Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-07

nodded twice, and three times for a check
of the king. 1t created the most pro-
found wonder for years wherever ex-
hibited, but was, after all, only an in
genious trick. The real intelligence of.
the machine was supplied by a man of
small size, who concealed himself in the
spacious box behind which the
figure sat, and saw all the moves re-
fected through the chess-board by means
of magnets in the chessmen. The
figure and all its accomplishments were
full, or apparently so, of machinery, and
every part of it was thrown open for in
spection before it began to play. The
ingenuity consisted in confusing the judg-
ment by this collection OF cogs and wheels.
When the first door to the interior was
opened the real player was concealed
elsewhere, and when that door was closed
time was always allowed in which he
shifted himself in another part of the
| automaton, and placed the machinery
where he had just been, where it was
| again seen by the spectator. The decep-
ton was still further heightened by an
| ostentatious windingup of the machinery
before n game was begun. When the in
| spection was concluded the man made
| himself comfortable, and played an ex-
l Ctiititl Ediut qGilC at iN tdSC. IHtIC
| have been some famous automata of late
| years quite as wonderfully ingenious as
Va~ncanson's duck or Maelzel's trickster.
| Feggetter, some years ago, in London,
made Naomi, which cleared $1,000 in a
short time, and was credited with doing
some wonderfully human-like things.
Psyche followed, also in London, by
M~askahune and Cook. 1t was supported
on three glass pillars, which, of course,
seemed to isolate it from all outside con
nection with the showmen or directors.
The third and most ingenious of late
productions is Syko, a sort of i'm
proved Psyche, also by Prof. Fegget-
ter. Syko is also here. in fact
has been on exhibition two weeks
in the present month, and may be
agains, though just now reposing in a box
in a back room, but ready for use when
the proper time comes. This automaton
a mannikin with a body hardly larger than
a mantel clock, its legs folded up, its arms
mere steel pieces thinly covered. He has
a wooden head, and beard, and uses his
head, arms and hands. He sits upon a
cylinder of glass, and is wholly discon-
nected, so far as can be seen, from the
floor, the ceiling, or the sides of the room,
Before him is a light railing of numbers
made to hold cards and dOminos; at his
left hand is a bell, and at his right a dial
and moving index finger. The exhibitor
does not stand anywhere in particular, OF
even near by, but the automaton plays
eucher, dominos, and other games; tell:
the date of coins from your pocket, eX.
tracts the root of cubes, tells the number
missing from the sum of a series of con.
cealed figures subtracted from their fxeC
digit, etc. This is a great puzzle. There
are two secrets, How does the mechan
ism manage so much and how is it di
rectcd2 OF course the exhibitors intelli
gence directs it, but how? 1t has never
SO Prot. Feggctter claims, been fully ac
counted for or explained. He says it il
his best piece of work, and it seems to b,
enough for ordinary laurels.