１－２．ヴォーカンソン製作の自動人形「フルート奏者」（1738年）
ヴォーカンソンの「フルート奏者」のモデルになったのは、宮廷彫刻家アントワーヌ・コワズヴォー作の彫刻《フルートを吹く牧神》であるが（現在はルーヴル美術館に所蔵・展示されている）、図版1と2を見比べると、よく似ているだけでなく、高さもほぼ正確に同じである。
実際に12曲演奏する「フルート奏者」の動作は、円筒形のシリンダーの表面に打ち込まれたピンの配置によってプログラムされていた。
ヴォーカンソンによる「フルート奏者」製作の偉業は当時の思想家たちによって称えられ、ヴォルテールとラ・メトリは彼を「プロメテウス」になぞらえた。そして製作の同年、『自動人形フルート奏者のメカニズム』と題する論文を科学アカデミーに提出したヴォーカンソンは、その功績が認められ、待望の名声を勝ち得たのである。
しかし一方で、「フルート奏者」は、唯物論への反駁の根拠や、機械に対する人間の優越性の証拠にもされた。確かにこの機械は生身の演奏家と同じくらい、あるいはより正確に演奏する。しかし、機械は魂を持たないという点で、決して人間と同等でないことをも明らかにしたのだった。
S. Y.
1-2
Jacques de Vaucanson’s “Flûteur Automate” (1738)
The model for Vaucanson’s
“flûteur automate” was Antoine Coysevox’s famous “Faune jouant de la
flûte dit aussi ‘Berger flûteur’ ” (today displayed at the Louvre
in Paris), as a comparison of the two pictures easily proves. Also the heights
of the two figures are almost exactly the same.
The movements of the
“flûteur automate” are controlled by a barrel with pins. The barrel, with
a circumference of 172.8 cm, has a length of 81 cm, which is divided into 15
equal parts of 4.05 cm length each. While the barrel makes 12 rotations, it is
gradually moved from right to left. Fifteen levers are connected to the moving
parts of the machine, and they are lifted by the pins in the way that is
necessary to perform the 12 pieces.
Three of the 15 levers are used
to control the valves of the windchests (there are three windchests with
different air pressures provided by three bellows each; the three windchests
can be used in every combination, so that eight grades of wind pressure are
possible), seven levers are used for the fingerholes (four for the right hand
and three for the left), four for the lips, and one for the tongue in the back
of the mouth (closing the hole, it cuts off the air).
Vaucanson’s creation of the
“flûte automate” was regarded very highly by the leading intellectuals of
his time, and Voltaire and La Mettrie compared it even with the work of
Prometheus. In the same year, Vaucanson presented a paper with the title “Le mécanisme du fluteur automate” to the
Academy of Sciences, where his achievements were approved, and he obtained the
reputation for which he had long waited.
But the “flûte automate”
was also used as an argument against materialism and as a proof of the
superiority of men over machines. It may be true that the machine played as
well as a human performer or even more exactly. But the experience with this
machine also made obvious that in one important point the machine will never
equal a human being: The machine has no soul.
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図版2
