324 LETTEKS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



stood near the machine, and wound it up like a clock 

 after it had made ten or twelve moves. At other times he 

 went to a corner of the room, as if it were to consult a 

 small square box, which stood open for this purpose. 



The chess-playing machine, as thus described, was 

 exhibited after its completion in Presburg, Vienna, and 

 Paris, to thousands, and in 1783 and 1784 it was exhibited 

 in London and different parts of England, without the 

 secret of its movements having been discovered. Its 

 ingenious inventor, who was a gentleman and a man of 

 education, never pretended that the automaton itself 

 really played the game. On the contrary, he distinctly 

 stated, " that the machine was a bagatelle, which was not 

 without merit in point of mechanism, but that the effects 

 of it appeared so marvellous only from the ^boldness of 

 the conception, and the fortunate choice of the methods 

 adopted for promoting the illusion." 



Upon considering the operations of this automaton, it 

 must have been obvious that the game of chess was 

 performed either by a person enclosed in the chest, or by 

 the exhibitor himself. The first of these hypotheses was 

 ingeniously excluded by the display of the interior of the 

 machine, for as every part contained more or less 

 machinery, the spectator invariably concluded that the 

 smallest dwarf could not be accommodated within, and 

 this idea was strengthened by the circumstance, that no 

 person of this description could be discovered in the suite 

 of the exhibitor. Hence the conclusion was drawn, that 

 the exhibitor actuated the machine either by mechanical 

 means conveyed through its feet, or by a magnet concealed 

 in the body of the exhibitor. That mechanical communi- 

 cation was not formed between the exhibitor and the 

 figure, was obvious from the fact, that no such communi- 

 cation was visible, and that it was not necessary to place 

 the machine on any particular part of the floor. Hence 



