The big folios and the stuffed birds signified their approval by saying nothing, and the skeleton also was silent as to the fact that his own head had formerly been severed from his body because he had put into practice similar subtleties in his lifetime; only the Automatical dog kept on wagging his tail, as if to say, "No, no!"
"Pretty Michal"
Mór Jókai
With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco, caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an Automatical system which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing it with their powerful pincers.
"The Moon-Voyage"
Jules Verne