Marie Antoinette and the Machines

[Dave Monroe]

It all began in 1738 when a mechanic from Grenoble by the name of
Jacques de Vaucanson demonstrated an automaton flute-player that
played a real flute by emitting wind out of a mechanical device inside
the object. It proved to be so popular and lucrative for the inventor
that he quickly brought out two more automata—another musical figure
of a fife-and-drum player and, the most astonishing and famous
automaton of the period, a mechanical duck that could swim about, flap
its wings, swallow grain, and even excrete little pellets from its
rear. After their creator made a small fortune from them, they were
sold and taken to London in 1742 where they were also a great success.

http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2011/02/marie-antoinette-sublime-dreams-living-machines.html

Sublime Dreams of Living Machines

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674049352