Kempelen Farkas and the Hoax of the Century

If you have ever spent any time in Hungary, you know that native Hungarians are proud of the numerous inventors who have originated from their country. From the ball-point pen to the atom bomb, Hungarians can take credit for inventions both practical and revolutionary. But not all famous Hungarian inventors were so pragmatic. Take, for instance, Kempelen Farkas (better known by his German name, Wolfgang von Kempelen), a lifelong inventor and creator of the ‘chess robot’ known as ‘The Turk’.

These days, you can play chess against a computer, and, unless you are a grandmaster, it is likely the computer could beat you. The Turk, however, used no software. In fact, there was no such thing as software when The Turk was invented, back in 1770. Yet the life-sized metal ‘chess robot’ defeated challengers drawn from esteemed ranks of world leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte and great thinkers like Benjamin Franklin. The Turk was unveiled by Kempelen in an effort to impress Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa. She was impressed, and fooled, as were spectators for a full thirty years, until it was revealed that The Turk was a hoax: hidden inside a wooden box beneath the chess board sat various chess masters, operating The Turk’s hands. The Turk will go down as one of the greatest all-time hoaxes, and was made all the more believable due to Kempelen’s reputation as an esteemed man of science.

Other inventions of Kempelen were less frivolous, and indeed, at least one was ground-breaking. His ‘Speaking Machine’ was constructed of such curious parts as a reed from a bagpipe, a bellows (used to blow a fire), and the bell of a clarinet, all constructed to imitate a human voice. Kempelen would spend much of his life attempting to perfect the machine, making several different versions. Ultimately, the machine was not able to fully replicate natural speech, though it was able to utter phrases in English and French. Its one huge limitation was that the speech was delivered in a wheezy monotone. But at the time it was as close as any inventor had come to mechanically imitating the human voice. And no, there was not a tiny man inside the Speaking Machine doing the talking. This one was legitimate.

Like many great Hungarian inventors before and after him, Kempelen died penniless, having fallen out of favor with the Monarchy. His great automaton The Turk also suffered a tragic fate: it was destroyed in a fire. Kempelen’s name lives on, however, and is oft uttered by automaton-obsessed writers and fans of ‘Steampunk’ literature. His legitimate contributions are also remembered in the form of The Wolfgang von Kempelen Science History Prize.