Joseph Ducreux / Public domain
Wolfgang von Kempelen
The chess-playing 'automaton' The Turk
- Invented the speaking machine, an early attempt at a mechanical voice synthesizer
- Created The Turk, an elaborate mechanical chess-playing machine that toured Europe and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries
- His work spanned various fields including writing, engineering, and invention
Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen was a versatile Austrian inventor and writer, best known for creating the chess-playing machine The Turk, which captivated audiences with its apparent ability to play chess against human opponents.
Milestones
-
Mechanical Minds and Mathematical Dreams CultureWolfgang von Kempelen's chess-playing automaton fooled Europe for decades and planted the seed of machine intelligence in the public imagination.