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 doors of the apartment are thrown open, or is wheeled into the room previously to the commencement of the exhibition. The Turkish chess-player sits on a chair fixed to the square chest: his right arm rests on the table, and in the left he holds a pipe, which is removed during the game, as it is with this hand that he makes the moves. A chess-board, eighteen inches square, and bearing the usual number of pieces, is placed before the figure. The exhibitor then announces to the spectators his intention of showing them the mechanism of the automaton. For this purpose he unlocks the door A, Fig. 66, and exposes to view a small cupboard lined with black or dark-coloured cloth, and containing cylinders, levers, wheels, pinions, and different pieces of machinery, which _have the appearance_ of occupying the whole space. He next opens the door B, Fig. 67, at the back of the same cupboard, and holding a lighted candle at the opening, he still further displays the inclosed machinery to the spectators, placed in front of A, Fig. 66. When the candle is withdrawn, the door B is then locked; and the exhibitor proceeds to open the drawer G G, Fig. 66, in front of the chest. Out of this drawer he takes a small box of counters, a set of chess-men, and a cushion for the support of the automaton’s arm, as if this was the sole object of the drawer. The two front doors C C, of the large cupboard, Fig. 66, are then opened, and at the back-door D of the same cupboard, Fig. 67, the exhibitor applies a lighted candle, as before, for the purpose of showing its interior, which is lined with dark cloth like the other, and contains only a few pieces of machinery. The chest is now wheeled round, as in Fig. 67: the garments of the figure are lifted up, and the door E in the trunk, and another door F in the thigh, are opened, the doors B and D having been previously closed. When this exhibition of the interior of the machine is over, the chest is wheeled back into its original position on the floor. The doors A, C, C, in front, and the drawer G, G, are closed and locked, and the exhibitor, after occupying himself for some time at the back of the chest, as if he were adjusting the mechanism, removes the pipe from the hand of the figure, and winds up the machinery.