Yes it shows how players yearned for a chess playing machine all that time ago and now they are two a penny. The device was, too many, miraculous hence the prolonged discussion of its workings. I find it quite amazing today to play a computer, and yet we know it is not really playing chess at all just going through millions of possibilities.
The incredible thing is that somehow the human brain finds a way of playing without checking, it surely confirms the truth of the existence of intuition.
This is a book review on a book titled The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess Playing Machine. The author is Tom Standage and its ISBN number is 0-8027-1391-2.
This book takes a look at the life and times of a chess playing device that was invented by a Hungarian nobleman by the name of Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1769. He was a multi-talented man with skills in linguistics, administration, technology/engineering and as it turned out later also a gifted showman. He was invited to view a private conjuring performance for empress Maria Theresa of the Viennese court to give her an explanation of how the acts were accomplished. Afterward he indicated that given six months he could put together a better show himself. The empress told him to come back in six months and back up his boast.
He came back six months later with a mechanical man that could play chess and play it very well. Due to its appearance the general public called it "The Turk". The performance was a huge success and the device survived from 1769 to 1854 when it was destroyed in a fire. Speculations were made at the time by many people as to whether or not it represented an artifical intellence or was control by a person in some unknown manner and if so to what degree it was controlled by that person. This was the age of the automaton and the secret of its ability to play chess was not learned until after its destruction.
This book looks at its career which included interactions with many famous and influential people such as Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte,and Edgar Allen Poe. Its chess tour included most of Europe and America including the chess power cities of its day which were London and Paris during which it played many well known chess players of its day and won most games. Some of the people that were played include Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Francois-Andre Danican Philidor.
This book also gives insight into how the industrial revolution was influenced by The Turk and automaton in general and during the discussions about the chess tournaments some insight into the chess world of the eighteenth century.
Due to the fact that speculations about the machine tended to recycle similar theories about its function over time the books discussion of them did seem a little repetitive. I did find it amazing that a device could exist that long with the entire scientific world uncertain as to how it functioned. I enjoyed the book most for its insights it gave into how automaton in general and the Turk in specific influenced the industrial revolution and also for the insights it gave regarding the world of chess as it existed in the eighteenth century.