AUTOMATON CHESS-PLAYER. 273 



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 ex- 

 hibitor. That mechanical communication was 

 not formed between the exhibitor and the figure, 

 was obvious from the fact, that no such com- 

 munication was visible, and that it was not 

 necessary to place the machine on any particular 

 part of the floor. Hence the opinion became 

 very prevalent that the agent was a magnet ; but 

 even this supposition was excluded, for the ex- 

 hibitor allowed a strong and well-armed load- 

 stone to be placed upon the machine during the 

 progress of the game. Had the moving power 

 been a magnet, the whole action of the machine 

 would have been deranged by the approximation 

 of a loadstone concealed in the pockets of any 

 of the spectators. 



As Baron Kempelen himself had admitted that 

 there was an illusion connected with the perform- 

 ance of the automaton, various persons resumed 

 the original conjecture, that it was actuated by a 

 person concealed in its interior, who either played 

 the game of chess himself, or performed the 

 moves which the exhibitpr indicated by signals. 

 A Mr. J. F. Freyhere, of Dresden, published a 

 book on the subject in 1789, in which he endea- 

 voured to explain, by coloured plates, how the 

 effect was produced ; and he concluded, " that a 

 well-taught boy very thin and tall of his age 

 (sufficiently so that he could be concealed in a 

 drawer almost immediately under the chess- 

 board), agitated the whole." 



