El Turco
The Turk also had the ability to converse with spectators using a letter board. The operator, whose identity during the period when Kempelen presented the machine at Schönbrunn Palace is unknown, was able to do this in English, French, and German. Carl Friedrich Hindenburg, a university mathematician, kept a record of the conversations during the Turk's time in Leipzig and published it in 1789 as (or "On the Chessplayer of Mr. von Kempelen And Its Replica"). Topics of questions put to and answered by the Turk included its age, marital status, and its secret workings.