The ''Canard Digérateur'', or Digesting Duck, was an

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

in the form of a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

, created by

Jacques de Vaucanson Jacques de Vaucanson (; February 24, 1709 – November 21, 1782) was a French inventor and artist who built the first all-metal lathe which was very important to the Industrial Revolution. The lathe is known as the mother of machine tools, as it ...

and unveiled on 30 May 1739 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.

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

wrote in 1741 that ('Without the voice of le Maure and Vaucanson's duck, you would have nothing to remind you of the glory of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.') The Duck is thought to have been destroyed in a fire at a museum in 1879.

Operation

The Duck was the size of a living duck, and was cased in gold-plated copper. As well as quacking and muddling water with its bill, it appeared capable of drinking water, and of taking food from its operator's hand, swallowing it with a gulping action and excreting what appeared to be a digested version of it. Vaucanson described the Duck's interior as containing a small "chemical laboratory" capable of breaking down the grain. When the stage magician and automaton builder

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (7 December 1805 – 13 June 1871) was a French watchmaker, magician and illusionist, widely recognized as the father of the modern style of conjuring. He transformed magic from a pastime for the lower classes, seen a ...

examined the Duck in 1844, he found that Vaucanson had faked the mechanism, and the Duck's excreta consisted of pre-prepared breadcrumb pellets, dyed green. Robert-Houdin described this as "a piece of artifice I would happily have incorporated in a conjuring trick".

Modern influence

A replica of Vaucanson's mechanical duck, created by Frédéric Vidoni, was part of the collection of the (now defunct)

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Automata Museum. Another replica was commissioned privately from David Secrett, an automaton maker known for his archer figure. The duck is mentioned by the hero of

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

"The Artist of the Beautiful", and is referenced and discussed in

John Twelve Hawks John Twelve Hawks is the pseudonym of an author of four novels and one short non-fiction book. His legal name and identity are unknown. His first published novel was the dystopian '' The Traveler'' and its sequels, '' The Dark River'' and '' The ...

' novel "Spark". In

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

's historical novel ''

Mason & Dixon ''Mason & Dixon'' is a postmodernist novel by American author Thomas Pynchon, published in 1997. It presents a fictionalized account of the collaboration between Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in th ...

'', Vaucanson's duck attains consciousness and pursues an exiled Parisian chef across the United States. The duck is referred to in Peter Carey's novel, ''The Chemistry of Tears''. Vaucanson and his duck are referred to in

Lawrence Norfolk Lawrence Norfolk (born 1963) is a British novelist known for historical works with complex plots and intricate detail. Biography Though born in London, Norfolk lived in Iraq until 1967 and then in the West Country of England. He read English a ...

's 1991 novel '' Lempriere's Dictionary'', as well as a brief mention in

Frank Herbert Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920February 11, 1986) was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel '' Dune'' and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked a ...

's Destination: Void. The Duck is featured in

Lavie Tidhar Lavie Tidhar ( he, לביא תדהר; born 16 November 1976) is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tid ...

's ''The Bookman'', in the Egyptian Hall, alongside the Turk. In 2002, Belgian conceptual artist

Wim Delvoye Wim Delvoye (born 1965 in Wervik, West Flanders) is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and often shocking projects. Much of his work is focused on the body. As the critic Robert Enright wrote in the art magazine ''Border ...

introduced the world to his "

Cloaca In animal anatomy, a cloaca ( ), plural cloacae ( or ), is the posterior orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles and birds, a ...

Machine", a mechanical art work that actually digests food and turns it into excrement, fulfilling Vaucanson's wish for a working digestive automation. Many iterations of the Cloaca Machine have since been produced; the latest iteration sits vertically, mimicking the human digestive system. The excrement produced by the machine is vacuum-sealed in Cloaca-branded bags and sold to art collectors and dealers; every series of excrements produced has sold out.

References

Sources

*Wood, Gaby (2003). ''Living Dolls: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life''. London: Faber.

External links

Canard Digérateur de Vaucanson - Vaucanson's Digesting Duck
Guardian Unlimited Books, Extracts, Saturday 16 February 2002
I'm Afraid I Can't Do That
by

Simon Norfolk Simon Norfolk (born 1963) is a Nigerian-born British architectural and landscape photographer. He has produced four photo book monographs of his work. His photographs are held in over a dozen public museum collections. Life and work Norfolk was b ...

, an article discussing the Digesting Duck's impact on the philosophical definition of

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

.
BBC film featuring the modern automata of David Secrett in 1979
Automata (mechanical) Robotic animals Historical robots 18th-century robots 1739 introductions Robots of France Ducks Biorobotics

Operation

Modern influence

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links