An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton Chess Player of Mr. De Kempelen / To Which is Added, a Copious Collection of the Knight's Moves over the Chess Board

Chapter 3: EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

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About This Book

An analytical essay scrutinizes a celebrated chess‑playing automaton and its public exhibition, detailing the displayed internal mechanisms, the exhibitor’s demonstrations, and illustrated plates. It classifies automata into simple, compound, and spurious types, argues that the machine’s responsive, variable play cannot arise from fixed mechanism alone, and examines proposed means of concealed human control. The text describes how the apparatus is shown to spectators, critiques explanations that rely on hidden mechanical links, and offers methods for imitating the figure’s movements. An extensive appendix supplies diagrams and systematic routes for the knight’s moves across various board configurations.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE I.
Fig. 1.	A perspective view of the Automaton, seen in
	front, with all the doors thrown open.
Fig. 2.	An elevation of the back of the Automaton.
PLATE II.
Fig.3.	An elevation of the front of the chest, the
	dotted lines representing the player
	in the first position.
Fig. 4.	A side elevation, shewing the player in the
	same position.
PLATE III.
Fig. 5.	A front elevation, shewing the second position.
Fig. 6.	An horizontal section through the line WW. fig. 5.
PLATE IV.
Fig. 7.	A front elevation, shewing the third position.
Fig. 8.	A side elevation of the same position.
PLATE V.
Fig. 9.	A vertical section through the line XX, fig. 8.
Fig. 10.	A vertical section through the line YY, fig. 7,
	shewing the false back closed.
Fig. 11.	A similar section, shewing the false back raised.