Brigitte Felderer (2008) 'Orality', in _Zauberhafte Klangmaschinen: Von der Sprechmaschine bis zur Soundkarte_, Hainburg/IMA Institut für Medienarchäologie (Hg.), Schott Music, pp. 92-93.

Between 1783 and 1785, von Kempelen's speech machine was presented in public in Germany, Paris and London. The format invited the public to suggest some words to be repeated by the machine. At the end, the machine was explained in detail demonstrating that the aim was not spectacle, mystification or mere fascination, but to be of educational value and to give the deaf an instrument to produce speech. The idea was to generate a 'voice' in its fullest sense, as in free speech and expression, to give voice to those without a voice: following in the spirit of 'the basic tenets of society' as Kempelen put it (in Felderer 2008: 92). 

The sounds were generated not with pipes but with levers, valves and flexible rubber horn to simulate human speech. Significant is that the machine does not simply reproduce the human speech organs but also attempts sound synthesis. Following closely the instructions for von Kempelen's speaking machine of 1791, Jakob Scheid designed his speaking machine in 2001-2. In the contemporary version part of the fascination lies in its use of traditional materials in contrast to digital computer methods. The machine has bellows for lungs, a rubber horn for a mouth, and a box as a windchest. It is manually operated to manipulate controls to produce its disembodied voice.