The Turk Automaton Hoax - Research Paper Example

?The Turk Automaton Hoax “Tis a deception! Granted, but such a one as does honour to human nature; a deception more beautiful, more surprising, more astonishing, than any to be met with in the different accounts of mathematical recreations” (Karl Gottlieb von Windisch, 1784). The Turk Chess Automaton Hoax was a faux chess-playing machine that was created by Wofgang von Kempelen in 1769. This man created this machine and introduced it to the public in order to impress the Austrian Court of the Empress Maria Theresa (Viswanathan, 2010). Von Kempelen created this machine after attending Maria Theresa’s court, where there was an act of illusion being performed. Von Kempelen promised himself that he would return to the Palace with a creation that would top all of the other illusionists’ acts he had seen. This is exactly what he did. He created a machine with a life-size model of a Turkish man in traditional costume. Its left arm held a long Turkish pipe while the right arm lay on top of a cabinet. Atop this cabinet was the chessboard and the cabinet had three doors, an opening and a drawer, which held a red and white chess set (Standage, 24). The design of the machine was intended to leave observers confused as to how it worked. When opened, it had a variety of gears similar to a clock on one side, while on the other it had a cushion and other brass parts. It was intended that onlookers could see through the machine, which helped to maintain the illusion that von Kempelen was trying to sustain. He further goes on with the presentation with a sliding operator’s seat, which when slid caused the gears of the machine to come into view. This allowed for furthering the illusion, as it kept the operator invisible (Standage, 24-27). To continue the misdirection even further than this, the arm of the Turk could be moved with a lever, opening and closing his hand in suit with the lever’s operation. The operator was able to do all of this with a single candle’s light, through which he received ventilation via the pipe in the Turk’s mouth as well as through his turban. This was disguised during play by the other candles in the area in which they played the game. When the turk made a move, it was incorporated that clock-like sounds would be made while he moved (Standage, 195-199). The Turk debuted in 1770, about six months after the illusionists’ acts that von Kempelen had seen in Empress Maria’s court. He always went through an elaborate demonstration of the machine and all of its parts. He would open the doors and drawers and allow audience members to inspect the machine thoroughly. After this, von Kempelen would tell them that the Turk was ready for a game with a willing challenger. The Turk always used the white chess pieces and had the first move. The Turk had some movements that it could make, those being: nodding two times if he threatened his opponent’s queen, three times if he put the king in check. If the Turk’s challenger made an illegal move, the Turk could shake his head, put his opponent’s piece back, and move his own. To continually maintain this illusion even during play, von kempelen would wander around the room during the game and invited the audience to bring magnets, irons and other things to test if the machine functioned through the use of magnetism or weighting (Standage, 203-204). Another aspect of the Turk’s exhibition was his ability to complete the knight’s tour, a complex and famous chess puzzle. This puzzle required that the player move his knight about the chessboard, landing on each square exactly one time. This was a great phenomenon to even the most experienced players, as most struggled with the knight’s tour but the Turk could complete it easily. The Turk was able to do this because of a pegboard used by the director inside the machine who also had a map of the puzzle, which he could follow (Standage, 203-204). The Turk traveled across Europe as its fame grew. Von Kempelen was more interested in other projects that he had going, thus often lying about the machine’s status as being inoperable. Although von Kempelen’s interest in exhibiting the Turk waned in time, there were reasons why he continued on with it. By definition, a hoax is “to trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous” (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The word ‘hoax’ was coined in the late 18th century, which is merely a shortening of the famous incantation of ‘hocus pocus’ (Nares, 235). The term ‘hoax’ is often used in reference to different urban legends and rumors that have been passed down through the ages. Hoaxes generally are indicative of very complex and large-scale concoctions that include extensive amounts of deception. This deception often goes far beyond what is deemed as playful humor into causation of harm or a form of loss. This is indicative of one of the reasons why von Kempelen continued with the tour of Europe and the creation of the Turk. Hoaxes such as this are different and apart from magic tricks or works of fiction. The difference is, the audience is caught unawares of the deception-taking place, whereas in the performance of a skilled magician the audience knows that they are being tricked through illusions. This trickery is expected and enjoyed by onlookers. Hoaxes are generally intended to cause another embarrassment, a practical joke, or in provocation of social or political changes through the raising of awareness. Often, hoaxes also arise out of marketing or advertising companies’ use of them to market their product. A good example is the marketing of a romantic comedy, where an event took place during a wedding showing the bride and the reverend being knocked into the nearby pool caused by the best man falling. This hoax was uploaded to YouTube and viewed by millions who were induced to believe that this story was true. A story released by USA Today in 2009 revealed that this story was only a hoax (Oldenburg, 2009). The reasons for hoaxing people are many. Probably the most popular and socially acceptable time is April Fools’ Day, also known as All Fools’ Day . Although this is not a national holiday, but it is recognized and celebrated as a day for joking and tomfoolery. Often, people play practical jokes on friends and family, or create hoaxes to induce a desired response from those people, be it anger, laughter or shock. Also very popular is apocryphal claims that started as a hoax. These claims garner a widespread belief of certain members of a culture or an organization, who in turn repeat the story to others. In turn, those people again retell the story, believing what the former person had told them to be true and relaying it again as such. The reasons why von Kemeler created the hoax of the Turk are often believed to be simply that he wanted to impress the Empress Maria, and that there were no other motivations for this invention. This may be true, but one must examine the fact the von Kemeler took the Turk on a tour of Europe, during which he made a fair sum of money. Von Kempelen moved the Turk to London at one point, where it was exhibited each day at a cost of five shillings (Levitt, 27-29). After a year in London, von Kempelen traveled to other cities across Europe in the exhibition of the Turk. At one point, there is a story told that von Kempelen received an invitation to take the Turk to Prussia for the amusement of King Frederick the Great. King Frederick enjoyed playing the Turk so much that he paid a large amount of money to entice von kempelen to reveal the secret of how the Turk worked (Bazrod, 2003). Although the Turk’s playing a game of chess with Frederick the Great is interesting, it does provide some insight into the reasons why von Kemeler continued on with it, despite supposed reservations to the contrary. He was able to make money off his invention. As previously stated, in his yearlong visit to London, he made five shillings per day on the exhibition of the Turk. Albeit a complex falsity, von Kemeler was able to make money off the people who wanted to play a game with the Turk. This is an all too common occurrence today, which perhaps the most popular hoaxes on which unsuspecting people have lost money is get rich quick schemes. These schemes rear their ugly heads daily in e-mails and newspapers around the globe, more commonly called pyramid schemes. These require a large number of people to send a small amount of money to a few people that are on the top of the pyramid. Often, they claim to be legitimate marketing companies, but often are not (Howe, 2001). The Turk is not much different from a pyramid scheme. Essentially, through his tour of Europe von Kemeler made a large amount of money due to a larger number of people offering up small amounts of money in order to play the Turk. Some, perhaps, merely paid to watch others play a game of chess with the Turk. Either way, it was a huge moneymaker for von Kemeler. It is almost a certainty that this was the primary motivation for the continuation of the touring of Europe with this invention. When he tired of touring, he retired the Turk but attempted to sell it before his death. He was unsuccessful, although his son later sold it to Johann Nepomuk Malzel, who was also the inventor of the metronome (Levitt, 38-39). Malzel is famed for touring with the Turk when the Turk played Napoleon Bonaparte. There are many stories that are told of varying depths about the matches between the two, but that is perhaps the Turk’s most notable game. Although Malzel toured with the Turk in the United States and Cuba, it ultimately ended up in the Chinese Museum of Charles Willson Peale. On about July 5, 1854, the Turk was destroyed in a fire that spread from the National Theater in Philadelphia that reached the Chinese Museum (Levitt, 97). The Turk was in ingenious invention that was ahead of its time in technology and hoaxing. It was a very interesting piece of work that fooled hundreds of people through its complex illusions maintained by a spectacular showman. The Turk is only one of hundreds of hoaxes that have taken place around the world, but is important to remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The Turk proves this through the extensive theories that abounded about how it worked, but it was merely a very intelligent chess player hiding inside the cabinet. Works Cited Bazrod, Sondra Farrel. “The Sorcerer’s Appliances”. The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine 5 January 2003: 10. Print. This article provided me with information on who the Turk performed with, namely Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick the Great. Howe, Walt. “Money Making Hoaxes.” Walt’s Navigating the Net Forum. The Learning Tree, 25 April 2001. Web. 04 May, 2011. This website provided me with information on what a pyramid scheme is, as I found it relative to the ingenuity used in the creation and exhibition of the Turk. Levitt, Gerald M. The Turk, Chess Automaton. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000. Print. This book was imperative in the writing of this paper, as it provided a plethora of information. That information includes: the cost that von Kempelen made off of the daily exhibition of the Turk during his tour of Europe; the sale of the Turk following von Kempelen’s death to Malzel; and, the final placement of the Turk in the Chinese Museum and its destruction in a fire. “Hoax.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 May, 2011. This source simply gave me the dictionary definition of the word ‘hoax.’ Nares, Robert. A Glossary; or Collection of Words, Phrases, Names and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs &c. Which Have Been Thought to Require Illustration in the Works of English Authors, Particularly Shakespeare, and His Contemporaries. London: Old Bond Street, 1822. Print. In this book, I found the original meaning of the words ‘hocus pocus’ and where they derived from. Oldenburg, Ann. “Director: ‘Chloe and Keith’s Wedding’ Video is a Hoax.” USA Today 12 October, 2009. USA Today online. Web. 04 May, 2011. This article gave me a modern day example of an elaborate hoax which fooled millions of people across the nation to compare with the hoaxing used by von Kempelen. Standage, Tom. The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess- Playing Machine. California: Berkley, 2003. Print. This book was paramount to my learning about how the Turk worked. It was vital in the information on the specifics of the inner workings of the machine and the different things that von Kempelen did while exhibiting the machine to keep up the illusion. Viswanathan, V.K. “Mind-bending Infections.” Landes Bioscience Online Journal 2.1 (2010): n. pag. Web. 04 May, 2011. This online article allowed me to learn the reasons why von Kempelen went to the extent that he did in order to create the Turk. He was obviously enchanted by a woman he wanted to impress, so created this machine. Von Windisch, Karl Gottlieb. “The Turk Chess Automaton Hoax.” BibliOdyssey. Web. 04 May, 2011. I found this to be a very appropriate quote that was from the time period, but also gave a succinct reference to the Turk and what it was. Read More