Victorian Talking Head

Nowadays when someone mentions the phrase "talking head," one either thinks of a TV expert or the 1980s band Talking Heads. But back in the 1840s, you might think instead of the lady on the left.

Phineas T. Barnum, the great Victorian showman, was delighted with his Talking Machine, though it was not one of his more popular exhibitions. I don't know why, exactly - perhaps it was too bizarre an experience for most people, to type letters and make a large head talk. It did have one eminent fan, though, as you will see.

The Automaton consisted of an artifical woman's head in a box frame, attached to a keyboard. When the keys were pressed, the head appeared to speak words and phrases. It was called the "Automaton Speaker." Barnum wrote in his autobiography that it had been invented by "an elderly and ingenious" German named Faber.

Barnum showed this machine along with other curiosities at Egyptian Hall, London in 1844. Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly, had been built in 1812 and was used for art exhibits and entertainments of various kinds. By the late Victorian period it was used mainly for Spiritualist and magical performances and exhibits.

When the Duke of Wellington visited this exhibit, he was convinced that a ventriloquist was providing the voice of the machine. But when he tried the keys for himself, and was able to make the head speak in English and German thereby, he was pleased. Wellington then wrote in the exhibitor's autograph book that he was very impressed, after all.


Sources:

Phineas T. Barnum, The Life of P.T. Barnum (1855), p. 135.

Mathew Brady's 1865 photograph is from Picture History.

Poster of Egyptian Hall courtesy of the British Library.

Picture of exterior of Egyptian Hall from Wikipedia.