When all is ready, and the pipe removed, the exhibiter may turn round the winder, or key, to give the impression to the spectators of winding up a spring, or weight, and to serve as a signal to the player to set the head of the Automaton in motion.
The above process is simple, feasible, and effective; shewing indisputably that the phenomena may be produced without the aid of machinery, and thereby rendering it probable that the Chess Player belongs in reality to the third class of Automata, and derives its merit solely from the very ingenious mode by which the concealment of a living agent is effected.
In conducting this analysis, the author disclaims even the slightest wish or intention to depreciate, or detract from, the real merits of Mr. De Kempelen: those merits have long since received the stamp of public approbation; indeed, a more than ordinary share of skill and ingenuity must have fallen to his lot, who could imagine and execute a machine (it matters not by what means the phenomena are brought about) which has never failed to delight the spectators, by exciting and maintaining, above all other contrivances of the kind, that pleasing delusion in the mind, which the Roman poet has so happily denominated “_Mentis gratissimus error_.”
PLATE I. Fig. 1. A perspective view of the Automaton, seen in front, with all the doors thrown open. Fig. 2. An elevation of the back of the Automaton.
PLATE II. Fig. 3. An elevation of the front of the chest, the dotted lines representing the player in the first position. Fig. 4. A side elevation, shewing the player in the same position.
PLATE III. Fig. 5. A front elevation, shewing the second position. Fig. 6. An horizontal section through the line WW. fig. 5.
PLATE IV. Fig. 7. A front elevation, shewing the third position. Fig. 8. A side elevation of the same position.
PLATE V. Fig. 9. A vertical section through the line XX, fig. 8. Fig. 10. A vertical section through the line YY, fig. 7, shewing the false back closed. Fig. 11. A similar section, shewing the false back raised.
THE FOLLOWING LETTERS OF REFERENCE ARE EMPLOYED IN ALL THE PLATES.
A Front door of the small cupboard. B Back door of ditto. CC Front doors of the large cupboard. D Back door of ditto. E Door in the trunk. F Door in the thigh. GG The drawer. H Machinery in front of the small cupboard. I Screen behind the machinery. K Opening caused by the removal of part of the floor of the small cupboard. L A box which serves to conceal an opening in the floor of the large cupboard, made to facilitate the first position; and which also serves as a seat for the player in the third position. M A similar box to receive the toes of the player in the first position. N The inner chest, filling up part of the trunk. O The space behind the drawer. PQ The false back, turning on a joint at Q. R Part of the partition formed of cloth stretched tight, which is carried up by the false back, to form the opening between the chambers. S The opening between the chambers. T The opening connecting the trunk and chest, which is partly concealed by the false back. U Panel which is slipped aside to admit the player.