Title: Clockwork game
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.
Subjects: Comic books, strips, Automaton chess players, Chess, Hoaxes, History, Canulars, Bandes dessinées, Histoire, Échecs (Jeu)
Places: Austria
People: Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734-1804)
Time periods: Maria Theresa, 1740-1780, 19th century, 18th century