text: the turk the turk , also known as the mechanical turk or automaton chess player ( german : , " chess turk " ; hungarian : a török ) , was a fake chess - playing machine constructed in the late 18th century . from 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854 it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton , though it was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax . constructed and unveiled in 1770 by wolfgang von kempelen ( hungarian : kempelen farkas ; 1734 – 1804 ) to impress the empress maria theresa of austria , the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent , as well as perform the knight 's tour , a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once . the turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine . with a skilled operator , the turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around europe and the americas for nearly 84 years , playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as napoleon bonaparte and benjamin franklin . the operators within the mechanism during kempelen 's original tour remain a mystery . the device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by johann nepomuk mälzel . the chess masters who secretly operated it included johann , , aaron alexandre , william lewis , jacques , and william schlumberger . construction of the turk kempelen was inspired to build the turk following his attendance at the court of maria theresa of austria at schönbrunn palace , where françois pelletier was performing an illusion act . an exchange afterward resulted in kempelen promising to return to the palace with an invention that would top the illusions . the result of the challenge was the automaton chess - player , known in modern times as the turk . the machine consisted of a life - sized model of a human head and torso , with a black beard and grey eyes , and dressed in turkish robes and a turban – " the traditional costume " , according to journalist and author tom standage , " of an oriental sorcerer " . its left arm held a long turkish smoking pipe while at rest , while its right lay on the top of a large cabinet that measured about three - and - a - half feet ( 110 cm ) long , two feet ( 60 cm ) wide , and two - and - a - half feet ( 75 cm ) high . placed on the top of the cabinet was a chessboard , which measured eighteen inches square . the front of the cabinet consisted of three doors , an opening , and a drawer , which could be opened to reveal a red and white ivory chess set . the interior of the machine was very complicated and designed to mislead those who observed it . when opened on the left , the front doors of the cabinet exposed a number of gears and cogs similar to clockwork . the section was designed so that if the back doors of the cabinet were open at the same time one could see through the machine . the other side of the cabinet did not house machinery ; instead it contained a red cushion and some removable parts , as well as brass structures . this area was also designed to provide a clear line of vision through the machine . underneath the robes of the turkish model , two other doors were hidden . these also exposed clockwork machinery and provided a similarly unobstructed view through the machine . the design allowed the presenter of the machine to open every available door to the public , to maintain the illusion . neither the clockwork visible to the left side of the machine nor the drawer that housed the chess set extended fully to the rear of the cabinet ; they instead went only one third of the way . a sliding seat was also installed , allowing the director inside to slide from place to place and thus evade observation as the presenter opened various doors . the sliding of the seat caused dummy machinery to slide into its place to further conceal the person inside the cabinet . the chessboard on the top of the cabinet was thin enough to allow for a magnetic linkage . each piece in the chess set had a small , strong magnet attached to its base , and when they were placed on the board the pieces would attract a magnet attached to a string under their specific places on the board . this allowed the director inside the machine to see which pieces moved where on the chess board . the bottom of the chessboard had corresponding numbers , 1 – 64 , allowing the director to see which places on the board were affected by a player 's move . the internal magnets were positioned in a way that outside magnetic forces did not influence them , and kempelen would often allow a large magnet to sit at the side of the board in an attempt to show that the machine was not influenced by magnetism . as a further means of misdirection , the turk came with a small wooden coffin - like box that the presenter would place on the top of the cabinet . while johann nepomuk mälzel , a later owner of the machine , did not use the box , kempelen often peered into the box during play , suggesting that the box controlled some aspect of the machine . the box was believed by some to have supernatural power , with karl gottlieb von windisch writing in his 1784 book inanimate reason that " [ o ] ne old lady , in particular , who had not forgotten the tales she had been told in her youth … went and hid herself in a window seat , as distant as she could from the evil spirit , which she firmly believed possessed the machine " . the interior also contained a chess board connected to a pantograph - style series of levers that controlled the model 's left arm . the metal pointer on the pantograph moved over the interior chessboard , and would simultaneously move the arm of the turk over the chessboard on the cabinet . the range of motion allowed the director to move the turk 's arm up and down , and turning the lever would open and close the turk 's hand , allowing it to grasp the pieces on the board . all of this was made visible to the director by using a simple candle , which had a ventilation system through the model . other parts of the machinery allowed for a clockwork - type sound to be played when the turk made a move , further adding to the machinery illusion , and for the turk to make various facial expressions . a voice box was added following the turk 's acquisition by mälzel , allowing the machine to say " ! " ( french for " check " ) during matches . an operator inside the machine also had tools to assist in communicating with the presenter outside . two brass discs equipped with numbers were positioned opposite each other on the inside and outside of the cabinet . a rod could rotate the discs to the desired number , which acted as a code between the two . exhibition the turk made its debut in 1770 at schönbrunn palace , about six months after pelletier 's act . kempelen addressed the court , presenting what he had built , and began the demonstration of the machine and its parts . with every showing of the turk , kempelen began by opening the doors and drawers of the cabinet , allowing members of the audience to inspect the machine . following this display , kempelen would announce that the machine was ready for a challenger . kempelen would inform the player that the turk would use the white pieces and have the first move . between moves the turk kept its left arm on the cushion . the turk could nod twice if it threatened its opponent 's queen , and three times upon placing the king in check . if an opponent made an illegal move , the turk would shake its head , move the piece back and make its own move , thus forcing a forfeit of its opponent 's move . louis , a traveller who observed a showing of the turk , attempted to trick the machine " by giving the queen the move of a knight , but my mechanic opponent was not to be so imposed upon ; he took up my queen and replaced her in the square from which i had moved her " . kempelen made it a point to traverse the room during the match , and invited observers to bring magnets , irons , and to the cabinet to test whether the machine was run by a form of magnetism or weights . the first person to play against the turk was count ludwig von , an austrian courtier at the palace . along with other challengers that day , he was quickly defeated , with observers of the match stating that the machine played aggressively , and typically beat its opponents within thirty minutes . another part of the machine 's exhibition was the completion of the knight 's tour , a famed chess puzzle . the puzzle requires the player to move a knight around a chessboard , touching each square once along the way . while most experienced chess players of the time still struggled with the puzzle , the turk was capable of completing the tour without any difficulty from any starting point via a used by the director with a mapping of the puzzle laid out . the turk also had the ability to converse with spectators using a letter board . the director , whose identity during the period when kempelen presented the machine at schönbrunn palace is unknown , was able to do this in english , french , and german . carl friedrich hindenburg , a university mathematician , kept a record of the conversations during the turk 's time in leipzig and published it in 1789 as über den schachspieler des herrn von kempelen und ( or on the of mr. von kempelen and its replica ) . topics of questions put to and answered by the turk included its age , marital status , and its secret workings . tour of europe following word of its debut , interest in the machine grew across europe . kempelen , however , was more interested in his other projects and avoided exhibiting the turk , often lying about the machine 's repair status to prospective challengers . von windisch wrote at one point that kempelen " refused the entreaties of his friends , and a crowd of curious persons from all countries , the satisfaction of seeing this far - famed machine " . in the decade following its debut at schönbrunn palace the turk only played one opponent , sir robert murray keith , a scottish noble , and kempelen went as far as dismantling the turk entirely following the match . kempelen was quoted as referring to the invention as a " mere bagatelle " , as he was not pleased with its popularity and would rather continue work on steam engines and machines that replicated human speech . in 1781 , kempelen was ordered by emperor joseph ii to reconstruct the turk and deliver it to vienna for a state visit from grand duke paul of russia and his wife . the appearance was so successful that grand duke paul suggested a tour of europe for the turk , a request to which kempelen reluctantly agreed . the turk began its european tour in 1783 , beginning with an appearance in france in april . a stop at versailles preceded an exhibition in paris , where the turk lost a match to charles godefroy de la tour d 'auvergne , the duc de bouillon . upon arrival in paris in may 1783 , it was displayed to the public and played a variety of opponents , including a lawyer named mr. bernard who was a second rank in chess ability . following the sessions at versailles , demands increased for a match with françois - andré danican philidor , who was considered the best chess player of his time . moving to the café de la régence , the machine played many of the most skilled players , often losing ( e.g. against bernard and ) , until securing a match with philidor at the académie des sciences . while philidor won his match with the turk , philidor 's son noted that his father called it " his most fatiguing game of chess ever ! " the turk 's final game in paris was against benjamin franklin , who was serving as ambassador to france from the united states . franklin reportedly enjoyed the game with the turk and was interested in the machine for the rest of his life , keeping a copy of philip thicknesse 's book the speaking figure and the automaton chess player , exposed and detected in his personal library . following his tour of paris , kempelen moved the turk to london , where it was exhibited daily for five shillings . thicknesse , known in his time as a skeptic , sought out the turk in an attempt to expose the inner workings of the machine . while he respected kempelen as " a very ingenious man " , he asserted that the turk was an elaborate hoax with a small child inside the machine , describing the machine as " a complicated piece of clockwork ... which is nothing more , than one , of many other ingenious devices , to and delude the observers " . after a year in london , kempelen and the turk travelled to leipzig , stopping in various european cities along the way . from leipzig , it went to dresden , where joseph friedrich freiherr von viewed the turk and published his findings in über den schachspieler des herrn von kempelen und , along with illustrations showing his beliefs about how the machine operated . it then moved to amsterdam , after which kempelen is said to have accepted an invitation to the sanssouci palace in potsdam of frederick the great , king of prussia . the story goes that frederick enjoyed the turk so much that he paid a large sum of money to kempelen in exchange for the turk 's secrets . frederick never gave the secret away , but was reportedly disappointed to learn how the machine worked . ( this story is almost certainly apocryphal ; there is no evidence of the turk 's encounter with frederick , the first mention of which comes in the early 19th century , by which time the turk was also incorrectly said to have played against george iii of england . ) it seems most likely that the machine stayed dormant at schönbrunn palace for over two decades , although kempelen attempted unsuccessfully to sell it in his final years . kempelen died at age 70 on 26 march 1804 . mälzel and the machine following the death of kempelen , the turk remained until some time before 1804 when kempelen 's son decided to sell it to johann nepomuk mälzel , a bavarian musician with an interest in various machines and devices . mälzel , whose successes included patenting a form of metronome , had tried to purchase the turk once before , before kempelen 's death . the original attempt had failed , owing to kempelen 's asking price of 20 , 000 francs ; kempelen 's son sold the machine to mälzel for half this sum . upon acquiring the turk , mälzel had to learn its secrets and make some repairs to get it back in working order . his stated goal was to make explaining the turk a greater challenge . while the completion of this goal took ten years , the turk still made appearances , most notably with napoleon bonaparte . in 1809 , napoleon i of france arrived at schönbrunn palace to play the turk . according to an eyewitness report , mälzel took responsibility for the construction of the machine while preparing the game , and the turk ( johann baptist ) saluted napoleon before the start of the match . the details of the match have been published over the years in numerous accounts , many of them contradictory . according to bradley ewart , it is believed that the turk sat at its cabinet , and napoleon sat at a separate chess table . napoleon 's table was in a roped - off area and he was not allowed to cross into the turk 's area , with mälzel crossing back and forth to make each player 's move and allowing a clear view for the spectators . in a surprise move , napoleon took the first turn instead of allowing the turk to make the first move , as was usual ; but mälzel allowed the game to continue . shortly thereafter , napoleon attempted an illegal move . upon noticing the move , the turk returned the piece to its original spot and continued the game . napoleon attempted the illegal move a second time , and the turk responded by removing the piece from the board entirely and taking its turn . napoleon then attempted the move a third time , the turk responding with a sweep of its arm , knocking all the pieces off the board . napoleon was reportedly amused , and then played a real game with the machine , completing nineteen moves before tipping over his king in surrender . alternate versions of the story include napoleon being unhappy about losing to the machine , playing the machine at a later time , playing one match with a magnet on the board , and playing a match with a shawl around the head and body of the turk in an attempt to obscure its vision . in 1811 , mälzel brought the turk to milan for a performance with eugène de beauharnais , the prince of venice and viceroy of italy . beauharnais enjoyed the machine so much that he offered to purchase it from mälzel . after some serious bargaining , beauharnais acquired the turk for 30 , 000 francs – three times what mälzel had paid – and kept it for four years . in 1815 , mälzel returned to beauharnais in munich and asked to buy the turk back . two versions of how much he had to pay exist , eventually working out an agreement . one version appeared in the france letter . the complete story does not make a lot of sense since mälzel visited paris again , and he also could import his " conflagration of moscow " . following the repurchase , mälzel brought the turk back to paris where he made acquaintances of many of the leading chess players at café de la régence . mälzel stayed in france with the machine until 1818 , when he moved to london and held a number of performances with the turk and many of his other machines . in london , mälzel and his act received a large amount of press , and he continued improving the machine , ultimately installing a voice box so the machine could say " ! " when placing a player in check . in 1819 , mälzel took the turk on a tour of the united kingdom . there were several new developments in the act , such as allowing the opponent the first move and eliminating the king 's bishop 's pawn from the turk 's pieces . this pawn handicap created further interest in the turk , and spawned a book by w. j. chronicling the matches played with this handicap . despite the handicap , the turk ( operated by at the time ) ended up with forty - five victories , three losses , and two stalemates . mälzel in america the appearances of the turk were profitable for mälzel , and he continued by taking it and his other machines to the united states . in 1826 , he opened an exhibition in new york city that slowly grew in popularity , giving rise to many newspaper stories and anonymous threats of exposure of the secret . mälzel 's problem was finding a proper director for the machine , having trained an unknown woman in france before coming to the united states . he ended up recalling a former director , william schlumberger , from alsace in europe to come to america and work for him again once mälzel was able to provide the money for schlumberger 's transport . upon schlumberger 's arrival , the turk debuted in boston , mälzel spinning a story that the new york chess players could not handle full games and that the boston players were much better opponents . this was a success for many weeks , and the tour moved to philadelphia for three months . following philadelphia , the turk moved to baltimore , where it played for a number of months , including losing a match against charles carroll , a signer of the declaration of independence . the exhibition in baltimore brought news that two brothers had constructed their own machine , the walker chess - player . mälzel viewed the competing machine and attempted to buy it , but the offer was declined and the duplicate machine toured for a number of years , never receiving the fame that mälzel 's machine did and eventually falling into obscurity . mälzel continued with exhibitions around the united states until 1828 , when he took some time off and visited europe , returning in 1829 . throughout the 1830s , he continued to tour the united states , exhibiting the machine as far west as the mississippi river and visiting canada . in richmond , virginia , the turk was observed by edgar allan poe , who was writing for the southern literary messenger . poe 's essay " 's chess player " was published in april 1836 and is the most famous essay on the turk , even though many of poe 's hypotheses were incorrect ( such as that a chess - playing machine must always win ) . mälzel eventually took the turk on his second tour to havana , cuba . in cuba , schlumberger died of yellow fever , leaving mälzel without a director for his machine . dejected , mälzel died at sea in 1838 at age 66 during his return trip , leaving his machinery with the ship captain . final years and beyond upon the return of the ship on which mälzel died , his various machines , including the turk , fell into the hands of a friend of mälzel 's , the businessman john ohl . he attempted to auction off the turk , but owing to low bidding ultimately bought it himself for $ 400 . only when john kearsley mitchell from philadelphia , edgar allan poe 's personal physician and an admirer of the turk , approached ohl did the turk change hands again . mitchell formed a restoration club and went about the business of repairing the turk for public appearances , completing the restoration in 1840 . as interest in the turk outgrew its location , mitchell and his club chose to donate the machine to the chinese museum of charles willson peale . while the turk still occasionally gave performances , it was eventually relegated to the corners of the museum and forgotten about until 5 july 1854 , when a fire that started at the national theater in philadelphia reached the museum and destroyed the turk . mitchell believed he had heard " through the struggling flames ... the last words of our departed friend , the sternly whispered , oft repeated syllables , ' ! ! ! ' " john gaughan , an american manufacturer of equipment for magicians based in los angeles , spent $ 120 , 000 building his own version of kempelen 's machine over a five - year period from 1984 . the machine uses the original chessboard , which was stored separately from the original turk and was not destroyed in the fire . the first public display of gaughan 's turk was in november 1989 at a history of magic conference . the machine was presented much as kempelen presented the original , except that the opponent was replaced by a computer running a chess program . revealing the secrets while many books and articles were written during the turk 's life about how it worked , most were inaccurate , drawing incorrect inferences from external observation . it was not until dr. silas mitchell 's series of articles for the chess monthly that the secret was fully revealed . mitchell , son of the final private owner of the turk , wrote that " no secret was ever kept as the turk 's has been . at , in part , many times , no one of the several explanations ... ever solved this amusing puzzle " . as the turk was lost to fire at the time of this publication , silas mitchell felt that there were " no longer any reasons for concealing from the amateurs of chess , the solution to this ancient enigma " . the most important biographical history about the chess - player and mälzel was presented in the book of the first american chess congress , published by daniel willard fiske in 1857 . the account , " the automaton chess - player in america , " was written by professor george allen of philadelphia , in the form of a letter to william lewis , one of the former operators of the chess automaton . in 1859 , a letter published in the philadelphia sunday dispatch by william f. kummer , who worked as a director under john mitchell , revealed another piece of the secret : a candle inside the cabinet . a series of tubes led from the lamp to the turban of the turk for ventilation . the smoke rising from the turban would be disguised by the smoke coming from the other candelabra in the area where the game was played . later in 1859 , an uncredited article appeared in littell 's living age that purported to be the story of the turk from french magician jean eugène robert - houdin . this was rife with errors ranging from dates of events to a story of a polish officer whose legs were amputated , but ended up being rescued by kempelen and smuggled back to russia inside the machine . a new article about the turk did not turn up until 1899 , when the american chess magazine published an account of the turk 's match with napoleon bonaparte . the story was basically a review of previous accounts , and a substantive published account would not appear until 1947 , when chess review published articles by kenneth harkness and jack straley battell that amounted to a comprehensive history and description of the turk , complete with new diagrams that synthesized information from previous publications . another article written in 1960 for american heritage by ernest wittenberg provided new diagrams describing how the director sat inside the cabinet . in henry a. davidson 's 1945 publication a short history of chess , significant weight is given to poe 's essay which erroneously suggested that the player sat inside the turk figure , rather than on a moving seat inside the cabinet . a similar error would occur in alex g. bell 's 1978 book the machine plays chess , which falsely asserted that " the operator was a trained boy ( or very small adult ) who followed the directions of the chess player who was hidden elsewhere on stage or in the theater … " more books were published about the turk toward the end of the 20th century . along with bell 's book , charles michael carroll 's the great chess automaton ( 1975 ) focused more on the studies of the turk . bradley ewart 's chess : man vs. machine ( 1980 ) discussed the turk as well as other purported chess - playing automatons . it was not until the creation of deep blue , ibm 's attempt at a computer that could challenge the world 's best players , that interest increased again , and two more books were published : gerald m. levitt 's the turk , chess automaton ( 2000 ) , and tom standage 's the turk : the life and times of the famous eighteenth - century chess - playing machine , published in 2002 . the turk was used as a personification of deep blue in the 2003 documentary game over : kasparov and the machine . legacy and popular culture owing to the turk 's popularity and mystery , its construction inspired a number of inventions and imitations , including , or " the egyptian " , an american imitation built by charles hopper that president grover cleveland played in 1885 , and mephisto , the self - described " most famous " machine , of which little is known . the first imitation was made while mälzel was in baltimore . created by the brothers walker , the " american chess player " made its debut in may 1827 in new york . el was built in 1912 by leonardo torres y quevedo as a chess - playing automaton and made its public debut during the paris world fair of 1914 . capable of playing rook and king versus king endgames using electromagnets , it was the first true chess - playing automaton , and a precursor of sorts to deep blue . the turk was visited in london by rev. edmund cartwright in 1784 . he was so intrigued by the turk that he would later question whether " it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave than one which shall make all the variety of moves required in that complicated game " . cartwright would patent the prototype for a power loom within the year . sir charles wheatstone , an inventor , saw a later appearance of the turk while it was owned by mälzel . he also saw some of mälzel 's speaking machines , and mälzel later presented a demonstration of the speaking machines to the researcher and his teenage son . alexander graham bell obtained a copy of a book by kempelen on speaking machines after being inspired by seeing a similar machine built by wheatstone ; bell went on to file the first successful patent for the telephone . a play , the automaton chess player , was presented in new york city in 1845 . the advertising , as well as an article that appeared in the illustrated london news , claimed that the play featured kempelen 's turk , but it was in fact a copy of the turk created by j. walker , who had earlier presented the walker chess - player . raymond bernard 's silent feature film the chess player ( the chess player , france 1927 ) weaves elements from the real story of the turk into an adventure tale set in the aftermath of the first of the partitions of poland in 1772 . the film 's " baron von kempelen " helps a dashing young polish nationalist on the run from the occupying russians , who also happens to be an expert chess player , by hiding him inside a chess playing automaton called the turk , closely based on the real kempelen model . just as they are about to escape over the border , the baron is summoned to saint petersburg to present the turk to the empress catherine ii . in an echo of the napoleon incident , catherine attempts to cheat the turk , who wipes all the pieces from the board in response . the turk has also inspired works of literary fiction . in 1849 , just a few years before the turk was destroyed , edgar allan poe published a tale " von kempelen and his discovery " . ambrose bierce 's short story " moxon 's master " , published in 1909 , is a morbid tale about a chess - playing automaton that resembles the turk . in 1938 , john dickson carr published the crooked hinge , a locked room mystery in his line of dr. gideon fell detective novels . among the puzzles presented included an automaton that operates in a way that is unexplainable to the characters . gene wolfe 's 1977 science fiction short story " the marvellous brass automaton " also features a device very similar to the turk . robert 's 2007 novel " the chess machine " ( published in the uk as " the secrets of the chess machine " ) focusses on the man inside the machine . f. gwynplaine macintyre 's 2007 story " the clockwork horror " reconstructs edgar allan poe 's original encounter with mälzel 's chess - player , and also establishes ( from contemporary advertisements in a richmond newspaper ) precisely when and where this encounter took place . walter benjamin alludes to the mechanical turk in the first thesis of his theses on the philosophy of history ( über den der geschichte ) , written in 1940 . in 2005 , amazon.com launched the amazon mechanical turk . the web - based software application coordinates programming tasks with human intelligence , inspired in part by the way kempelen 's turk operated . the program is designed to have humans perform tasks , such as color comparisons , that computers struggle with .