In the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century, listening and speaking devices such as those created by Athanasius Kircher were part of a growing number of early scientific tools displayed in wunderkammern. Other mechanical and technical instruments included compasses, clocks, automatons, telescopes, microscopes, geometrical tools, and astrolabes. In keeping with the universalist aims of wunderkammer, these devices were viewed as critical tools for expanding man’s knowledge of the universe.