Before Poe made a
name for himself as the author of The Raven, The Mask of the Red
Death and others, he was a journalist and a literary critic. How he got the
assignment covering the Turk when it came to America remains a mystery, but it
had a lifelong impression on him and his approach to writing.
The Mechanical Turk
was invented in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress the Empress Maria
Theresa of Austria. The Turk was an automaton
that could play chess against a human opponent as well as perform the Knight’s
Tour, a puzzle that requires the player to occupy every square on a chessboard
exactly once. Was this machine even possible? And did this machine beat both
Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon (more than one paper I read stated that the Turk
caught Napoleon cheating)? But what if it was not a thinking machine at all,
but instead a mechanical illusion that allows a human chess player to be inside
the cabinet, and it took the world by storm. After the death of the creator in
1804, it was purchased by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who took it on tours
including Europe and America. Eventually it made its way to John Kearsley
Mitchell of Philadelphia, a physician. For over 84 years, it played chess until
its unfortunate demise on July 5th 1854, when a fire that started at
the National Theater in Philadelphia reached the museum where the Turk was on
display and destroyed this piece of mechanical magic. Mitchell’s son, Silas,
believed that he heard through the flames “The last words of our departed
friend, the sternly whispered, oft repeated syllables, ‘echec! echec!’” (French
for check).
But we now must backtrack
to April 1826 when the Mechanical Turk came to America. The debut was in New
York, and it was all the rage and had many reviews in New York newspapers. But
it wasn’t just the idea of a chess playing robot that made the people
interested in it, it was the idea of the Industrial Age that was blossoming and
the idea that machines like the Turk could become commonplace. Many people
thought that The Turk was a fake, but it inspired people to dream. A writer for
The Evening Post commented on it, “Nothing of a similar nature has ever
been seen in this city, that will bear the smallest comparison with it.” Poe
also wrote about this technological wonder in the Southern Literary
Messenger published in 1836.
His essay on the
Turk was true to Poe’s form, ruthless and discriminating. He read many articles
and essays on the automaton, before examining it himself, including Letters
on Natural Magic by Sir David Brewster.
Poe came up with many theories on how the machine worked and although
some of them were wrong, they showed where his mind was going and how he would
use that train of thought in his later fiction. I included this one portion to
show the workings of his mind on the matter of the Turk, “When the question is
demanded explicitly of Maelzel — “Is the Automaton a pure machine or not?” his
reply is invariably the same — “I will say nothing about it.” Now the notoriety
of the Automaton, and the great curiosity it has everywhere excited, are owing
more especially to the prevalent opinion that it is a pure machine, than to any
other circumstance. Of course, then, it is the interest of the proprietor to
represent it as a pure machine. And what more obvious, and more effectual method
could there be of impressing the spectators with this desired idea, than a
positive and explicit declaration to that effect? On the other hand, what more
obvious and effectual method could there be of exciting a disbelief in the
Automaton's being a pure machine, than by withholding such explicit
declaration? For, people will naturally reason thus, — It is Maelzel's interest
to represent this thing a pure machine — he refuses to do so, directly, in
words, although he does not scruple, and is evidently anxious to do so,
indirectly by actions — were it actually what he wishes to represent it by
actions, he would gladly avail himself of the more direct testimony of words —
the inference is, that a consciousness of its not being a pure machine, is the
reason of his silence — his actions cannot implicate him in a falsehood — his
words may.” This sounds like Poe’s fictional character C. Auguste Dupin more
than Edgar Allen Poe himself doing what the author called “ratiocination.”
In the end, Poe thought that it was a hoax,
yet his theory on how it was done was wrong. Close, but no cigar. Eventually it
was the son of the last owner, Silas Mitchell who revealed the secret of the
Turk. I came across this explanation from the Museum of Hoaxes, that probably explains
it best:
A series of sliding panels and a rolling chair allowed
the automaton's operator to hide while the interior of the machine was being
displayed. The operator then controlled the Turk by means of a 'pantograph'
device that synchronized his arm movements with those of the wooden Turk.
Magnetic chess pieces allowed him to know what pieces were being moved on the
board above his head.
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If it was not for
the Turk, Poe may not have come up with his characters such as Dupin, and the beginnings
of the earliest form of the detective genre. His literary career might have
taken off in a different direction, and the world would have been a sadder
place for it. Because without the work of Poe, we would not have Lovecraft, and
King, and a multitude of authors that read his work as children.
A lot of times, I
get some inspiration for my posts. The inspiration for this came when I was out
a couple of weeks ago with another magician, Vince Wilson. I was showing him
around Hollywood, and we were having lunch at the Roosevelt Hotel, when his
phone rang. He got us permission to visit the workshop of John Gaughan, master
of props and other magic devices. Gaughan has built the only copy of the Turk
using the most detailed drawings available.
His reproduction even has the original chessboard, which was not with
the Automaton at the time of the fire. Gaughan spent $120,00 dollars in 1984
and took over 5 years to complete the copy. Vince wanted to see the Turk
because he runs Poe’s Magic Theatre and the Poe’s Magic Conference each year. He is
on the board of directors of the Poe Museum in Baltimore. I could see his
passion and so I needed to see it for myself. Gaughan was a gracious host, as
we toured a room that includes several antique pieces of magic. And then we saw
the Turk, and I was floored. The details and intricacies of the reproduction were
magnificent. We spoke about the Turk for awhile and we talked about other automatons
as well as magic itself. As we concluded our tour and walked through his workshop
I noticed several boxes that included magic wands in various stages of
completion. There were two young men were working on them. Their eye for detail
uncompromising as they made these precious gifts. And gifts they were, but they
were also trophies, as these were the wands that were to be handed out to the
winners of the AMA (American Magician Award) award ceremony that next week.
But what is my
impression of seeing the Turk? It is a fraud? No, it’s not a fraud. It’s magic
and illusion. Yes, I suppose all magic is in essence fraud. But magic lets you
see what your conscious mind cannot believe. It allows you to dream while you
are still awake. And that dream that happened in 1770 possibly gave us the
intellectual fiction of Poe, and the first detective story, The Murders in
the Rue Morgue.