May 01, 2008 -- Up close and personal

I couldn't quite tell from the historical texts how closely von Kempelen allowed his audience to inspect the automaton, but most reports seem to agree that he allowed people to examine it as closely as they liked. Later it tended to be kept behind a velvet rope, but for the purpose of this scene, I wanted to show the court giving it a thorough going-over. Karl Gottlieb von Windisch, a compatriot of von Kempelen and one of the first to publish reports of The Turk, wrote that "I was not, as you may imagine, one of the most backward in my scrutinizing inspection. I did not neglect the least corner: and nevertheless, finding no possibility of its concealing anything the size of my hat, my self-love was terribly hurt at seeing a conjecture vanish, which at first appeared to me so ingenious."

I also have to say how much I love Panel 4 of this page, showing the Automaton with all its doors open. Von Kempelen made a point of leaving the keys in the lock and letting the doors all flap around on their hinges as he rotated it. Nothing to hide here!

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