order to make himself economically independent from his uncles, Federico competed at a very young age as a translator and interpreter in the State Railways, where he ranked first with 15 languages, and was hired, in 1915, as a manager. Soon, he became a skilled polyglot who not only knows Italian, German, French, English, and Spanish but is also an expert in Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Czech, and other Slavic languages.

After moving to Salerno in the early 1920s, Pucci married Gilda De Filippis on 13 January 1924, with whom he had four daughters.

On the proposal of the Minister of Communications, in October 1936, Pucci was appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy. In the late 1930s and during WWII, Pucci worked on the development of a mechanical translator for military use and with the censorship of civil and military correspondence in 30 foreign languages in Salerno.

Pucci was the author of quite a few books in the field of linguistics, starting from 1923 when he published Manuale di letteratura Inglese: Parte I (I principali scrittori) (English literature Manual: Part I (the main writers) (Salerno, Tip. Fratelli Jovane).

In the last years of his life, Federico Pucci was affected by an illness that progressively led him to blindness, and he died in Salerno on 6 March 1973, a few days before his 77^th birthday.

The American William Henry Beatley (1847-1934), a millwright of Humansville, a small town in Polk County, Missouri, was a holder of two patents for calculating devices (adding machines) from 1883 and 1884. Interestingly, the witness of first patent of Beatley was John Briggs Barnett (1843-1922), a founder and president of the first bank in Humansville, The Farmers and Merchants Bank, organized in 1881, so we can easily guess that namely Barnett ordered these devices to be made by town’s mechanic Beatley.

The first adding machine of Beatley (US patent Nr.272626 dated 20 Feb 1883, see the nearby patent drawing) was a counting machine with finger keys denoting the addition to be made, in which a spirally-grooved and numbered cylinder is rotated and caused to actuate a device provided with a sight-hole for exposing the sum totals on the cylinder of the additions as they are made.

The machine is designed to stand on a table or desk in front of the operator, and when being worked the direction of rotation of the adding cylinder on its upper surface is away from the operator. Said cylinder is actuated by a rocking ratchet beam or lever, loose upon a shaft, and having an attached spring-pawl, which engages with the wheel on the said cylinder shaft.

To actuate the adding cylinder, the horizontal lever is moved away from it against the pressure of the spring, and this is done by pressing down on the forward or horizontal arm of any one of nine bell-crank keys or levers, arranged to work on pivots, and having upper arms which bear against the back of the lever to draw it forward, and thereby give motion to the cylinder.

The second patent of William Beatley described a simple calculating instrument, similar to the earlier device of his compatriot John Nystrom from 1849 (see US patent Nr.297342 dated 22 April 1884).

Biography of William Beatley

Little is known about the inventor of these two adding machines. William Henry Beatley was born on 12 August 1849, in Winchester, the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of John L. Beatley (1818-1857) and Jane (Brill) Beatley (1826-1856), who married in Aug 1846. Besides William, John and Jane Beatley had two other sons: James Sewell (1855-1907), and Charles Edward (1856-1856). It seems the birth of Charles Edward in 1856 was fatal for both the newborn and his mother, and most probably for the father also (John died in March next year), so William Henry was left a complete orphan only seven years old.

William Beatley married Mary Brown McLin (1852-1907) from Broylesville, TN, on 27 February 1879 in Humansville. They had three children: Jennie Elizabeth (Beatley) Miller (1883-1933), John Clark Beatley (1885-1969), and Charles Lewis Beatley (1888-1973). In the US Census 1900 card his occupation is specified as a millwright. In the 1920s he lived in Long Beach, LA.

William Henry Beatley died on 29 April 1934 at age 86 and was buried in Humansville Cemetery, Missouri.

Johann Nepomuk Mälzel (Maelzel) (1772–1838) was a German inventor, engineer, and showman, best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music-playing automata and displaying a fraudulent chess machine, the famous Turk of Wolfgang von Kempelen.

Mäelzel was born in Regensburg, a town in eastern Bavaria. The son of an organ builder, he received a comprehensive musical education. In 1790, he decided to try his luck in Vienna by working to maintain musical instruments of all kinds. And, among organs and harpsichords, the imaginative Johann thought that he could invent new instruments with which to build the music of the future. After several years of study and experiment, he produced an orchestrion instrument, which was publicly exhibited, and afterward sold for 3000 florins.

In 1800, Mälzel built a musical automaton (called Harmonika) that was set in the domed starry ceiling of the famous temple of the night at the Schönau estate in Vienna. Visitors were enthralled by the sight of the Goddess of the night riding in a carriage drawn by horses, accompanied by the sound of heavenly music composed by Salieri, floating down from Mälzel’s Orgelwerk. In the early 1800s, Mälzel sold several musical automata to noble clients, for example, Duke Albert of Saxony. In July 1806, the Preßburger Zeitung reported that the famous machinist and musician “Melczel” had built a music box for Napoleon that played sonatas and symphonies by Haydn and Cherubini.

In the same 1806 Mälzel created a large musical automaton (called Panharmonicon), able to play the musical instruments of a military band, powered by bellows and directed by revolving cylinders (pinned barrels) storing the notes. This machine was 10 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, and replaced the virtuoso efforts of 26 orchestral musicians. Among the pieces it played, in addition to the earlier-mentioned “Military Symphony” by Haydn and Medea overture by Cherubini, was Mozart’s Fantasy in C Minor. Even Haydn himself assured that he had never before heard his symphony performed with such precision. Mälzel transported this large mechanical orchestra to Paris and then spent several months displaying it there in the spring of 1807. Many newspaper accounts describe at great length the effect this showpiece had in drawing huge crowds for twice-daily concerts, despite the high entry price of 6 francs. In the summer of 1807, Mälzel sold his Panharmonicon, which made him a European celebrity, for a huge sum to the Empress of France and returned to Vienna.

In Vienna, Mälzel completed a new invention, the mechanical trumpeter, and then returned to Paris in the fall of 1808 with this human-like figure, as well as a musical desk with many secret drawers which was purchased by the French empress. Dressed as a soldier, this android automaton played military fanfares and marches on a real trumpet, used either as a solo instrument or accompanied by an orchestra (or a piano). The mechanism was contained in the wooden figure’s chest and could blow the trumpet, even using double tonguing.

After the trumpeter, Mälzel was planning next to build an automatic singer: a machine that would reproduce the human voice. He will be preoccupied many years later with the idea of recreating human speech but without considerable success.

After Austria’s war with France in 1809, there were many casualties, in particular soldiers with missing limbs, so Mälzel created artificial legs, which were apparently a great success, as many newspaper accounts attest. In late 1809, he had completed a new Panharmonicon for the Viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson. In October 1809, Mälzel was ordered by the French Emperor himself, who was then residing at Schönbrunn palace, to bring his inventions there; Napoleon was obviously impressed by these new devices, awarding Mälzel 150 gold coins. Then the inventor, on orders from Napoleon, constructed a collapsible wagon that could fetch wounded soldiers from the battlegrounds and transport them to the hospital. Napoleon wanted to play (he lost this game) against “the Mechanical Turk”–the chess-playing machine that Mälzel had purchased in 1805 from the estate of its inventor, Wolfgang von Kempelen.

Biography of Johann Mälzel

Johann Nepomuk Mälzel was born on 15 August 1772 in an ancient house that still stands today at Unter den Schwibbögen 7, Regensburg, Bavaria. He was the second son of Johann Nepomuk Melzl (1741–1797), a mechanic and organ-builder, and his wife Katherina (1744-1824). Johann Melzl, the son of the glassmaker Franz Petrus Melzl from Stadtamhof (a medieval village on a tiny island in Regensburg) had married Katherina Förstlin (Verschlin), daughter of the brewer Leonhard Förstl from Strahlfeld, on 10 February 1768, and they had at least nine children: Johann Nepomuk Bernhard (1768-1800), Maria Anna (1770-), Johann Nepomuk (1772–1838), Maria Walburga (1774-), Catherina (stillborn in Jan. 1776), Joseph (1777-1848), Maria Josepha (1779-), Johann Georg (1781-1783), and Leonhard Rupert (1783-1855). Bernhard and Joseph became organ-builders in Regensburg, like their father. The youngest son, Leonhard Rupert, moved to Vienna when he was just 17 years old and he pursued a career there as a musician who, like his famous brother, also constructed automata.

At the age of six Johann’s father discovered his inclination and talent for music, and taught him to play the piano and the violin. By the age of fourteen, he had gained a reputation as the best pianist in town. Later on, however, on account of his father’s deafness, the young boy was forced to abandon a promising career as a virtuoso pianist and turn his attention instead to building musical instruments. He moved to Vienna in 1790, where after earning his living by giving piano lessons and constructing musical clocks, he embarked on a study tour of Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin to examine the mechanical instruments in those cities.

Returning to Vienna in 1792, Mälzel devoted his time to constructing mechanical music machines. By 1798 he was granted his request to be awarded a factory concession for constructing mechanical music machines. His activities would have involved the setting of pins into revolving cylinders, placed into specially constructed cases, in order to reproduce musical compositions by mechanical means. Mälzel then sold many of these devices–musical clocks, musical sofas, and the more complicated Orchestrion, which imitated the sound of a military band (using real instruments)–to noblemen and members of the imperial family.

In 1809 Mälzel was appointed Court Mechanician at Vienna and having a work to execute for the Empress, rooms were assigned him, in Schönbrunn Palace. In late 1815 Mälzel patented a metronome, which according to some historians, was an improved version of the invention of his compatriot Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (1777–1826), who created such a device in the early 1810s (although there is evidence that Mälzel shows a metronome to his friend Ludwig van Beethoven in 1813). In turn, Winkel created in 1821 an automatic organ, which is believed to have copied some features of Mälzels Panharmonicon, but added the aleatoric composition feature.

Mälzel was (at least for some time) a friend of the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven. They probably knew each other from the 1790s but became closer in 1812 in Vienna. At this time Beethoven was already almost totally deaf and unable to converse unless he passed written notes back and forth to his colleagues, visitors, and friends. In 1812 Beethoven made frequent visits to Mälzel’s workshop, the two men became close friends, and the mechanic constructed an ear trumpet for the composer. It is known, that of the four instruments constructed, one was so far satisfactory as to be used occasionally for some eight or ten years. In the summer of 1813, Mälzel collaborated with Beethoven to produce Wellingtons Sieg, for which Beethoven composed the music to be played on Mälzel’s Panharmonicon. They also gave several concerts, at which Beethoven’s symphonies were interspersed with the performances of Mälzel’s automata. However, in 1814, Beethoven wrote a deposition claiming that Mälzel had defrauded him, claiming ownership of this music, and illegally staging performances of it from an inaccurate transcription. Beethoven described Mälzel in this deposition as “a rude, churlish man, entirely devoid of education or cultivation”. Luckily, by 1817, Beethoven and Mälzel appeared to have reconciled, and the composer wrote glowingly of Mälzel’s metronome.

After 1813, Mälzel lived mainly in Paris and London. In 1818 in Paris Mälzel constructed an automaton slack-rope acrobat. From 1818 to 1821 Maelzel showed the Chess Player, second Panharmonicon, automaton trumpeter, and automaton acrobat in London and throughout Great Britain. He spent most of the period from 1821 to 1825 in Paris, dividing his time between the exhibition hall and the workshop. He occasionally forayed abroad with his inverse mime troupe, which made a great deal of noise mimicking human beings. Late in 1825, Maelzel sailed away from the Old World.

No sooner did he arrive in the New World than he sold his Panharmonicon for the stupendous sum of four hundred thousand dollars. Mälzel kept the other showpieces he had brought over with him, however, and these may have included, in addition to his own Trumpeter automaton and two acrobats and Kempelen’s Chess Player, a Jaquet-Droz Draftsman automaton. Over the next dozen years, the curious European automata saw New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Charleston, Washington, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, and doubtless many other American cities before embarking for Havana. They may also have traveled in Canada. In 1835 in Boston, the twenty-five-year-old P. T. Barnum “had frequent interviews and long conversations with Mr. Maelzel. I looked upon him as the great father of caterers for public amusement, and was pleased with his assurance that I would certainly make a successful showman.”

As a man, Mälzel seems to have been quarrelsome, extravagant, and unscrupulous. He never married, and the union of his parents was apparently unhappy (his father must have indulged in at least one extra-marital affair), which may account for his adamant antipathy to marriage. Strangely, no portrait of Mälzel has been found yet. We have two versions of his appearance: tall blond with blue eyes, a long straight nose, red cheeks (supposedly typical features of men from the Oberpfalz), which was suggested by Henrike Leonhardt in her book Der Taktmesser; and black hair, a nose like Cleopatra’s, and rather intellectual features from Count Ludwig von Bentheim-Steinfurt in his personal diary from 1807.

Johann Nepomuk Mälzel died on 21 July 1838 on a ship in the harbor of La Guaira, Venezuela, reportedly from alcohol poisoning (he was addicted).