【1791 | Von Kempelen’s Speaking Machine】 Replica Made and Played by Alexander Steinbeißer

(By VocaloP / ボカロP別) Wolfgang von Kempelen’s speaking machine The first attempts to produce human speech by machine were made in the 2nd half of the 18th century. Ch. G. Kratzenstein, professor of physiology in Copenhagen, previously in Halle and Petersburg, succeeded in producing vowels using resonance tubes connected to organ pipes (1773). At that time, Wolfgang von Kempelen had already begun with his own attempts that led him to construct a speaking machine. Von Kempelen was an ingenious person in the service of empress Maria Theresa in Vienna. He was born in 1734 in Bratislava, then capital of Hungary, and he died in Vienna in 1804. While he became known for various additional feats, his main concern was the study of human speech production, with therapeutic applications in mind. He has been called the first experimental phonetician. In his book Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst Beschreibung einer sprechenden Maschine (1791) he included a detailed description of his speaking machine - in order for others to reconstruct it and make it more perfect. The six drawings (three plus three) shown here below to the right, are taken from this book. (Click on them for an enlarged view, and use the back-button of your browser to return.) Von Kempelen’s machine was the first that allowed to produce not only some speech sounds, but also whole words and short sentences. According to von Kempelen, it is possible to acquire an admirable facility in playing the machine within three weeks, especially if one chooses the Latin, French, or Italian language, since German is much more difficult because of its many closed syllables and consonant clusters. The machine consisted of a bellows that simulated the lungs and was to be operated with the right forearm (uppermost drawing). A counterweight provided for inhalation. The middle and lower drawings show the ’wind box’ that was provided with some levers to be actuated with the fingers of the right hand, the ’mouth’, made of rubber, and the ’nose’ of the machine. The two nostrils had to be covered with two fingers unless a nasal was to be produced. The whole speech production mechanism was enclosed in a box with holes for the hands and additional holes in its cover. The air flow was conducted into the mouth not only by way of an oscillating reed, but also through a narrow shunting tube. This allowed the air pressure in the mouth cavity to increase when its opening was covered tightly in order to produce unvoiced speech sounds. Driven by a spring, a small auxiliary bellows would then deliver an extra puff of air at the release. With the left hand, it was also possible to control the resonance properties of the mouth by varied covering of its opening. In this way, some vowels and consonants could be simulated in sufficient approximation. This was not really a simulation of natural articulation, since the shape of the mouth of the machine in itself remained constant. Some vowels and, especially, the consonants [d t g k] could not be simulated in this way, but only feigned, at best. An [l] could be produced by putting the thumb into the mouth. The function of the vocal cords was simulated by a slamming reed made of ivory (leftmost drawing). Although the effective length of the reed could be varied, this could not be done during speech production, so that the machine spoke on a monotone. Two of the levers to be actuated with the right hand served the production of the fricatives [s] and [] as well as [z] and [] by means of separate, hissing whistles (right drawing). A third one effectuated the production of a rattling [R] by dropping a wire on the vibrating reed (middle drawing). The final version of von Kempelen’s machine is preserved to this day. It was kept at the k. k. Konservatorium für Musik in Vienna until 1906, when it was donated to the Deutsches Museum (von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik) in Munich, that had been founded three years before. There, it is exhibited in the department of musical instruments. This machine differs from the one described in the book in the presence of a handle, to be operated with the palm of the right hand, by which the oscillating length of the reed can be controlled during speech production. In this way it can be tried to simulate a natural course of intonation.