A mistaken representation of how The
Digesting Duck worked
The
Canard Digérateur, or
Digesting Duck, was an
automaton in the form of a
duck, created by
Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739. 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 was 'produced' from a
second, so that no actual digestion took place - Vaucanson hoped
that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.
Voltaire wrote that "without [...] the duck of
Vaucanson, you have nothing to remind you
of the glory of France
."
(
"Sans...le canard de Vaucanson vous n'auriez rien qui fit
ressouvenir de la gloire de la France.")
Modern presence
A replica
of Vaucanson's mechanical duck, created by Frédéric Vidoni, is part of the
numerous works of art exhibited in the Museum of Automatons in
Grenoble,
France
.
The duck is mentioned by the hero of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's
short story The Artist of the
Beautiful.
A fictitious enhancement of Vaucanson's original duck figures
prominently in
Thomas Pynchon's
historical novel
Mason &
Dixon.
The duck is used as the symbol for the software company Automatic
Duck, Inc.
Further reading
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