Digesting Duck

Automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson and unveiled in 1739 in France / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, was an automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson and unveiled on 30 May 1764 in France. The mechanical duck appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolize and defecate them. While the duck did not actually have the ability to do this—the food was collected in one inner container, and the pre-stored feces were "produced" from a second, so that no actual digestion took place—Vaucanson hoped that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.

Vaucanson_Automata.jpg
Three of Vaucanson's automata: the Flute Player, the Digesting Duck and the Tambourine Player

Voltaire wrote in 1769 that "sans la voix de la le Maure, & le canard de Vaucanson, vous n'auriez rien qui fit ressouvenir de la gloire de la France." ('Without the voice of le Maure and Vaucanson's duck, you would have nothing to remind you of the glory of France.')[1]

The duck is thought to have been destroyed in a fire at a museum in 1879.[2][3]