Digesting Duck

The Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, was an <a href="/facts/Automaton/SXtErQr2">automaton</a> in the form of a <a href="/facts/Duck/lNhVvTRH">duck</a>, created by <a href="/facts/Jacques_de_Vaucanson/YGTGtoxd">Jacques de Vaucanson</a> and unveiled on 30 May 1764 in France. The mechanical duck appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolize and defecate them. While the duck did not actually have the ability to do this—the food was collected in one inner container, and the pre-stored feces were "produced" from a second, so that no actual digestion took place—Vaucanson hoped that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.
<a href="/facts/Voltaire/h2pyULrC">Voltaire</a> wrote in 1769 that "Without the voice of <a href="/facts/Catherine-Nicole_Lemaure/bT2TQLuu">le Maure</a> and Vaucanson's duck, you would have nothing to remind you of the glory of <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">France</a>."
The duck is thought to have been destroyed in a fire at a <a href="/facts/Private_museum/C1X6F3AW">private museum</a> in 1879.

Digesting Duck open-in-new

Digesting Duck