AUTOMATON

AUTOMATON, or AUTOMATUM; a self-moving engine, or a machine which has the principle of motion within itself. See MACHINE and MOTION.

Such were Archytas’s dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. L.10., and Regiomontanus’s wooden eagle, which, as Hakewill relates, flew forth of the city, met the emperor, saluted him, and returned: as also his iron fly, which at a feast flew out of his hands, and taking a round, returned thither again. Apel. c. 10. §, 1Among automata are reckoned all mechanical engines which go by springs, weights, etc. included within them; such are clocks, watches, etc. See SPRING, PENDULUM, CLOCK, WATCH, etc.



The Word is Greek, αὐτόματον, compounded of αὐτός, ipse, and ματόν, facile, whence αὐτόματον, spontaneous.—The Cartesians maintain brutes to be mere automata. See CARTESIANISM, CAUSE, etc.

AUTOMATON