The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 5, April, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 5, April, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
6. The external appearance, and, especially, the deportment of the
Turk, are, when we consider them as imitations of _life_, but very
indifferent imitations. The countenance evinces no ingenuity, and is
surpassed, in its resemblance to the human face, by the very
commonest of wax-works. The eyes roll unnaturally in the head,
without any corresponding motions of the lids or brows. The arm,
particularly, performs its operations in an exceedingly stiff,
awkward, jerking, and rectangular manner. Now, all this is the
result either of inability in Maelzel to do better, or of
intentional neglect--accidental neglect being out of the question,
when we consider that the whole time of the ingenious proprietor is
occupied in the improvement of his machines. Most assuredly we must
not refer the unlife-like appearances to inability--for all the rest
of Maelzel's automata are evidence of his full ability to copy the
motions and peculiarities of life with the most wonderful
exactitude. The rope-dancers, for example, are inimitable. When the
clown laughs, his lips, his eyes, his eye-brows, and
eye-lids--indeed, all the features of his countenance--are imbued
with their appropriate expressions. In both him and his companion,
every gesture is so entirely easy, and free from the semblance of
artificiality, that, were it not for the diminutiveness of their
size, and the fact of their being passed from one spectator to
another previous to their exhibition on the rope, it would be
difficult to convince any assemblage of persons that these wooden
automata were not living creatures. We cannot, therefore, doubt Mr.
Maelzel's ability, and we must necessarily suppose that he
intentionally suffered his Chess-Player to remain the same
artificial and unnatural figure which Baron Kempelen (no doubt also
through design) originally made it. What this design was it is not
difficult to conceive. Were the Automaton life-like in its motions,
the spectator would be more apt to attribute its operations to their
true cause, (that is, to human agency within) than he is now, when
the awkward and rectangular manœuvres convey the idea of pure and
unaided mechanism.
7. When, a short time previous to the commencement of the game, the
Automaton is wound up by the exhibiter as usual, an ear in any
degree accustomed to the sounds produced in winding up a system of
machinery, will not fail to discover, instantaneously, that the axis
turned by the key in the box of the Chess-Player, cannot possibly be
connected with either a weight, a spring, or any system of machinery
whatever. The inference here is the same as in our last observation.
The winding up is inessential to the operations of the Automaton,
and is performed with the design of exciting in the spectators the
false idea of mechanism.
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