AUTOMATON CHESS-PLAYER. 269 



its representative in the automaton, and its wings 

 were anatomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, 

 and curvature was imitated, and each bone exe- 

 cuted its proper movements. When corn was 

 thrown down before it, the duck stretched out its 

 neck to pick it up, it swallowed it, digested it, 

 and discharged it in a digested condition. The 

 process of digestion was effected by chemical 

 solution, and not by trituration, and the food 

 digested in the stomach was conveyed away by 

 tubes to the place of its discharge. 



The automata of Vaucanson were imitated by 

 one Du Moulin, a silversmith, who travelled with 

 them through Germany in 1752, and who died at 

 Moscow in 1765. Beckmann informs us that he 

 saw several of them after the machinery had been 

 deranged ; but that the artificial duck, which he 

 regarded as the most ingenious, was still able to 

 eat, drink, and move. Its ribs, which were made 

 of wire, were covered with duck's feathers, and 

 the motion was communicated through the feet 

 of the duck by means of a cylinder and fine 

 chains like that of a watch. 



Ingenious as all these machines are, they sink 

 into insignificance when compared with the 

 automaton chess-player, which for a long time 

 astonished and delighted the whole of Europe. 

 In the year 1769, M. Kempelen, a gentleman of 

 Presburg in Hungary, constructed an automaton 

 chess-player, the general appearance of which is 

 shown in the annexed figures. The chess-player 

 is a figure as large as life, clothed in a Turkish 

 dress, sitting behind a large square chest or box, 

 three feet and a half long, two feet deep, and 

 two and a half high. The machine runs on 

 castors, and is either seen on the floor when the 



