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Observations on the Automaton Chess Player Now Exhibited in London, at 4 Spring GardensOxford graduate

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Observations on the Automaton Chess Player Now Exhibited in London, at 4 Spring Gardens

Name: Observations on the Automaton Chess Player Now Exhibited in London, at 4 Spring Gardens
Author: Oxford graduate

Oxford graduate

Automaton chess players

Transcriber's Notes

  1. Typographical Errors have been silently corrected.

  2. Variations of spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.

  3. In the following text, it is coded for italics thus _italic_.

                         *    *    *    *    *




                             OBSERVATIONS

                                ON THE

                        Automaton Chess Player.




           S. Gosnell, Printer, Little Queen Street, London.




                             OBSERVATIONS
                                ON THE
                               Automaton
                            CHESS  PLAYER,
                      _NOW EXHIBITED IN LONDON_,
                                  AT
                          4, SPRING GARDENS.


                        BY AN OXFORD GRADUATE.


             ----ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.--HOR.


                                London:
                       PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD,
                 NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY;
                   AND SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS.
                                 1819.


                         _Price One Shilling._




                               PREFACE.


The science of mechanics is one of those in which the ingenuity of
modern artists appears with superior advantage. The ancients, with the
single exception of Archimedes, had but an imperfect knowledge of the
mysteries of this science, as their attempts in the construction of
instruments for marking time, and of the organ, sufficiently prove.
This inferiority may be accounted for upon the principle, that the
highest discoveries in mechanics do not depend upon the capacity,
however enlarged, of any individual, but upon the successive
discoveries of many individuals, during ages, combined at length, by
some powerful genius, and directed to the completion of one great
object. Hence it was reserved to modern times, to witness the invention
of those exquisite and grand combinations of mechanism, which are
displayed in the numerous kinds of watch and clock work, and in the
higher order of wind instruments, in their several varieties: and hence
the present age has produced the most finished pieces of mechanical
science, in the Flute-player of Monsieur de Vaucanson, the Trumpeter
of Maelzel[1], the Panharmonicon of Mr. Gurk, and the Apollonicon
of our celebrated native mechanicians, Messrs. Flight and Robson[2].
Notwithstanding, however, the superior ingenuity of modern artists, in
mechanics, which these scientific inventions discover, it seems to be
a thing absolutely impossible, that any piece of mechanism should be
invented, which, possessing perfect mechanical motion, should appear to
exert the intelligence of a reasoning agent. This seeming impossibility
is surmounted in the construction of the Automaton Chess Player. The
stretch of invention shown in this unparalleled instance of mechanical
skill, will be fully appreciated only by those who can form an

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Observations on the Automaton Chess Player Now Exhibited in London, at 4 Spring Gardens

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