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In the spring of 1770, an extraordinary mechanical man known as "The Turk" made his debut at the imperial court in Vienna. He was fashioned from wood, powered by clockwork and dressed in a stylish Turkish costume. His inventor, a 35-year-old Hungarian civil servant by the name of Wolfgang von Kempelen, boasted that The Turk could beat anyone at chess, an incredible proposition in an era long before the advent of computers. Kempelen had no plans for his chess-playing machine other than to amuse the court. He could have no idea that his automaton would achieve fame throughout Europe and America, that figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Edgar Allan Poe would become fascinated by it, and that the mystery of how The Turk worked would remain unsolved for almost 90 years.
 http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/automat.htm
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