Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

One of the most ingenious inventors of mechanical figures was Mons. Maillardet, a Swiss. He exhibited in London a beautiful figure which performed eighteen tunes on the piano, while imitating at the same time all the motions of the human player. From a description given we learn that the bosom heaved, the eyes followed the motions of the fingers, and at the commencement and conclusion of an air the figure turned to the audience and made a graceful salute. Mons. Maillardet also constructed the figure of a boy kneeling that held in the right hand a pencil with which he executed some capital drawings and pieces of writing. Another marvel produced by the Swiss was a magician, who answered any question put to him from twenty different medals. The medal was placed in a drawer, and, after much cogitation and reference to his books, he, with a solemn wave of his wand, touched the drawer, which opened and displayed the required answer. The celebrated automaton Chess Player will be well remembered. The history of this wonderful piece of mechanism is as follows: M. Wolfgang de Kempelen, a Hungarian gentleman, devoted himself from an early age to the study of mechanics. In 1769 he paid a visit to Vienna on business of his office of Aulic Counsellor to the Royal Chamber of the domains of the Emperor of Germany in Hungary. He received an invitation from the Empress Maria Theresa to be present at certain magnetical experiments exhibited by a French gentleman of the name of Pelletier. While in conversation with the Empress during its exhibition, Mons. Kempelen asserted that he felt himself competent to construct a piece of mechanism far more surprising than those which they were witnessing. The Empress took him at his word, and bound him to keep or attempt to keep his promise. He kept it, and in six months he produced the famous Chess Player. When shown in Vienna, it caused the greatest excitement and admiration. It was the talk of society. The inventor, in spite of its success, persistently refused to exhibit it in public. He put it aside, and even took it to pieces, and for several years it was not used.