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An engraving of the Turk from Karl Gottlieb von Windisch's Inanimate Reason; or a Circumstantial Account of That Astonishing Piece of Mechanism, M. de Kempelen's Chess-Player; Now Exhibiting at No. 9 Savile-Row, Burlington Gardens , 1784.
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Image of a copper engraving of the Turk or Automaton Chess Player, a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century.

Credit: From Karl Gottlieb von Windisch, Briefe über den Schachspieler des Hrn. von Kempelen, nebst drei Kupferstichen die diese berühmte Maschine vorstellen. 1783.

Constructed in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria Hungary, The Turk was an elaborate hoax that confounded and entertained audiences until its loss in a fire in 1854. Presented as an automaton, a machine that could play chess with great skill, it was in truth a mechanical illusion in which a human chess master hiding inside operated the machine.

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