The construction of machines capable of imitating even the mechanical actions of the human body, displays exquisite skill ; what then shall we say of one capable, not only of imitating actions of this kind, but of acting as external circumstances require, as if it were endow ed with life and reason ? This, however, was to all ap pearance accomplished by AI. de Kempelen, a gentle man of Presburg, in Hungary, who, excited to rival the mechanical performances of M. Vaucanson, was supposed at length to have greatly excelled them. We allude here to the androides which that gentleman not long ago exhibited at Paris, Vienna, London, and other places, and which was capable of playing skilfully at the game of chess. Every one in any degree acquainted with the principles of this game, must be well aware, that it is so far from being mechanically performed, that it requires a greater effort of judgment than is sufficient to accomplish many matters of greater importance. An attempt, therefore, to make a mechanical chess-player must appear nearly as ridiculous as to make a mechani cal counsellor of state. To all appearance, however, this wonderful problem was accomplished by M. de Kempe len, who, in 1785 and the following year, exhibited his androides in Britain to admiring crew, ds, who never en tertained the least suspicion that it was any thing else than a machine. In fact, the expedients to support the illusion were very ingeniously contrived, as will appear from the following description.
The chess-player of AL de Kempelen was a figure as large as life, dressed in a Turkish habit, and sitting be hind a table with doors, three feet and a half in length, two in depth, and two and a half in height, and running on four wheels. The androides sits on a chair which is fixed to the table or commode : he leans his right arm on the table ; in his left he holds a pipe, but with this arm he plays when the pipe is removed ; a chess board of 18 inches being laid before him. The doors of the commode being thrown open, it is seen to contain wheels, levers, cylidaers, and other pieces of mechanism; and in this state the machine is wheeled about the room. Tne vestments of the automaton are then lilted over its head, and the body is seen full of similar wheels and levers. A little door in its thigh is opened for a similar purpose.; after which every wing being disposed in its place, the automaton is ready to play ; and it always takes the first move.
At every motion the wheels are heard, the figure moves its head, and seems to look over every part of the chess board. When it checks the queen, it shakes its head twice, and thrice in giving check to the king. It likewise shakes its head when a false move is made, replaces the piece, and takes the move from the adver sary. It generally, though not invariably, wins the game. M. de Kempelen or his substitute were always near the machine when it played, and wound it up like a watch after it had made ten or twelve moves. A small square box was frequently consulted by the exhibitor during the game ; and herein, he said, consisted the se cret, which he could reveal in a moment.
M. de Kempelen's account of it was; " C'est une bagatelle qui n'est pas sans merite du cote du mecha nisme, mais les effets n'en paroissent st merveilleux que p r la hardiesse de l'idee, et par l'heureux choir des moyens employes pour lane illusion." He boasted that though it had been made in 1769, and exhibited at Presburg, Vienna, Paris, and London, to thousands, many of whom were mathematicians and chess-players, the secret by which he governed the motion of its arm was never discovered. The strongest and best armed
loadstone was allowed to be placed upon it whilst it played, by any of the spectators.
It appears, therefore, that M. de Kempelen himself avowed, that illusion had a considerable share in the wonderful performances of his androides, and in fact the secret by which he governed its arm, seems to have been satisfactorily explained soon after the time that he exhibited it in London. Mr Thomas Collinson, nephew to the late Peter Collinson, F. R. S. writes to Dr Hutton, that about the year 1790, he called on M. de Kempelen, at Vienna, but found him quite silent on the subject of the chess-player. The reason of this, he says, he found out at Dresden, where he got acquainted with a gentle man of rank and talents, named Joseph Frederick Frey here, who was supposed completely to have discovered the vitality and soul of the chess-playing figure. This gentleman had written a treatise on the subject, in the German language, accompanied by curious plates, neatly coloured, with a copy of which he presented Mr Col linson, and which he had also sent to M. de Kempelen, although that gentleman was unwilling to acknowledge that Mr F. had completely developed his secret. "A well-taught boy," says Mr Collinson, " very thin and small of his age (sufficiently so that he could be con cealed in a drawer almost immediately under the chess board) agitated the whole." (See Supplement to Hut ton's Mathematical Dictionary, art. AUTOMATON.) It must be acknowledged, however, that this explana tion is rather unsatisfactory, when we compare it with the above account of the public manner in which the internal structure of every part of the machine was ex hibited. Fortunately, however, we are enabled to sup ply the defect by the help of a curious little work pub lished at Paris, in the year 1785, and which contains an explanation of the structure of the most celebrated au tomata of modern times, as well as an account of the manlier in which the best siight-of-hand tricks, of Breslaw, Pinetti, and other celebrated legerdemain per formers were accomplished.* Among the rest, the chcss-player of M. de Kempelen is minutely described, and in our opinion, satisfactorily explained. According to this account, the machine was put in motion by a dwarf, a famous chess-player, who was concealed in the table, or commode. lie could not be seen when the doors were opened, because his legs and thighs were then concealed in two hollow cylinders, which appeared designed to support the wheels and lever; the rest of his body was at that moment out of the commode, and hid in the petticoats of the automaton. When the doors of the commode were shut, the clacks which were heard by the turning of a trounce, permitted the dwarf to change his place, and re-enter the commode without being heard ; and while the machine is rolled about to different parts of the room, to prove that it is perfectly detached, the dwarf has an opportunity of shutting the trap through which he passed. The petticoats of the automaton are then lifted up, and the interior part of the body is shewn, to convince the spectators that all is fair; and the whole terminates to their great astonish ment, and in the illusion, that an effect is produced by simple machinery, which can only arise from a well organized head.