Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The basis for this elucidation of what was a profound mystery to the many was as follows: The machinery was ostentatiously displayed when at rest; but carefully secluded from view while in motion. By this means the spectator could not form any judgment as to whether the machinery was in any way connected with the automaton. There never was any variation in the method of opening the several doors. When winding up the clockwork, the key always made a certain number of revolutions, whether the motions of the figure, owing to the exigencies of the game, were more varied or protracted than usual. It was noticed that sixty-three moves were at one time made without the machinery being wound up, while at another time the machinery was wound up with the intervention of a single move. Whether or not the action of the automaton was produced by the agency of a concealed person I do not care to pronounce, but the illustration given proves clearly, I think, that it might have been so produced. Mons. Kempelen is said to have invented a still more extraordinary exhibition of his great mechanical genius--namely, a speaking automaton. How this figure became possessed of a voice, I will show in another chapter.