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| Mar-27-06 | | jackmandoo: I wish I would have lived during the times of the Turk, chess back then was so rich and still mysterious. Damn you Computa!!! |
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| Mar-27-06 | | Chess Classics: <SBC> Interesting, thanks. Regards,
CC |
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| Mar-28-06 | | jackmandoo: I bet one drawback from operating "The Turk" is a little thing called "box stench." |
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| Mar-28-06 | | Holden: <SBC> Great post. I read Poe's dissertation on the Turk simply because I was a Poe fan, long before I got into chess. |
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| Mar-29-06 | | orio24: <turkishgrandmaster> It was called the Turk, because the figurine was dressed in the turkish clothes, and I believe it also had a turkish pipe or something like that. Why the creator chosen to dress it like Turk? I don't know. It might have been a good marketing move for those times. :) |
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| Mar-29-06 | | LoFarkas: From Poe: "The Automaton does not invariably win the game. Were the machine a pure machine this would not be the case--it would always win. The principle being discovered by which a machine can be made to play a game of chess, an extension of the same principle would enable it to win a game--a farther extension would enable it to win all games--that is, to beat any possible game of an antagonist. A little consideration will convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games, Is not in the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game" Early chess engine programmers might have murmured a swear or two under their breath when they read this... |
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| Mar-29-06 | | SBC: . <orio24>
In 1769-70 the idea of "Oriental" (or in this case Turkish which was considered Oriental) evoked exotic and mysterious images. I think "good marketing" is as good a way as any to look at it. And, yes, the Turk, at least Kempelen's Turk (as opposed to Maelzel's - same Turk, but with different accoutrements), brandished a very long pipe. Even in the 18th century, Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, the son of the man (Dr. John Kearsley Mitchell) who headed a group that bought the Turk after Maelzel's death mentioned how, after having seen the automaton a few times as a child (long before his father bought him) "the Turk, with his Oriental silence and rolling eyes, would haunt your nightly visions for many an evening thereafter." . |
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| Apr-19-06 | | hidude: this thing is smart |
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| Jul-14-06 | | iWaNnAbAgM: I still don't know how this thing works??Can anyone help me? |
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| Jul-14-06 | | RookFile: Lol, they had a small person hidden inside this contraption. The presenter would open doors, one at a time, to show people a bunch of wires and gears, but the person could move around to unseen areas while he was doing this. |
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| Jul-14-06 | | SBC: <RookFile>
<they had a small person hidden inside this contraption> Not necessarily. The last real operator and the almost exclusive operator of Maelzel's Turk in America was Guillaume (or William) Schlumberger. "Schlumberger was a tall man of over 6 feet with a large, muscular, well-proportioned figure. He had a finely shaped head with dark brow hair and chestnut eyes." You can read about Schlumberger, and some about the Turk, here:
http://batgirl.atspace.com/Mulhouse...
Boncourt was also over 6' tall
http://batgirl.atspace.com/embellis...
A list of automaton operators can be seen here: http://batgirl.atspace.com/Director... |
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| Aug-11-06 | | Knight13: This automation is fake. You know it, we know it, everyone knows it... No electricity was invented/discovered back then! |
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| Aug-11-06 | | homedepotov: Dunno. People may have been harnessing electricity 2,000 years ago. Here's some info on the so-called "Baghdad Battery." In 1936, while excavating ruins of a 2000-year-old village near Baghdad, workers discovered a mysterious small vase. A 6-inch-high pot of bright yellow clay dating back two millennia contained a cylinder of sheet-copper 5 inches by 1.5 inches. The edge of the copper cylinder was soldered with a 60-40 lead-tin alloy comparable to today's solder. The bottom of the cylinder was capped with a crimped-in copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. Another insulating layer of asphalt sealed the top and also held in place an iron rod suspended into the center of the copper cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent. German archaeologist , Wilhelm Konig, examined the object and came to a surprising conclusion that the clay pot was nothing less than an ancient electric battery. |
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| Aug-11-06 | | TheSlid: <homedepotov> I don't suppose that actually making a battery was beyond the technology then. Do we know of any practical use it might have been put to, in those times, (other than the powering of early chess automata, of course? |
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| Aug-11-06 | | Vollmer: It seems the men of the 1800's had a special gift of seeing the future without realizing it ....Poe's dissertation is quite a good read , thanks . |
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| Aug-11-06 | | Knight13: <homedepotov> Seems like people 2,000 years ago was REALLY STUPID, then. When electricity came to our world a while back, people started taking advantage of it to make great inventions. And those 2,000 year old dudes does nothing and keeps on with the "oil lamps" and "dark nights"? What are you trying to prove? |
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| Aug-11-06 | | Vollmer: What would one use DC current for in the distant past ? With no apparent use we could consider amusement by sparks or perhaps an unpleasant form of information extraction from captives . I wonder how many volts such a battery could generate . It seems this was kept as a secret ...no other examples found throughout the area . |
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| Aug-11-06 | | Vollmer: Knight13 you might also be surprised to learn that the Egyptians invented a crude steam 'engine' and that also was neglected for many years . |
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| Aug-11-06 | | homedepotov: <TheSlid> It has been theorized that they were used to silver electroplate copper vases since such vases have actually been found. <Knight13> I am trying to show that ancient dudes may have harnessed small amounts of electricity. Ancient people were actually more technologically advanced than we have thought. |
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| Aug-12-06 | | TheSlid: <homedepotov> Good call - I remember doing electro-copper plating as a boy, now you mention it. Sounds very plausible indeed. |
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| Aug-12-06 | | Karpova: <TheSlid: <homedepotov> Good call - I remember doing electro-copper plating as a boy, now you mention it. Sounds very plausible indeed.> A boy called Sandy? |
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| Aug-12-06 | | Knight13: <homedepotov> But that's not the "real" electricity we use today, right? I can scratch something or do something with two items and make electricity... |
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| Aug-12-06 | | homedepotov: <Knight13> To paraphrase Gertrude Stein "Electricity is electricity is electricity." It's just that it's only relatively recently in world history that we've been able to produce AC and much higher wattages, voltages and amps. For sure people have been shocked by static electricity for millions of years but harnessing it for useful purposes was the breakthrough that allowed modern industrialized society to develop. |
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| Aug-15-06 | | TheSlid: <Karpova> Yes indeed - I was a boy called Sandy. So too many other boys with Scottish parents - not that unusual. Better than being "a boy called Sue" - a somewhat mediocre effort from country & western singer Johnny Cash |
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| Aug-27-06 | | Karpova: <TheSlid>, John Wayne's real name was Marion.
And Peter Leko 's forename is indeed Sissy. |
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