de Kempelen: But that description, too concise in itself, and circulated in too narrow a sphere, was insufficient to make known, as it deserved to be, to all Europe, an invention as surprizing as incredible. de Windisch, the respectable author of the history and geography of the kingdom of Hungary, and the intimate friend and countryman of M. There had hitherto appeared but one description tolerably exact, and free from exaggeration, which was published in 1773, in some public provincial papers, by M. Was a wooden figure ever before seen playing at the most difficult and complicated of all games, frequently beating the most consummate adept, and setting him right, if ever he deviated from the rules of the game? This phænomenon was too extraordinary not to make a great noise on its first appearance and, accordingly, the literary journals were eager to announce it, not without some exaggeration tending to the marvellous. de Kempelen, not only conceived this idea, but also carried it into execution his chess-player being, beyond contradiction, the most astonishing Automaton that ever existed never before did any mere mechanical figure unite the vis motrix, to the vis-directrix, or, to speak clearer, the power of moving itself in different directions, as circumstances unforeseen, and depending on the will of any person present, might require. THE boldest idea that ever entered the brain of a mechanic was, doubtless, that of constructing a machine to imitate man, the masterpiece of the creation, in something more than figure and motion. Letters of Karl-Gottlieb de Windisch (1722-1793)
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