Nevertheless the operation of this directing force, or in what secret manner the exhibiter directs the arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, yet remains to be explained. M. de Kempelen once threw out a hint, that the chief merit of his invention lay in the successful manner in which he deceived the spectators; by which hint he seemed to imply not only that the exhibiter does interfere in an unperceived manner in directing the arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, according to the varying circumstances of a game of Chess; but that the mode of such interference is very simple. In fact, when the arm and hand are raised and prepared to act by the operation of the moving force already explained, the action of a wire or piece of catgut, not much thicker than a hair, would be sufficient to guide them in any direction; which action, from the delicacy of the medium used, might be communicated in a manner wholly unperceived by the spectators[3]. Probably the precise time and instrument of communicating this action, which are circumstances systematically kept secret, will never be discovered; and the conception of them, reflects the highest honour upon the ingenuity of the inventor. To construct an arm and hand capable of performing the ordinary functions of those parts, would be of itself sufficient to secure the reputation of an artist; but to make the same arm and hand almost counterparts of living members in a reasoning agent, displays a power of invention as bold and original, any that has ever been exhibited to the world. [Footnote 1: This piece of mechanism is shown, together with the Automaton Chess Player, at 4, Spring Gardens. Footnote 2: This grand instrument, which performs by mechanical action, or may be played upon by five professors at once, is shown at the rooms, No. 101, St. Martin's Lane. Footnote 3: There can be little doubt that the peculiar action of the Automaton (p. 24), by which the Knight is made to touch each of the 68 squares of the chess-board in turn, depends upon the action of machinery alone, without any interference of the exhibiter, except in previously winding up the works. The motions of the head of the figure, and its tapping on the chest (pp. 20-23), are a kind of hors d'œuvre.] THE END. _S. Gosnell, Printer, Little Queen Street, London._ End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations on the Automaton Chess Player, by Robert Gray