Page 63 - Expanded Media & the MediaPlex

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Faber’s Euphonia was based upon Wolfgang von Kempelen’s functional representational model of the human vocal tract, as embodied in several of von Kempelen’s fabulous Automatons in the 1770s. “Shortly after the completion and exhibition of his Speaking Machine, in 1804, von Kempelen died, though not before publishing an extremely comprehensive journal of the past twenty years of his research in phonetics. The 456-page book, titled Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst Beschreibung einer sprechenden Maschine (which translates to The Mechanism of Human Speech, with a Description of a Speaking Machine, published in 1791), contained every technical aspect of both Kempelen's construction of the Speaking Machine (including the preliminary designs) and his studies of the human vocal tract.” (wikipedia).
Joseph Henry the inventor of the electro-mechanical relay, inspected Fsber’s Euphonia in 1845: “I have seen the speaking figure of Mr. Wheatstone of London," Henry wrote in a letter to a former student, "but it cannot be compared with this which instead of uttering a few words is capable of speaking whole sentences composed of any words what ever."
There’s a wonderfully touching collation of eye-witness reports on Faber’s Euphonia at https://history- computer.com/Dreamers/Faber.html