One of the most famous robots was the Chess playing “Turk”, built by wunderkind Wolfgang von Kempelen of what is now Slovakia.

It wasn’t actually a robot, but a very elaborate prank (we hate pranks here at Suicide Bots, yes we do. Hate ‘em. That’s us…). Both front panels rolled aside to expose the elaborate gears, pulleys, and mechatronics that operated the Turk - who defeated Napoleon (yes, that one), Ben Franklin, and most of the Chess Masters of both sides of the Atlantic.

But in the end, it was just a guy behind the mirrors who operated the mechatronic Turk. True, he was a chess master, and the Turk was a mechanical marvel (the seated “Turk” was not a guy in a costume, it was a very good animatronic android who would pick up the chess pieces and move them around the board (in response to the operations of the hidden operator/chess player.))

It took several years before the hoax was exposed. The primary player was William Schlumberger. Some insist the player was a legless war veteran, but that’s not true. William Schlumberger had his legs. He just wasn’t a very good boat companion.

So there’s today’s history lesson.

Rook takes Queen. Checkmate. You have to do the dishes for the next month.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 10:51 am and is filed under Bill Joy Is Probably Wrong, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.