Jacques de Vaucanson

Timeline

1. 1709–1727

   A glove-maker's son in Grenoble

   He is born in Grenoble in 1709, the tenth child of a glove-maker, and studies under the Jesuits. After meeting the surgeon Claude-Nicolas Le Cat and learning anatomy from him, he builds his first devices that mimic circulation, respiration and digestion. In 1727, at 18, he receives his own workshop in Lyon and a grant from a nobleman to build a set of machines.

2. 1737–1738

   The Flute Player

   He completes The Flute Player in October 1737, a life-size shepherd figure that plays twelve tunes on the flute. He presents it to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1738 and publishes a description, Le mécanisme du fluteur automate, while Voltaire calls him a "rival of Prometheus".

3. 1738–1743

   The Digesting Duck

   In 1738, he completes the Digesting Duck, which flaps its wings, drinks water and appears to digest grain, with a hidden compartment holding its "digested food". It is the first automaton to simulate biological processes. His flute player and duck go on show at the Opera House in London's Haymarket in 1742, and he sells his automata in 1743.

4. 1741–1744

   Inspector of silk manufacture

   In 1741, Cardinal Fleury, chief minister of Louis XV, appoints him inspector of the manufacture of silk in France, charged with reforming the industry. His push to automate weaving angers weavers, and in 1744 the Lyon silk workers riot against the Vaucanson regulations.

5. 1745–1746

   A punched-card loom

   In 1745, he builds an automated loom that uses perforated cards to select the warp threads, drawing on the work of Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon. Joseph-Marie Jacquard refines the punched-card idea, and in the twentieth century punched cards carry data into computers. He becomes a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1746.

6. 1751

   An all-metal slide lathe

   In 1751, he builds an all-metal industrial slide lathe whose cutting tool is guided precisely by slideways. Designed to turn precise cylindrical rollers for pressing patterns into silk cloth, it is on display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

7. 1757–1779

   Silk machines and factories

   In 1757, he invents a machine à lustrer for polishing gold and silver silk, and from 1760 to 1773 he leads factory projects in Lavaur, Montpellier, Tours, the Dauphiné and Romans. He returns to Paris in 1779.

8. 1782–1794

   A bequest to Louis XVI

   He dies in Paris in November 1782, aged 72. Shortly before his death, he bequeaths a collection of 300 machines, tools, models and drawings to Louis XVI, which leads to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, now the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The collection joins the Conservatoire in 1794, where Jacquard discovers the loom that he redevelops.