Kempelen, Wolfgang von | Squawk box

Kempelen, Wolfgang von

Le Mécanisme de la parole, suivi de la description d'une machine parlante. Vienna: B. Bauer, 1791

8vo (178 x 114 mm). Half-title, 27 engraved plates including frontispiece portrait by J. G. Mansfeld after Fleur Füger, errata leaf at the end. Nineteenth-century half brown morocco over navy moiré-textured cloth boards, marbled endpapers, the spine in 6 compartments with raised bands ruled and lettered gilt, edges sprinkled red; spine rubbed, hinges cracked but intact, label remnant on front cover, and traces of labels removed from front endpapers.

First French edition of the first monograph on speech synthesis. While Kempelen’s chess-playing automaton was a complete and utter hoax, his manually operated machine for the synthesis of speech was authentic and remarkable for its profound knowledge of vocal physiology. The machine was based on a wind instrument with the air supplied by bellows. By means of various stops, he was able to make the machine talk easily in French, Italian, and Latin; German, however, was more difficult. Goethe heard the machine perform and reported that it was “able to same some childish words very nicely.” It ls said to have had a later influence on Alexander Graham Bell.

REFERENCE:

cf. Honeyman V:1779 (First edition in German)

PROVENANCE:

British Patent Office Library (library stamps chiefly on recto and verso of all but 4 plates, on 9 text leaves, and on bottom of text block; discard stamp on title-page verso)