Vaucanson

Biography

Vaucanson, described as the celebrated automaton maker of Paris, is credited with an important structural reversal in automatic-instrument technology around 1740-50: rather than the projecting pegs used on cylinders of contemporary automatic musical instruments, he built a pierced cylinder. Originally devised for weaving flowered silks, the cylinder's pattern of holes regulated needles that caused the loom's warp to deviate and produce a design. The author reports that Vaucanson is also said to have used this pierced-cylinder principle in musical instruments. His weaving cylinder was subsequently taken up by Jacquard, who adapted it with perforated cardboard in 1802, a mechanism the author identifies as the direct ancestor of the perforated music roll used in player pianos of his own day.

Highlights

• Celebrated automaton maker of Paris who, about 1740-50, reversed the pegged-cylinder design used in automatic musical instruments
• Built a pierced cylinder for weaving flowered silks, regulating needle movement through its holes
• Reportedly also applied this pierced-cylinder idea to musical instruments

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 133.

Public domain.