Hungary. The “Mechanical Turk” is conceived and manufactured. The Mechanical Turk, also known as the Automatic Chess Turk (German: Schachtürke, “Chess Turk”; Hungarian: A Török), is a fake gaming machine that, until its destruction by fire in 1854, was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was ultimately revealed to be an elaborate hoax. Built and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mechanism appeared to be capable of playing a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as performing the Knight’s Tour, a puzzle requiring the player to move a knight to occupy every square on a chessboard exactly once. The Turk was actually a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hidden inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations in Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, outplaying and defeating many challengers, including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel. Even Edgar Allan Poe was captivated by it. The chess masters who secretly operated it included Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators inside the mechanism during the original Kempelen tour remain a mystery.
