Friedrich von Knauss

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Friedrich von Knaus(s) was a German watchmaker and inventor who built clockwork mechanisms which could, in a simple way, play musical instruments, write short phrases, or conduct other individual, specialized tasks. He was born february 7, 1724, at Aldingen on Ludwigsburg, april 7 according to one source. He died august 14, 1789, in Vienna. His father Ludwig Knaus was already a watchmaker. Friedrich had a brother, Ludwig Johann, whose year of birth is said to have been 1715 or 1716.

From 1739 on he was busy with the Darmstadt great duke´s court and in 1749 he became "Hofmechanikus", court mechanic. Together with his brother he produced the famous "Kaiserliche Vorstellungsuhr", the Imperial Representation Watch, in 1750. Some of his most famous constructs were four mechanical speaking heads in 1770, however they were not very successful. That his project was not completely successful is attested to by the fact that in 1779 the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg used the production of a successful speaking head as the theme for a contest for mechanicians and organ manufacturers, specifying that the machine be capable of speaking the five vowels.

During the year of 1778 Knauss was requested as a captain to the artillery of Vienna.