ON CHESS
XIV - The Automaton Chess-Player - II
WE propose on the present occasion to describe the external appearance and the mode of performance of the chess automaton, as detailed by M. Windisch soon after its first introduction to the public. The reader will fancy himself a visitor to M. de Kempelen's study, as described in our last article.
The first object that catches the eye on entering this room is the automaton, placed opposite the door. The chest to which it is fixed is three and a half feet long, two feet deep, and two and a half feet high. It stands upon four castors, by which means it may be easily moved from one place to another. Behind this is a figure, the size of life, dressed in the Turkish fashion, seated in a wooden chair, attached to the chest, and which moves with it when it is wheeled about the room. This figure leans with its right arm upon the table, and in its left hand holds a Turkish pipe, in the attitude of a person who has just been smoking. It plays with its left hand, a circumstance which the inventor says was due to his own inattention, and not discovered until the work was too far advanced to rectify it. "But what does it signify," asks Windisch, "whether Titian painted with his left hand or his right ?" Before the automaton is a chess-board, screwed down to the table, to which its eyes are constantly directed. M. de Kempelen opens the front door of the chest and takes out the drawer at the bottom. The chest is divided by a partition into two unequal parts: that on the left hand is the narrower; it occupies little more than one-third of the chest, and is filled with wheels, cylinders, levers, and other pieces of clock-work. In that on the right are also seen some wheels, spring-barrels, and two horizontal quadrants. There is also a box, a cushion, and a tablet, on which are traced some characters in gold. The inventor takes out the box, and places it on a small table standing near the machine: he also removes the tablet, which is to be placed on the chess-board as soon as the game is over, to enable Ae automaton to answer such questions as may be put to him.
In the drawer above-mentioned are red and white chess-men on a board, with which they are taken out and placed on the side of the chess-board. There is also a small oblong box, containing six small chess-boards, each showing the end of a game. Any one of these situations being set up on the automaton's chess-board, he undertakes to win, whether he play with the red or the white men.
In showing the interior of the machine the inventor not only opens the front but also the back doors of the chest, by which the wheel-work becomes so exposed as to afford the most thorough conviction that no living being can possibly be concealed; and in order to make this exposure more complete, the inventor generally places a wax light in the chest, so as to illuminate every corner of it. He then lifts up the automaton's robe, and turns it over his head, so as to display the internal structure, which consists of levers and wheel-work, of which the body of the automaton is so full that there is not room to hide a kitten. Even his trousers have a little door in them, which is opened to remove even the shadow of suspicion.
M. de Windisch assures us that the inventor does not shut one door as soon as he opens another, "no, you see, at one and the same time, the uncovered automaton, with his garments turned up; the drawer and all the doors of the chest open. "In this state the inventor moves it about, and submits it to the inspection of the curious. After allowing sufficient time to examine it closely he shuts all the doors, and places it behind a balustrade, which prevents the company from shaking the machine by leaning upon it while the automaton is at play, and leaves room for the inventor to walk about, and approach the cupboard on either side, but he never touches it except to wind up the works. He then introduces his hand into the body of the automaton, in order to arrange the movements properly, and concludes by placing a cushion under that arm of the automaton with which he plays.
The inventor places the little box (before spoken of) on a table near the machine: there is, however, no visible communication between the automaton and the table or the little box; but while the automaton is playing, the inventor frequently opens this box, to examine its contents, which are unknown to the company. It was generally supposed that this box was merely a plan calculated to distract the attention of the spectators, but the inventor assured M. de Windisch that it was so indispensable that the automaton could not play without it.
We are now prepared to see the machine play. When the automaton is about to move he lifts his arm leisurely, and directs it to the piece which he intends to play: he suspends his hand over it, opens the fingers, takes it, places it on the proper square, and again removes his arm to the cushion. In capturing a piece he first removes his adversary's man, and then substitutes one of his own.
A slight noise of wheel-work, somewhat resembling that of a repeater, is heard during every move of the automaton. This noise ceases as soon as a move is made and the automaton's arm replaced on the cushion; and not till then can the adversary make a fresh move.
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The automaton always claims first move, and moves his head so as to look over the whole board whenever the adversary makes a fresh move. He nods his head twice when the adverse queen is attacked, and thrice when check is given to the king.
If the adversary makes a wrong move, the automaton shakes his head, returns the piece to the square from which it had moved, and then plays his move; so that the adversary loses his move as a punishment for his inattention or wilful mistake: this often happens, from a desire on the part of the player or the company present, to see the automaton detect a mistake, and and take advantage of it. This condition is one among others which facilitates the winning of games by the automaton.
The inventor requests those who play with the automaton to be careful to place the pieces exactly in the middle of the squares, lest the automaton in opening his hand to take the piece should miss it, or receive some damage. A move once made on either side is not allowed to be retracted.
The machine cannot make above ten or a dozen moves without being wound up again; but it is evident that the simple operation of winding up the springs of the arm of the machine can produce no other effect than that of restoring to it the vis matrix, without having any influence on its vis directrix. In this latter quality consists the principal merit of the machine, and here also lies the mystery; for the operation of winding up is the only one the inventor is seen to perform, and this the only time when he touches the machine. Mathematicians of all countries have examined it with the most scrupulous attention without being able to discover the least trace of its mode of operation.
I have frequently been in the apartment, (says Windisch,) where the automaton was at play, with twenty or thirty more persons, who kept their eyes rivetted on the inventor. We never saw him approach within two or three yards of the machine, nor do aught else than look occasionally into the box before mentioned; nor ever betray himself by the least motion which to us appeared capable of influencing the machine in any shape whatever.
To show also that magnetism has nothing to do with the movements of the chess automaton, the inventor permits any one to place the most powerful magnet on the machine.
The automaton also performs the feat of moving the knight over the sixty-four squares of the chess-board in as many leaps. One of the spectators places a knight on any square: the automaton immediately takes it, and observing the knight's peculiar move, begins at the square occupied by the knight, and causes the piece to cover the sixty-four squares in the same number of moves without missing one, and without touching one square twice: this is ascertained by one of the spectators putting a counter on each square he touches.
Such, then, is an account of the appearance and performances of the chess automaton, as exhibited soon after its first invention. We have given our description in, the present tense, as being better calculated to afford the reader an idea of the extraordinary sensation caused by this very remarkable machine.
Of all his inventions M. de Kempelen prided himself least on his automaton chess player. He frequently spoke of it as a mere trifle, and though considering it merely as a machine, (without reference to the plan adopted for putting it in motion,) it certainly possessed some mechanical merit, yet that the greater part of the reputation it had acquired was owing to a happy deception.
M. de Kempelen was far from coveting the celebrity which his automaton obtained for him, nor did he desire that it should he considered as a prodigy. He wished it to be understood that the wonderful effects of his machine were due to a certain boldness of thought on his part, and a happy choice of means employed in the deception. He was unwilling to part with his secret, and refused considerable offers made to him by persons who hoped to make their fortune by exhibiting it. He even threw aside the automaton in order to devote his mechanical abilities to new researches and inventions of a more serious nature, and more calculated for public utility; and although frequently visited by travellers from different countries, who wished to see his famous automaton, he declined showing it, stating that it had received damage in being moved about from place to place. He had, in fact, partly taken it to pieces, and left it for some years in a dilapidated state, in which condition it would have remained, but for the following circumstance: the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, with his consort, under the travelling titles of the Count and Countess du Nord, paid a visit to the Emperor Joseph the Second, at the Court of Vienna, who, wishing to gratify as much as possible his distinguished guests, bethought himself of de Kempelen's machine. In compliance, therefore, with the desires of his sovereign, de Kempelen got the automaton into working order within the space of five weeks. It excited the greatest surprise and admiration in the minds of the Count and Countess, who, as well as the principal nobility, advised the inventor to send it to some of the chief cities of Europe. The emperor approved of this plan, and gave de Kempelen leave of absence for two years for that purpose. The chess automaton was therefore despatched on its travels. In 1783 it first appeared at Paris with the greatest applause: it was beaten at chess by the professors at the Cafe de la Regence, but this circumstance by no means detracted from the merit of the machine, if such we may call it; nor did it tend to elucidate the mystery which was the grand cause of the excitement, which everywhere attended the presence of this automaton.
De Kempelen found the automaton so profitable an exhibition in Paris that he determined to visit London, where we hope to find him in our next article at No. 8, Savile Row, Burlington Gardens.
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Chess Archeology 
