The Canard Digérateur, also known as the Digesting Duck, was a mechanical device shaped like a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson. It was first shown to the public on May 30, 1764, in France. The duck seemed to be able to eat grains of food, process them, and produce waste. However, the duck did not actually digest the food. Instead, the grains were stored in one container, and pre-made waste was released from another container. Vaucanson hoped that one day a machine could truly digest food like a living creature.

In 1769, the writer Voltaire wrote, "Without the voice of le Maure and Vaucanson's duck, you would have no way to remember France's achievements."

The duck is believed to have been destroyed in a fire at a private museum in 1879.

Operation

The automaton was the size of a living duck and was covered in gold-plated copper. It could quack, splash water with its beak, drink water, and take food from its operator's hand. It swallowed the food quickly and excreted what appeared to be a digested version of it.

Vaucanson described the duck's inside as containing a small "chemical laboratory" that could break down grain. In 1844, the stage magician and automaton builder Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin examined the duck and discovered that Vaucanson had made the mechanism appear to work when it was actually fake. The duck's excreta were made of pre-made green breadcrumb pellets. Robert-Houdin called this trick "a piece of artifice I would happily have incorporated in a conjuring trick."

Modern influence

A copy of Vaucanson's mechanical duck, made by Frédéric Vidoni, was part of the collection at the Grenoble Automata Museum, which no longer exists. Another copy was created by David Secrett, an artist known for making models of archers.

The duck is mentioned in a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called "The Artist of the Beautiful." It is also discussed in a book by John Twelve Hawks titled "Spark." In Thomas Pynchon's novel "Mason & Dixon," the duck becomes self-aware and chases a chef who left Paris. The duck is also named in a book by Peter Carey called "The Chemistry of Tears." Vaucanson and his duck are mentioned in a novel by Lawrence Norfolk titled "Lempriere's Dictionary" and briefly in a book by Frank Herbert called "Destination: Void." The duck appears in a story by Lavie Tidhar called "The Bookman," where it is shown in the Egyptian Hall with the Turk. The duck is also an important part of a mystery novel by Max Byrd titled "The Paris Deadline."

In 2002, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye created the "Cloaca Machine," a mechanical artwork that eats food and turns it into waste, completing Vaucanson's dream of a working digestive machine. Many versions of the Cloaca Machine have been made. The newest version stands upright, resembling the human digestive system. The waste produced by the machine is sealed in special bags with the Cloaca brand and sold to art buyers. Every set of waste produced has sold out.