It was bound to happen in our technology-mad world. A device has been invented that not only replaces humans, but also lays them to rest.

It looks like a bugle. It sounds like a bugle -- hauntingly enough to move a funeral mourner to compliment Glenn Hasheider on his rendition of taps last week at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis.

But what Mr. Hasheider did not have the heart to tell the mourner was this:

It's not a bugle, exactly.

It is a bugle discreetly fitted with a battery-operated conical insert that plays the 24 notes of taps at the flick of a switch. It is all digital, with no human talent or breath required. All you do is hold it up, turn it on and try to look like a bugler.

Which Mr. Hasheider, a 61-year-old retired Air Force technical sergeant who says he can not play a simple scale on a real horn, managed to pull off with enough panache to win a mourner's praise.