The Zither-playing automaton Isis a creation of Dr. Cecil E. Nixon
(whose playlist featured over one-thousand songs - all voice activated)
In December of 1919, newspapers across the country carried the odd item to the left, describing the construction of a female automaton —- a mechanical woman named “Isis,” by one Dr. Cecil Evelyn Nixon, a San Francisco dentist. Described as containing 1,487 gears —- 300 in her breast alone, and being able to “play any tune requested on a zither,” the creation supposedly took sixteen years to build.
There’s certainly no mention of this mechanical wonder in the few earlier instances where Dr. Nixon received mention in newspapers, but we do learn more of this interesting fellow —- aptly described as a “colorful figure” upon his death in 1962. An eccentric, a dreamer, a skilled magician, and a self-described “Victorian Mystic” who dressed in frock coat, high collars and pince-nez decades after the style had fallen from fashion, Cecil Nixon was also a master showman and skilled self-publicist who, almost like the clockwork mechanisms contained within his automaton, secured newspaper space for himself at regular intervals between the late ‘teens and early 1960’s —- a remarkable feat in of itself for anyone of his ilk.
In June of 1917, Dr. Cecil Nixon was mentioned as participating in a Fairmont, California gathering of amateur magicians and slight-of-hand artists where he presented “a Hindu mystery with a real professional finish,” and in February of the following year at the “Golden Gate Assembly & Society of American Magicians” held in California’s Hotel Oakland, where he apparently partnered with one Dr. George Compton to present “new deceptions.”
In June of 1923, the syndicated feature to the right announced that Dr. Nixon (now dubbed “a lonesome professor”) had created a successor to his 1919 Isis automaton, this one named “Galatea.” Let’s enjoy the following sensational —- and somewhat sordid, description of Galatea —- supposedly in Dr. Nixon’s own words:
“Galatea, who plays upon a violin, has more accomplishments than even her elder sister Isis, who has already made a reputation as a zither player. How does she look? Galatea is a life-size figure of a woman. As contrasted with Isis, the dark Egyptian, she is a Nordic blond. The young woman, Miss Grace Carrol, who posed as a model for Galatea, is an American blond of Anglo-Dutch ancestry. So natural is the figure that as a distance of ten feet, she can be mistaken for a living woman. In her construction the union of art and science has been so carefully studied and applied that the automaton exhibits, while in action, the many graceful movements of a human violin player.”
“Galatea has the power to breathe —- air passes up through the nostrils and the chest expands. Her eyes move in a natural manner, and the flash of color on her cheeks deepens. She smiles, revealing her teeth. Both limbs and feet move slightly and shift their position during the playing of the violin. The entire coordination of these various gestures and movements provides the illusion of life.”
Anton Szandor LaVey had befriended Mr. Nixon before his death, and had told Doktor LaVey the most secret inner workings of his beloved Isis.
For further reading I suggest the book ‘Isis and Beyond’ The Biography of Dr. Cecil E. Nixon, available here from Feral House Books.