The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-02-15
An Automaton Chess Player that is
Astonishing London.

The Londol Times says that an
ingenious chess playing figure of novel
construction is now being exhibited in
London at the Royal Aquarium under
the title of +" Mephisto," and will
shortly leave that city for Paris. The
history of chess automata is remark
able one. Won Kempelen's chess
player made the tour of the courts of
Europe and its secret was twice sold to
crowned heads. The clever conceal
ment of human being in the interior
was the explanation of all its wonderful
achievements, and the merit of its
invention lay in the devices by which
the manipulation hid the person within
while appearing to court inspection.
The Crystal Palace automaton was
an adaptation of the same idea.
Mephisto" depends upon another
principle. He is actuated from without
by a human intelligence, and the prob
lem is to ascertain how the moves upon
the board become known to his director,
and how the countermoves are COM
municated to the figure. The new chess
player, who had been exhibited at the
inventors house for some time before
his introduction to the public, is a
Mephistopheles seated in a chair, the
chair being placed at an ordinary chess
table. The piece of furniture on which
he sits contains deep seat, but this, as
well as the body of the figure, may be
Investigated while play is going on, and
it is clear that their is no person con-
cealed in either. "Mephisto raises
his arm, grasps the piece with mis- hand,
and moves it TO its proper square. He
removes from the board the pieces he
captures. and signifies "check" by
touching the opponents king. Some
times he moves very quickly,
sometimes takes time to deliberate.
Occasionally he lifts his face to his
opponent and looks up with a smile.
These are little tricks to increase the
effect of his skill as scientific chess
player-which is, indeed, considerable.
Ordinarily the board is uncovered, but
occasionally newspaper is placed over
it, so that the moves could not be re-
Elected by mirror in the ceiling, and
"Mephisto" plays move in spite
of the obstruction The mystery of
Mephisto's" action is to be explained
by the use of lever mechanism. The
movements of the arm are very free
and varied; more so, for instance, than
those of Mr. Maskelyne's automaton
whist player, But, although Mr.. Bah
bage held it to be possible so to calculate
beforehand the changes which could be
rung upon the squares of the chess
board by the piece placed upon it and
to construct mechanism to provide for
all, the merit is not claimed for
Mephisto" of being entirely auto
matte. The inventor says, by way of
apology for in part supplying the
DEFICIENCIES of mechanism by human
intelligence, that life is too short to con-
struct a chess player who should be
entirely automatic. He Is also the
inventor of a Formulating lock, the key
of which is provided with nineteen
pins, each of which admits of three
positions;and it has been calculated that
even for the minor number of permuta-
tions resulting from these figures man
would be engaged one hundred and
thirty lifetimes, ten hours day, three
hundred days year, fifty years of his
life, to work them through. The thirty
two pieces on the sixty-four squares of
the chessboard with the varying powers
of some, would give still larger num-
Der of combinations, and as Z" Mephisto !"
was perfected in six or seven years, it
is not surprising to learn that he is not
entirely automatic, but is medium for
the exercise of human intelligence man
ifested only in a novel and at present an
occult way.