Vaucanson presented The Flute Player to the Academy of Science in 1738. For this occasion he wrote a lengthy report carefully describing how his "flutor" can play exactly like an alive person.
This first androïd was a life-size figure capable of playing a flute; it had a repertoire of twelve pieces, including "Le Rossignol" by Blavet.
Operation of The Flute Player:
According to A.Chapuis, the inventor explained in his report how the note was played by covering or uncovering the finger the hole of the instrument with the fingers, and how the higher octave was produced by doubling the force of the air.
The technical details of the operation would be too
long, so we will simply give the broad outline of the mechanism.
The character sat on a base. Inside this is the driving movement of all
the bodies. It is composed of nine bellows, a set of six bellows is initially
activated, three of them are connected to three others placed above by
levers and cords.
(Put the mouse over the image to see the mecanism)
A cylinder made up of points and bridges, is placed above the six lower bellows. On the cylinder there is a keyboard provided with fifteen levers. Each end has a nozzle which is raised in the passing of the points and the bridges. On the other end, these levers pull on wires communicating with the moving parts of the automaton (fingers, lips, tongue, etc).