Joseph Bergmann’s Mechanical Wonder

Joseph Bergmann’s Automatic and Mechanical Wonders of 1870 and 1874!

THE MECHANISM OF A DREAM.
—
A German Dreams out an Automatic Wonder—A Curious Production—Singular Story of the Author of the Work.
A few days since we told a singular story detailing the arrest of two burglars through the instrumentality of a dream. We have now to record a more singular tale—how a man for fourteen years has been steadily working with one object in view—the perfection of a most wonderful piece of mechanism—having in the first instance received the impression of the idea from a dream, which wrought such an influence upon his mind that during all these intervening years he has followed it with an infatuation that could not be resisted, and which was sometimes so great that his daily avocation was neglected, and even his family were left without the necessaries of life. For the past six months he has labored almost constantly at his pet machine; and though often disappointed in the realization of his grand idea, often casting the work of months aside as some obstacle intervened to necessitate a change of plans, he has never been discouraged or disheartened. To the jeers of friends and the pleadings of his family he would always respond, “My dream, my dream!” It was to him the ignus fatuus which shone across the marshes and moors of disappointment, and proved to him the means by which one of the most curious and wonderful contrivances ever perfected has been produced.
The name of this man is Joseph Bergmann, and he lives in a little wooden house on Farm street, Ida Hill. Yesterday, having previously heard of Bergmann’s invention or contrivance, we took a walk up to the locality with two other gentlemen, and after being nearly mired in mud in our efforts to reach the house, we at last found it, and were kindly received by the proprietor. He ushered us into a room about eight feet square in which stood his wonder—the result of days and nights of toil,—occupying a goodly portion of the apartment. There was a little workbench near the window filled with diminutive tools without number, with which the curious thing had been fashioned and shaped, and cut and carved. But before we describe, even most imperfectly, the machine we had come to see, let us say something of its author. Bergmann is a German about fifty years of age, and speaks English most imperfectly. He is a little diminutive man, with a pale, sallow countenance, and a look which speaks of care and thought if not positive suffering. He is evidently very poor—the house is almost bare of furniture—and in speaking of the dream and the work which had so infatuated him, he said it would have been better for him if he had never experienced the one or undertaken the other. He is a cabinet maker by trade, and the skill of an almost marvelous handiwork as well as the stamp of remarkable inventive genius is to be seen in the construction of the machine. Bergmann informed us that fourteen years ago he dreamt one night of a machine such as stood before us. At first he thought little of it. Then it began to occupy his mind to the exclusion of other subjects, and after a time he commenced the work, at first at odd spells and then quite continuously for days. Some inexplicable power was urging him on every time he thought of giving it up. When the spells of infatuation came upon him, everything had to be abandoned. His ordinary work had to be laid aside even though there was no bread upon the cupboard shelf—and many a night the poor artisan went hungry to bed. But after years of anxious toil—the dream is verified—the work is completed.
THE WONDER.
We will now attempt to describe the machine, though we confess at the outset our inability to do it justice. it is so complicated and does such wonderful things that a perfect description would fill columns of our paper. We hardly know what to call it, even. It beats all the automatons in the world.
The reader must imagine beautiful miniature structure set upon a huge mass of rocks, with road-beds winding up the sides of the rocks, and streams of running water coursing down precipitous bluffs. This miniature house represents the residence of a wealthy old miller, with his grist mill, saw mill, oil mill, etc. adjoining. There are some thirty figures to be seen in the foreground, with the water playing, and a lake with a boat and oarsman. All these mills and figures and playing waters are set in motion by means of a combination of machinery similar to the works of a clock, and when these are wound up and set running every figure takes up its automatic movement. The old miller sits in an elegant apartment reading a newspaper. His eyes follow the column downward. His head inclines with a corresponding motion. The column is finished, and the sheet is turned over and the eyes are attracted to another portion of the paper. Every movement is wonderfully life-like. The miller’s wife sits in another apartment industriously spinning. The domestics are going about performing their daily toil. The saw mill is a perfect fac simile of such an institution. The log is in its place and slides along to meet the teeth of the saw, which is working up and down cutting it in two. The attendants are all busy in their several duties. The grist mill is also going. One man is tending and feeding the hopper. Every now and then he goes back and forth with a tray upon his shoulders, the contents of which he pours into the mouth of the hopper. The great water wheel is moving steadily under the pressure of the water from above, and the elevator keeps up its show of relieving a canal boat of its load of grain. Teams loaded with sacks are seen going to and from the mills. A man is perched upon the gable of the miller’s home, adjusting a little bird cage to the eaves, and doing his work most perfectly. The oil mill is also at work, and the figures are all busy about it performing their several missions. The boatman upon the lake is rowing backwards and forwards, and apparently having a good time all by himself. Thus the entire operations of an immense establishment are carried on with as much definiteness and aim as in real life, every figure doing its work with the utmost exactness—the whole forming the most wonderful combination of machinery we ever saw or expect to see.
Mr. Bergmann proposes to exhibit the curiosity next week. We believe the old man has a fortune in store for him after his years of vexation and trial. All who see it will be edified and instructed, and gain from it enlarged ideas of the capabilities of the human brain—even when worked upon and influenced, as in this case, by that strange and mysterious agency, a dream.
Troy Daily Times. November 4, 1870: 3 col 2.

City Notes. […]
—Joseph Bergmann’s wonderful mechanical contrivance—described a few days since in these columns—is now on exhibition in McCusker’s building on Congress street. It is well worth a visit, or several of them for that matter.
Troy Daily Times. November 8, 1870: 3 col 2.

Bergman Joseph, scroll work, house 9 Farm
Bergman Joseph jr. scroll work, house 7 Farm
Troy Directory, for the Year 1870: Including Lansingburgh, West Troy, Cohoes and Green Island. Vol. 42. Troy, NY: Wm. H. Young & Blake, 1870. 21. [First city directory to list the Bergmanns.]

☞ ANOTHER MECHANICAL AUTOMATIC WONDER—BERGMANN TO BE OUTDONE.—About a year since we have a description of an automatic curiosity which had been constructed by a German cabinet maker of this city named Bergmann, and subsequently it was exhibited for several weeks in Congress street, where thousands of citizens and strangers witnessed its operations. Mr. Bergmann recently sold it for $2,500, and this sum, together with the profits arising from the exhibition f the curiosity, enabled him to realize about $5,000 from his inventive skill. We believe he is now at work upon a still larger machine. But two Germans in Port Schuyler [City of Watervliet, south of the Arsenal] , Hermann Wagner and C. A. Bowman, are now engaged in the construction of an automatic machine which will wholly eclipse Bergmann’s wonder,and indeed every other curiosity of the kind ever conceived. They have been at work upon it now nearly an entire year, and they expect to have it done in about six months. It will occupy a stage nearly twenty-five feet square; and some idea of its immensity and intricacy may be conceived when we say that there will be nearly five thousand figures, most of them movable, connected with the machine! We ourselves should say that the conception is too vast to be successfully carried out, but the two builders say that they have the plans fully formed and that there is no doubt whatever of the perfect working of the machine. All the principal scenes of the old and new testament will be represented in it—such as Noah and the Ark, the building of the tower of Babel, Abraham offering sacrifice, Moses bringing Israel out of Egypt, Israel passing through the Red Sea, the drowning of Pharoah, Samson’s death, Elijah fed by ravens, the birth of Christ, raising the dead to life, Jesus walking on the sea, washing the disciples’ feet, the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and many others. In respect to the Bible it will be almost a reproduction of the scenes there described, and as an adjunct of Sunday school work almost invaluable. All the great battles, naval engagements, sieges and assaults of profane history are to be represented, and many other curious scenes depicted. Sixteen mills of various kinds are to be in operation. In fact, we cannot begin to describe the wonders which the automaton is destined to do, if the conceptions of the builders are fully realized; but we have said enough to show that the curiosity will be the “biggest thing of the kind” ever constructed. Messrs. Wagner and Bowman are devoting all their time to its construction. Besides their time they have already spent several hundreds of dollars upon it, and now find themselves a little cramped for means. We suggest that some gentleman of enterprise in this direction, anxious to foster and encourage home talent, and withal of a speculative turn of mind, lend them a helping hand or purchase an interest in the machine, which we understand can be secured at a small price comparatively.
Troy Daily Times. July 26, 1871: 3 col 1.

WONDERFUL, CURIOUS AND INGENIOUS—Bergmann’s “Automatic Wonder” or the “Germans Dream.” This is not a panoramic view or magnifying glass, but the original structure built by Joseph Bergmann, of Troy, N.Y. This is the same mechanized curiosity that P. T. Barnum offered thirty thousand dollars for the first week it was on exhibition. The Scientific American gave it a three [sic] column description, and in fact all the scientific journals throughout the country were more or less agitated in regard to this wonderful piece of mechanism. It can not be explained to you, neither can it be portrayed by a photograph or painting, but it has to be seen to be appreciated. Go and see it. It is now on exhibition in this city, corner of Washington and Spring streets.
Titusville Herald [PA]. November 29, 1871: 3 col 7. [Citing: “A Toy City.” Scientific American 41(1). July 5, 1879: 5 cols 1-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=fIk9AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA5 ]

We received a call yesterday from Mr. Lina Beecher, an old-time friend of years long passed away. Mr. B is advance agent for Bergmann’s Automatic Wonder; or, The German’s Dream,” a beautiful piece of mechanism, now on exhibition at Titusville, and which will be on exhibition in this town the latter part of next week. Ten years have passed away since last we gazed on the face of our friend Beecher, and altho’ time has worked many changes in the meantime, we found him the same kind hearted friend as of yore, and an extremely pleasant hour was passed in recalling to mind familiar faces and scenes of “the days when we were young.”
Petroleum Centre Daily Record [PA]. December 6, 1871: 2 col 2.

Bergman Joseph, automatic curiosity, house 3 Middle [108th Street], Lansingburgh
Bergman Joseph, jr., scroll work, house 7 Farm
Troy Directory, for the Year 1872: Including Lansingburgh, West Troy, Cohoes and Green Island. Vol. 44. Troy, NY: Wm. H. Young & Blake, 1872. 24.

Another Automatic Wonder.
Three years ago last November, the Times published quite a lengthy account of an automatic wonder invented by a German named Herr Bergmann. It will be remembered that the mechanical contrivance was exhibited for some time in the city; after which it was sold. The invention was said then to be the result of a dream which Mr. Bergmann had seventeen years ago, and for fourteen years he worked at his scheme, overcoming obstacles that at time appeared insurmountable, not heeding the jeers of his friends or the scoffs of the neighbors who knew of his secret. The first automaton was completed about the 1st of November, 1870, but even then he, not satisfied with the effort, had already commenced a second contrivance on a much larger scale. This is now completed, and will soon be ready for exhibition. We were shown the wonder a few days ago, and it is worthy of a brief description. It is intended to represent in a measure the business portion of a small village. There are a series of houses or compartments, each devoted to some special branch of industry, and the whole surmounted by a tower, on which there is a town clock and chime of bells. Commencing at the left hand side of the machine is a lager beer garden, with figures sitting around a table drinking. At intervals they raise the mugs to their lips, and a man stands beside a beer keg drawing the lager. To the right is a shepherd tending his flock. Beside him sits a maiden, at whom he occasionally “makes eyes”; and he also performs on a flagiolet held in his hand. The saw mill is a fac simile of such an institution. The log is in its place and slides along to meet the teeth of the saw, which is working up and down cutting it in two. The attendants are all busy in their several duties. The grist mill is also going. One man is tending and feeding the hopper. Every now and then he goes back and forth with a tray upon his shoulders, the contents of which he pours into the mouth of the hopper. The great water wheel is moving steadily under the pressure of the water from above, and the elevator keeps up its show of relieving a canal boat of its load of grain. The oil mill is at work, and the figures are all busy about it performing their several missions. A carpenter walks up and down a ladder while at his work. The scissors grinder is engaged at his vocation. An artist looks out of the window of his house and offers a pinch of snuff to the miller’s boy, while the old miller sits on the balcony reading books and papers which an attendant from time to time brings out to him. A woman in one house hands a man a fiddle, on which he is expected to play. Another woman watches for her lover, but is watched in turn by a jealous villager. The blacksmith shop is in full operation, the man at the forge blows the bellows, and the sparks fly from the fire as natural as life. One man is engaged in shoeing a horse, and another welds on the anvil. One man is cutting wood; a girl is watering plants, which gradually grow, bud, and bloom. Other figures are actively engaged, but they are too numerous to mention, there being over fifty in all. There are two fountains, a music box, bells, etc., all of which operate naturally. The whole forms a most wonderful combination of machinery, and is operated by means of weights. When wound up it will run three hours.
Bergmann is a German, about fifty years of age, and speaks English most imperfectly. He is a little diminutive man, with a pale, sallow countenance, and a look which speaks of care and thought. He is a cabinet-maker by trade, and the skill of an almost marvelous handiwork as well as the stamp of remarkable inventive genius is to be seen in the construction of the machine. The first machine was perfected on Ida Hill. The last one has been put up in a little house near Rensselaer Park, outside of the limits of which Mr. Bergmann has not been for years. The machine is in sections, so that it can be taken apart and moved from place to place without injury. It is five feet high and about ten feet long, being three times as large as the old one.
Troy Daily Times. April 4, 1874: 3 col 2.

—Bergmann’s automaton will be exhibited in Lansingburgh, at Firemen’s Hall, next week, commencing on Thursday. He calls it “The Spiritualistic Automaton”—the old man being a believer in spiritualism, and declaring that he is greatly “bothered” by the spirits.
“City Notes.” Troy Daily Tines. April 7, 1874: 3 col 1.

A Twenty Thousand Dollar Toy.
Joseph Bergmann, of Lansingburgh, has just completed an automatic wonder, on which he has labored constantly fo rthe past three years. Bergman has already refused twenty thousand dollars for the toy, which is thus described in the Troy Times.
It is intended to represent in a measure the business portion of a small village. There are a series of houses or compartments, each devoted to some special branch of industry, and the whole surmounted by a tower, on which there is a town clock and chime of bells. COmmencing at the left hand side of the machine is a lager beer garden, with figures sitting around a table drinking. At intervals they raise the mug to their lips, and a man stands beside a beer keg drawing the beer. To the right is a shepherd tending his flock. Beside him sits a maiden, at whom he occasionally “makes eyes;” and he also performs on a flageolet held in his hand. The saw mill is a perfect fac simile of such an institution. The log is in its place and slides along to meet the teeth of the saw, which is working up and down cutting it in two. The attendants are all busy in their several duties. The grist mill is also going. One man is tending and feeding the hopper. Every now and then he goes back and forth with a tray upon his shoulders, the contents of which he pours into the mouth of the hopper. The great water wheel is moving steadily under the pressure of the water from above, and the elevator keeps up its show of relieving a canal boat of its load of grain. The oil mill is at work, and the figures are all busy about it performing their several missions. A carpenter walks up and down a ladder while at his work. The scissors grinder is engaged at his vocation. AN artist looks out of the window of his house and offers a punch of snuff to the miller’s boy, while the old miller sits on a balcony reading books and papers which an attendant from time to time brings out to him. A woman in one house hands a man a fiddle, on which he is expected to play. Another woman watches for her lover, but is watched in turn by a jealous villager. The blacksmith shop is in full operation, the man at the forge glows the bellows, and the sparks fly from the fire as natural as life. One man is engaged in shoeing a horse, and another welds on the anvil. One man is cutting wood; a girl is watering plants, which gradually grow, bud and bloom. Other figures are actively engaged, but they are too numerous to [describe] here being over fifty in all. There are two fountains, a music-box, bells, etc., all of which operate naturally. The whole forms a most wonderful combination of machinery, and is operated by means of weights. When wound up it will run three hours.
Burlington Daily Sentinel [VT]. April 28, 1874: 1 col 4.

Ingenious Mechanism—A Wonder in a Traveling Tent.
—
The most ingenious piece of mechanism will be on exhibition for several days, on Seminary Green, near C. R. Andre & Co’s. Store, in this Borough, under canvass.—It is a building eleven feet wide and nine in height, after the Swiss style, with over fifty life-like mechanical figures working in and about the building at different trades and occupations.
This most artfully-contrived specimen of man’s ingenuity is the handi-work of German cabinet-maker named Joseph Bergmann, of Lansingburgh, N. Y. state, who was employed almost day and night, for over seventeen years, in the construction of the automaton, completing it some three years since. The inventor is now over seventy years of age.
Beckman & Co., proprietors, are on their way to the Centennial to place it on exhibition there.
This entertainment comes to us highly recommended by leading papers throughout the country.
The Jeffersonian [Stroudsburg, PA]. June 1, 1876: 2 col 2.

Bergman Joseph, scrollwork, h. 443 Congress [Third Avenue], Lansingburgh
Bergman Joseph jr. scrollwork, h. 450 Congress, Lans.
Troy Directory, for the Year 1876: Including Lansingburgh, West Troy, Cohoes and Green Island. Vol. 48. Troy, NY: Wm. H. Young & Blake, 1876. 31.

NOW ON EXHIBITION
First and only appearance of
BERGMANN’S WONDERFUL
Swiss Village
Combined with Prof. Bergers
Great
Automatic Exposition,
For a Few Days Only, at
Wagner Block, State St.
Bergmann beats the world
See his Mechanical Marvel without de-
lay. A masterpiece of Art, Science and
Mechanical Devices, costing the great
Baden-Baden inventor a lifetime of labor.
PROF. BERGER’S
Automatic Exposition,
All phases of
LIFE, SCENERY,
CHARACTER,
HISTORICAL
TRADITIONS.
Moving and operating by the most ingen-
ious automatic devices ever conceived by
mortal man.
You cannot afford to miss these great
intellectual marvels, giants of all auto-
matic inventions.
Open 9 A. M., to 10 P. M.
Admission to all, including reserved 10 cents.
seat for ladies only
Daily Chronicle [Centralia, WA]. January 17 1899: 3.

A MARVELOUS EXHIBITION.
—
The Automatic Swiss Village Which is Attracting Crowds of Our People.
Have you seen a Swiss village? There is a wonderful exhibition of one now on St. Main st., in the Y. M. C. A. building. […]
It is called Bergmann’s Automatic Temple or Swiss village, and no one can afford to miss the opportunity now offered to see the most wonderful piece of automatic mechanism ever on exhibition in this vicinity. It cannot be portrayed in a column of description nor comprehend exactly except by seeing it. […]
It took Joseph Bergmann, the great German inventor, 17 years to complete this masterpiece, but when he did so, at the age of nearly 70, he finished the greatest miracle of modern times. We advise every reader of the Argus to visit the wonderful exposition at the earliest opportunity. It will remain in our city only a few days. It is a miniature world’s fair itself.
Ann Arbor Daily Argus [MI]. April 29, 1899: 2 col 3.

PARKER’S GREATEST SHOWS.
KEMPF’S FAMOUS SWISS VILLAGE.
—
One of the Great feature attractions which will be seen with “Parker’s Greatest Shows”, which will exhibit at Leavenworth, Kansas, under the auspices of Leavenworth High School Cadets, 7 Big Days, Commencing Saturday, April 21, will be Kempf’s Famous Swiss Village. This wonderful mechanical exhibit was conceived and built by Joseph Bergman the famous Swiss Inventor, and is said to have cost him seventeen years of constant labor and study to bring to its completion.
It is a working model, on an extensive scale, of various kinds of machinery. The structure stands on an ornamental base representing a hillside, a great ledge of rocks, with underground arch-ways, railways, etc. The village is built up on the Swiss style with mansard roofs, bay windows and a series of balconies, verandas, etc. It is thronged with busy automatic workmen doing work in the mills, shops, factories and general work around a village as natural as life. The exact date of its completion is unknown, but after a tour of Europe it made its first appearance in New York City, in 1872, toured the New England states and appeared at the Centennial exposition which was held in Philadelphia in 1876, then making a tour of the South, visiting all of the principal cities as far as New Orleans, back to the north and exhibited in Chicago in 1880, thence to St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City and other cities of the west. It appeared at the great mechanics exposition which was held in San Francisco in 1886, and was assigned two hundred feet of the most desirable space in the exposition where for thirteen weeks it was the centre of attraction.
This wonderful exhibit was acquired by the Kempf’s in the year 1916, and they have worked constantly getting it into its present state of repair. It will appear in this city in perfect order and the verdict of one and who have witnesed it is that it is the greatest wonder of this remarkable age.
Leavenworth Post [KS]. April 18, 1917: 7.

The Story of Bergmann’s Swiss Village Now On Exhibit in the German American Building At A Century of Progress. Chicago, IL: 1933. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/century0810.pdf

P.T. BARNUM MUSEUM, 820 Main street, Bridgeport—Berman’s [sic] Swiss village, the mechanical and architectural marvel of the 19th century, with 43 moving figures, once owned by Mr. Barnum—a recent acquisition
“Museums.” Bridgeport Post. March 21, 1971: C7 cols 1-2.

A working model of a Swiss village has 22,000 movable parts […]
Winchester, James H. “Barnum Would Still Have a Few Things to Hail in Bridgeport.” N.Y. Times. January 7, 1979: 3.

[The Kempfs] for several years followed leads on P. T. Barnum’s Swiss Village. In 1916, they located it in Lansing, Mich., and acquired the Swiss Village for mere shipping fees. Hazel Helen recalled it was in pieces and her uncles brought it into the house in boxes and baskets. […] In 1921, the Kempfs were touring both the restored Alpine Village and their new Model City. […] The Kempfs quit touring their show in the early 1940s, and their Model Village was stored away in the shed behind the family barn where it was built. […] When niece Hazel Helen found the village again, it had been in storage for 20 years. She bought it for $60,000 and it is now on display at the Capac Historical Society Museum. In the fall of 2000, the museum put up a new building to properly display this historic piece of Americana.
Stencell, A. W. Seeing Is Believing: America’s Sideshows. Toronto, Canada: ECW Press, 2002. 197-199. (The Capac Historical Society Museum display may only haved included the Kempf’s own Model City, not the Swiss Village?)

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An “automatic village” of similar vintage: