The description now given of the Automaton Chess Player, with respect to its construction, so far as that can be explained, and its general manner of working, naturally suggests an interesting inquiry: What are the immediate causes by which its unparalleled phenomena are produced?
To this inquiry no satisfactory answer has yet been made. It is allowable, therefore, to hazard some observations in reply to it. The causes sought for appear to be two, which are distinct from each other—a moving force from which the left arm and hand of the Automaton derive the action peculiar to those parts of the body; and a directing force, by which the same arm and hand, when raised and prepared to act, are guided on this side or that, according to circumstances, many of which cannot possibly be anticipated, and each of which requires the exertion of the reasoning faculty, sometimes in a high degree. To explain the nature of the moving force, which is employed, is the province of the professed mechanician, who can account for it upon fixed mechanical principles. The operation of that force at a certain time after each move of an antagonist, seems to depend upon the momentary interference of the exhibiter, who though usually employed in walking up and down, approaches the chest when the Automaton is about to make a move (p. 20), and appears to touch some spring, near to the arm of the figure, on the right side, which spring may set in motion the works by which the arm and hand of the Automaton are raised from the cushion, are made to bend at their several joints, so as to grasp the piece to which they may be guided by the directing force, and to retain it for a given moment of time, after which, on disposing of the piece, the arm and hand become relaxed, and are brought back to their usual position. In case a piece is to be taken, or a false move is made by an antagonist, or the Automaton castles (p. 21), by a peculiar manner of touching the spring, these mechanical motions of the arm and hand might be repeated de suite; with a variation only in the return of the arm, which would not take place until the end of the repetition. But the mystery in the action of the Automaton—a mystery not less hard to be solved by professed mechanicians, than by persons unacquainted with the science of mechanics, arises from the nature and operation of the directing force by which the arm and hand of the Automaton, when raised and prepared to act by the moving force, are guided with a precision and judgment that baffles the skill even of experienced chess players. Various conjectures have been made upon this subject. It was supposed, for a time, that the directing force was some concealed loadstone, until the inventor of the Automaton showed the groundless nature of such a supposition, by permitting any person to place the most powerful loadstone in contact with the figure, or upon any part of the chest to which it is attached.
The most obvious solution of the nature and operation of the directing force may be drawn from the hypothesis, that a living subject is enclosed within the left or larger chamber of the chest, who guides the arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, either in this or that direction, according to the ever varying appearance of the game, which might be discerned through a transparent chess-board. It is sufficient, however, in order to refute this hypothesis, to repeat what has been already mentioned in page 17, that both before and after the exhibition of the Automaton, the exhibiter is willing to lay open for the examination of every spectator its entire construction internally, so as to satisfy the most incredulous person, that no concealment whatsoever of a living subject can take place.
With more semblance of reason, it has been conjectured that there is a communication between the left arm and hand of the Automaton, and a person placed in an adjoining room, who, though unseen, himself, is a spectator of the game; and that by means of this communication, the directing force required may be conveyed at the time when the arm and hand are raised. This conjecture, however plausible, may be answered by the statement of a plain fact, referred to before, that M. de Kempelen exhibited his Automaton, on two different occasions, at the Imperial palace of Vienna; and it is absolutely chimerical to suppose, that upon those occasions, any communication could be opened with an adjoining apartment in the palace to that in which the Automaton was exhibited. Still the question returns, What is the nature and operation of the directing force, by which the left arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, and prepared to act, are guided?
With respect to the nature of this directing force, there can be only one reasonable opinion, that it must proceed from the immediate direction of some human agent; and since there is no communication with such an agent concealed within the chest, or in a room adjoining, it must proceed from the immediate direction of the exhibiter himself.
Nevertheless the operation of this directing force, or in what secret manner the exhibiter directs the arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, yet remains to be explained. M. de Kempelen once threw out a hint, that the chief merit of his invention lay in the successful manner in which he deceived the spectators; by which hint he seemed to imply not only that the exhibiter does interfere in an unperceived manner in directing the arm and hand of the Automaton when raised, according to the varying circumstances of a game of Chess; but that the mode of such interference is very simple. In fact, when the arm and hand are raised and prepared to act by the operation of the moving force already explained, the action of a wire or piece of catgut, not much thicker than a hair, would be sufficient to guide them in any direction; which action, from the delicacy of the medium used, might be communicated in a manner wholly unperceived by the spectators [3].
Probably the precise time and instrument of communicating this action, which are circumstances systematically kept secret, will never be discovered; and the conception of them, reflects the highest honour upon the ingenuity of the inventor. To construct an arm and hand capable of performing the ordinary functions of those parts, would be of itself sufficient to secure the reputation of an artist; but to make the same arm and hand almost counterparts of living members in a reasoning agent, displays a power of invention as bold and original, any that has ever been exhibited to the world.