"Vaucanson was in the market of ideas, "says Bernard Pin, curator of the Sandoz exhibition.

FORBES: Collecting

The origin of modern automata, though, came during the Enlightenment, inaugurated by French mechanician Jacques de Vaucanson in the 1730s.

FORBES

For example, French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson developed several different types of music playing robots back in the 18th century.

FORBES: The World of Clockwork Robots

With his philosophical toy, Vaucanson invited man to play god.

FORBES: Collecting

De Vaucanson built two astonishing humanoid musicians--one played the flute and the other played pipes and drum--yet the automaton that brought him the most fame was a life-size mechanical duck.

FORBES

Requiring more than a thousand moving parts, Vaucanson's duck was not only a mechanical marvel, but also begged some very Enlightenment-era intellectual questions: Was there anything more to life than mechanics and plumbing?

FORBES

Other mechanicians took up where Vaucanson left off.

FORBES