The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-century Chess-playing MachineCreated by a Hungarian nobleman and presented at court to Empress Maria Theresa, the Turk was a mechanical man, fashioned from wood, powered by clockwork, dressed in stylish costume -- and capable of playing chess. Over the next eighty-five years, the Turk would travel throughout Europe and America, baffling, angering, inspiring, and intimidating challengers and audiences including such figures as Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great, Charles Babbage, and Edgar Allan Poe. Here, the story of the Turk, his colorful career, and his influence on the modern world -- and on our evolving view of ourselves in relation to machines -- is told by an author who "keeps us on the edge our seats" in what the Chicago Tribune calls, simply, "a gem of a book." |
Other editions - View all
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous 19th Century Chess-Playing Machine Tom Standage No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
appeared audience automa automata automaton Automaton Chess Player automaton trumpeter Babbage Babbage's Beethoven build cabinet Chess Automaton chess-playing machine chessboard chessmen chine claimed clockwork machinery concealed court Deep Blue defeated display doors Dutens Edgar Allan Poe emperor empress endgames Engine Eugène Eugène de Beauharnais Europe exhibition exhibitor explained France French full games game of chess Gaughan Greco human Kasparov Kempelen knight Knight's Tour letter London machine intelligence Maelzel magnets main compartment Maria Theresa match Mitchell move movements musical Napoleon opened Panharmonicon pantograph Paris pawn performance Philadelphia Philidor piece play chess Poe's position possible Racknitz revealed scientific seems Silas Weir Mitchell speaking machine spectators square story suggested theory Thicknesse tion tomaton took trick Turing Turing test Turk played Turk's arm Turk's mechanism Turk's operator Turk's secret Turkish Vaucanson Vienna Willis Windisch Wolfgang von Kempelen wooden Worousky wrote York