326 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



into the machine. The interior of the figure was next 

 shown, and the spectators were satisfied that the box con- 

 tained no living agent. 



Although these views were very plausible, yet they 

 were never generally adopted ; and when the automaton 

 was exhibited in Great Britain in 1819 and 1820, by 

 M. Maelzel, it excited as intense an interest as when it 

 was first produced in Germany. There can be little 

 doubt, however, that the secret has been discovered ; and 

 an anonymous writer has shown in a pamphlet, entitled 

 "An attempt to analyse the Automaton Chess-player of M. 

 Kempelen," that it is capable of accommodating an 

 ordinary-sized man ; and he has explained in the clearest 

 manner how the inclosed player takes all the different 

 positions, and performs all the motions which are necessary 

 to produce the effects actually observed. The following 

 is the substance of his observations : 



The drawer G G when closed does not extend to the 

 back of the chest, but leaves a space O behind it (see 

 Figs. 69, 70, and 71), fourteen inches broad, eight inches 

 high, and three feet eleven inches long. This space is 

 never exposed to the view of spectators. The small 

 cupboard seen at A is divided into two parts by a door or 

 screen I, Fig. 68, which is moveable upon a hinge, and is 

 so constructed that it closes at the same instant that B is 

 closed. The whole of the front compartment as far as I is 

 occupied with the machinery H. The other compartment 

 behind I is empty, and communicates with the space O 

 behind the drawer, the floor of this division being removed. 

 The back of the great cupboard C C is double, and the 

 part P Q, to which the quadrants are attached, moves on 

 a joint Q, at the upper part, and forms when raised an 

 opening S, between the two cupboards, by carrying with 

 it part of the partition E, which consists of cloth tightly 

 stretched. The false back is shown closed in Fig. 69, 



