In 1791 Wolfgang von Kempelen built a device for generating speech utterances.
"An improved version of the machine was built from von Kempelen's description by Sir Charles Wheatstone (of the Wheatstone Bridge, and who is credited in Britain with the invention of the telegraph). It is shown below."
"Briefly, the device was operated in the following manner. The right arm rested on the main bellows and expelled air though a vibrating reed to produce voiced sounds." (This is illustrated in the lower half of the figure). "The fingers of the right hand controlled the air passages for the fricatives /sh/ and /s/, as well as the 'nostril' openings and the reed on-off control. For vowel sounds, all the passages were closed and the reed turned on. Control of vowel resonances was effected with the left hand by suitably deforming the leather resonator at the front of the device. Unvoiced sounds were produced with the reed off, and by a turbulent flow through a suitable passage. In the original work, von Kempelen claimed that approximately 19 consonant sounds could be made passably well."
James L. Flanagan, "Speech Analysis, Synthesis and Perception", Springer-Verlag, 1965, pp. 166-167.
