Clockwork game
Subtitle: the illustrious career of a chess-playing automaton
By: a graphic novel by Jane Irwin ; foreword by Nisi Shawl
Contributors: Shawl, Nisi, contributor of foreword
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
ISBN-13: 9780974311029
Subjects: Comic books, strips; Automaton chess players; Chess; Hoaxes; History
Description: In 1769, the court of Empress Maria Theresa witnessed one of that era's most amazing feats of engineering: a machine that could play chess. Artfully constructed by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen, the chess machine played a unique game against each opponent, far surpassing the abilities of all its fellow automata.  Throughout its eighty-five year career, audiences across Europe and the Americas flocked to see the mechanical marvel seemingly capable of human intelligence; Napoleon, Charles Babbage, and Benjamin Franklin were among its challengers, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote an essay attempting to explain how it worked.
Notes: "Most of the material contained within originally appeared on www.clockworkgame.com in webcomic format"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 208-211).