Template:Are You Sure/May 30

... that the Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, was an automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson and unveiled on May 30, 1739 in France; that the mechanical duck appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolize and defecate them; and that, 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?