Beschreibung:

(Automata, Chess)Eight works on Wolfgang von Kempelen's Automaton Chess Player [Fenherr, Joseph Friedrich]. Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen. Leipzig and Dresden: Joh. Gottl. Immanuel Breitkopf, 1789. 8vo (245 x 160 mm). Engraved title, 7 full page folding copper plates, printed in German; ownership signatures to flyleaf. White boards; boards torn, chipped, and stained. — Windisch, Charles Gottlieb de. Letters ... on the Automaton Chess-Player ... of Kempelen ... Translated from the French by M.S.N. London: R. Brown, 1819. 8vo (207 x 132 mm). Title, 1 folding page with 3 plates; some offsetting from plates onto text, occasional spots, title toned. Later half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt lettered; head of boards bumped. [With]: Envelope heavily annotated in Ricky Jay's hand. — An Oxford Graduate [Robert Gray, Jr.?]. Observations on the Automaton Chess Player. London: J. Hatchard, 1819. 8vo (207 x 132 mm). Half-title, title, notes in Ricky Jay's hand to initial blank; half-title a little browned, otherwise bright and clean. Later half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt lettered; corners barely rubbed. — H[unneman], W. Chess. A Selection of Fifty Games ... Played by the Automaton Chess-Player. London: W. Pople, 1820. 16mo (165 x 112 mm). Title, preface, 76 pages of algebraic notation; internal chip to title, some browning, stray spots. Leather backed boards, upper board with paper label printed black; binding separated, rebacked with cloth tape, boards chipped with some soiling. — [Automaton Chess Player]. London: Thomas Tegg, 1826. Three loose leaves (237 x 150) with plates after J. Shury printed on rectos; browned at heads, spotting. — [Jones, Thomas P.]. Observations upon the Automaton Chess Player of Von Kempelen. Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1827. 8vo (207 x 137 mm). 5 leaves disbound, title, 2 illustrations, foxing. Housed in cloth backed boards. — E.S.D. The Automaton Chess-Player. [The Living Age. Boston: Little, Son, and Company, 1859]. 4 loose leaves (218 x 138 mm) printed recto and verso; bibliographical information in pencil to foot of first page, toned at edges. — Wimsatt, W.K., Jr. Poe and the Chess Automaton. [Reprinted from] American Literature, Volume 11, No. 2, 1939. Pamphlet of 8 leaves stapled (252 x 170 mm). Printed wrapper, inscribed by the author on the wrapper, leaves printed verso and recto; short closed tear and slight fingersoiling to wrapper. Included among these various accounts of the Mechanical Turk is a translated volume of letters by Charles Gottlieb de Windisch, a friend of von Kempelen's, and an observer of the Chess Player at Maria Theresa's court. Here Windisch details the machine and writes to his correspondent: "... it can be but an illusion: that is what the Author himself, and every reasonable being will concede to you. But in what consists the illusion? There is the Gordian knot, more difficult to unravel, than that which was heretofore cut by Alexander". "Von Kempelen was a serious scientist, architect, naturalist, and hydraulic engineer who later studied the human voice and served as a director general for the Hungarian salt mines. He was not a magician. His invention had been inspired by the popular automata of the 18th century—expensive clockwork figures that could repeat simple actions. His Chess Player seemed to be something even more wonderful: a thinking machine. In fact, under duress, von Kempelen had resorted to trickery. A real human chess player operated the figure from inside the chest; a series of optical and mechanical effects concealed this person from the audience's view. The Chess Player drew so much intrigue that von Kempelen soon tired of demonstrating it for audiences ... He dismantled the machine, explaining it had been damaged. To friends, he admitted that it was 'a mere trifle' and merely 'illusion.' In the hands of other owners, the famous Chess Player had a long, successful career, beating Napoleon, delighting Benjamin Franklin and inspiring