2(54 



ATTOMATON. 



days the new issue of bank notes sank twenty-five 

 per cent, in value for circulation, and, us all persons 

 engaged in purchases, and all debtors, seized the 

 opportunity in order to defraud the parties to whom 

 they were indebted, the misery entailed upon thou- 

 sands of families, which the mere loss reduced to 

 ruin, was iigirravati'd by the circumstance of the 

 gain in such eases being on the side of the impro- 

 vident, while the careful economist was despoiled 

 of his frugal hoards. If the total gain accruing to 

 the government by this step were revealed, there 

 is no doubt that we should find that it might have 

 been covered by the sale or mortgage of part or 

 the whole of those crown lands, whose existence 

 in the possession of the crown, alter the nation had 

 been called upon to make so cruel a sacrifice, 

 loudly accuses the rulers who would not give up 

 this means of influence to secure the welfare of 

 the people. 



This step may be said to have given the death- 

 blow to Austrian credit at home, the people not 

 yet having recovered confidence in the government 

 a fact which has shown itself on many occasions 

 within the last three years, when the near prospect 

 of a breach with France has invariably made the 

 public papers unmarketable at Vienna; and the first 

 declaration of war in Europe will be marked by a 

 fall of from 30 to 40 per cent, in their nominal 

 value. This does not proceed, however, from any 

 want of confidence in the resources of the empire, 

 the wealth of which is well known to its inhabi- 

 tants, but from the measures and avowed opinions 

 of the principal men at the head of public affairs. 

 It is known that an establishment of the finances 

 upon a sound footing has always been avoided, as 

 rendering imperative a degree of responsibility 

 which the ministers will not submit to, while the 

 annual increase of the taxes and the raising of 

 large loans after so long a continuance of peace 

 show how badly the present system of taxation is 

 working. Upwards of 40,000,000 has been 

 raised since 1816 by way of loan, and some mea- 

 sure of the kind adopted annually shows that the 

 revenues, large as they are acknowledged to be, do 

 not suffice to cover the expenses of the state. A 

 large proportion of this debt is stated to be in the 

 hands of the commissioners of the sinking fund; 

 and perhaps this is the fact, for the credit of 

 Austria has been in so fluctuating a state since 1830, 

 that the price of stocks has only been kept up by the 

 interference of the government, and the occasional 

 purchase of large sums when the market was de- 

 pressed.* 



AUTOMATON, (a.) We have spoken briefly 

 in the body of the work of various automata, or 

 pieces of mechanism made to resemble living crea- 

 tures in appearance and to perform their actions, 

 that have been exhibited, both in ancient and mo- 

 dern times, to the astonishment and delight of the 

 world. A fuller description of one or two of these, 

 from materials now before us, may interest the 

 reader. 



One of the most remarkable automatons ever | 

 contrived and executed, was the famous chess- 

 player, which challenged and beat some of the best 

 players of that game in every capital city of Europe. 

 Of this most ingenious piece of mechanism many 

 of our readers must have heard, though the explan- 

 ation of the wonder may not be so familiar to them. 



* For the above articlp, wliioh contains the most recent sta- 

 tistics f the Austrian empire. \vc ;.re indebted t<> the Foreign 

 Qu trterly Review. 



The automaton chess-player was constructed by 

 ."M. Kempelin, a Hungarian gentleman of education 

 and genius, residing at Preslwrg, in which city it 

 was first exhibited. It was afterwards brought by 

 the inventor to Vienna and 1'aris. and in ITN;J-4, it 

 was exhibited in London and other jiaitsof Britain, 

 where it WHS visited and examined by many hundred 

 thousand persons. It was subsequently carried over 

 all Europe, and after M. Kmnpelini death, was 

 brought a second time to Britain in 1611), to be 

 shown in public anew. During all this time, the 

 secret of the automaton's movements was never 

 publicly discovered, although it had been privately 

 purchased, as we shall see, and though such wax tin: 

 interest excited by it among the learned and the 

 ingenious, that several books were published on 

 the subject. 



The automaton, adorned with a splendid turban, 

 and dressed in the rich costume of an Asiatic sul- 

 tan, sat before a chess-board placed upon a sort of 

 cupboard, three feet high, two feet broad, and Com 

 feet long, arid moving on castors. The cylinder, 

 levers, and springs necessary for the machine were 

 in the cupboard; and before it was put in motion 

 the inventor took care to open the doors of the 

 cupboard alternately, and to point out that the 

 quantity of clock-work with which it was tilled 

 made it impossible to introduce any person into it. 

 As soon as an antagonist presented himself, the 

 exhibitor took up his long iron key, and wound up 

 the machinery with studied gravity, during which 

 the clicking of the wheels was distinctly heard. 



The eyes of the automaton were now directed 

 to the board, and. after due meditation, he lifted 

 up his arm, placed it over the piece that he intend- 

 ed to move, grasped it between his fingers, and 

 then put it on the square where it was to remain. 

 If a false move was made, he shook his head dis- 

 contentedly, and replaced the piece. When the 

 automaton gave check, his lips moved and uttered 

 a hoarse sound resembling shay, which served as a 

 notice to his adversary. 



Thus nothing which could favour the illusion 

 had been neglected ; and though on reflection it 

 appeared certain that the hand of the automaton 

 was guided, the method of the communication re. 

 mained a mystery. All eyes were turned to Kem- 

 pelin, and endeavoured to draw from his physiog- 

 nomy or gestures some hint of the means that he 

 employed but in vain. Sometimes he turned his 

 back to the table, and sometimes went several 

 steps from it, allowing three or four moves to be 

 played before he returned : the table too might be 

 moved at the will of the spectator, thus rendering 

 all communication with the floor or the next room 

 impossible. The examination which had been al- 

 lowed of the interior showed that a child or a 

 dwarf could not be concealed in it ; besides, sup- 

 posing that one had been there, how could he, at 

 the bottom of a cupboard, almost hermetically 

 sealed, see a game played on a board placed on the 

 table above ? 



The mystery was long impenetrable. When at 

 Berlin, Frederick the Great, in a moment of enthu- 

 siasm, paid a large sum for the machine and the 

 secret. When the mystery was made known to 

 him, its charm was over, and Frederick, unwilling 

 to make public that he had been duped, ordered 

 the automaton to be thrown into a lumber room 

 in the palace, where it remained for nearly thirty 

 years, buried and forgotten. 



When Napoleon was at Berlin, the automaton 



