Maelzel’s Chess-Player

The magician of M. Maillardet is also worthy of notice. We copy the following account of it from the Letters before mentioned of Dr. B., who derived his information principally from the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.

马亚尔代先生的魔术师也值得一提。下面这段描述，我们照录自前面提到的 B 博士的《书简》，而他的资料主要来自《爱丁堡百科全书》。

"One of the most popular pieces of mechanism which we have seen, is the Magician constructed by M. Maillardet, for the purpose of answering certain given questions. A figure, dressed like a magician, appears seated at the bottom of a wall, holding a wand in one hand, and a book in the other. A number of questions, ready prepared, are inscribed on oval medallions, and the spectator takes any of these he chooses, and to which he wishes an answer, and having placed it in a drawer ready to receive it, the drawer shuts with a spring till the answer is returned. The magician then arises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles with his wand, and consulting the book as if in deep thought, he lifts it towards his face. Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed question, he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his head, two folding doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer to the question. The doors again close, the magician resumes his original position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion. There are twenty of these medallions, all containing different questions, to which the magician returns the most suitable and striking answers. The medallions are thin plates of brass, of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each other. Some of the medallions have a question inscribed on each side, both of which the magician answers in succession. If the drawer is shut without a medallion being put into it, the magician rises, consults his book, shakes his head, and resumes his seat. The folding doors remain shut, and the drawer is returned empty. If two medallions are put into the drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one. When the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about an hour, during which time about fifty questions may be answered. The inventor stated that the means by which the different medallions acted upon the machinery, so as to produce the proper answers to the questions which they contained, were extremely simple."

“我们所见过的最受欢迎的机械装置之一，是马亚尔代先生制造的魔术师，它的用途是回答某些给定的问题。一个打扮成魔术师的人像坐在一堵墙脚下，一手拿着魔杖，一手拿着一本书。若干事先准备好的问题刻在椭圆形的小牌上；观众任选一块他想得到回答的小牌，把它放进一个专门用来接收它的抽屉里，抽屉便借弹簧之力关上，直到答案送回为止。这时魔术师从座位上站起来，低头行礼，用魔杖画几个圆圈，然后翻看那本书，仿佛在深思，又把书举到面前。这样看起来对所提的问题思索了一番之后，他举起魔杖，用它敲击头顶上方的墙壁，两扇折门便应声打开，现出一个恰如其分的答案。门又关上，魔术师恢复原来的姿势，抽屉打开，把小牌送还。这样的小牌一共有二十块，上面刻着各不相同的问题，魔术师对它们给出最贴切、最惊人的回答。这些小牌是椭圆形的薄铜片，彼此一模一样。有些小牌两面都刻着问题，魔术师会依次回答这两个问题。如果抽屉里没有放进小牌就关上了，魔术师会站起来，翻看他的书，摇摇头，又坐回去。折门始终关着，抽屉空着送回。如果同时放进两块小牌，就只回答下面那一块。机器上紧发条之后，动作可以持续大约一个小时，在这段时间里大约可以回答五十个问题。发明者说，不同的小牌作用于机械、从而对其上所刻的问题给出相应答案的那套办法，是极其简单的。”

The duck of Vaucanson was still more remarkable. It was of the size of life, and so perfect an imitation of the living animal that all the spectators were deceived. It executed, says Brewster, all the natural movements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, performed all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the duck, and like it muddled the water which it drank with its bill. It produced also the sound of quacking in the most natural manner. In the anatomical structure the artist exhibited the highest skill. Every bone in the real duck had its representative in the automaton, and its wings were anatomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was imitated, and each bone executed its proper movements. When corn was thrown down before it, the duck stretched out its neck to pick it up, swallowed, and digested it.

沃康松的鸭子更加了不起。它和真鸭子一样大，模仿活物模仿得如此完美，所有观众都被骗过了。布鲁斯特说，它做出一切自然的动作和姿态，贪婪地吃喝，做出鸭子特有的头部和喉部的种种快速动作，也像鸭子一样用嘴把它喝的水搅浑。它还能极其自然地发出嘎嘎的叫声。在解剖构造上，制作者显示了最高超的技艺。真鸭子的每一根骨头，在这只自动鸭身上都有对应之物，它的翅膀在解剖上也分毫不差。每一个腔、每一处骨突、每一道弯曲都被模仿出来，每一根骨头都做出它应有的动作。把谷粒撒在它面前，鸭子就伸长脖子去啄，吞下去，并把它消化掉。

At the hour appointed for exhibition, a curtain is withdrawn, or folding doors are thrown open, and the machine rolled to within about twelve feet of the nearest of the spectators, between whom and it (the machine) a rope is stretched. A figure is seen habited as a Turk, and seated, with its legs crossed, at a large box apparently of maple wood, which serves it as a table. The exhibiter will, if requested, roll the machine to any portion of the room, suffer it to remain altogether on any designated spot, or even shift its location repeatedly during the progress of a game. The bottom of the box is elevated considerably above the floor by means of the castors or brazen rollers on which it moves, a clear view of the surface immediately beneath the Automaton being thus afforded to the spectators. The chair on which the figure sits is affixed permanently to the box. On the top of this latter is a chess-board, also permanently affixed. The right arm of the Chess-Player is extended at full length before him, at right angles with his body, and lying, in an apparently careless position, by the side of the board. The back of the hand is upwards. The board itself is eighteen inches square. The left arm of the figure is bent at the elbow, and in the left hand is a pipe. A green drapery conceals the back of the Turk, and falls partially over the front of both shoulders. To judge from the external appearance of the box, it is divided into five compartments — three cupboards of equal dimensions, and two drawers occupying that portion of the chest lying beneath the cupboards. The foregoing observations apply to the appearance of the Automaton upon its first introduction into the presence of the spectators.

到了预定的展览时刻，一道帘幕拉开，或者一对折门打开，机器被推到离最近的观众约十二英尺的地方，在观众与它（机器）之间拉着一根绳子。人们看到一个打扮成土耳其人的人像，盘腿坐在一只看来是枫木做的大箱子后面，箱子充当它的桌子。如果有人要求，展示者会把机器推到房间里任何地方，让它一直停在指定的某个位置，甚至在对局进行当中反复挪动它的位置。箱子靠底下的脚轮、也就是铜滚轮移动，箱底因此被抬得离地面相当高，观众便能清楚地看到自动机正下方的地面。人像所坐的椅子牢牢固定在箱子上。箱子顶上有一副棋盘，也是固定的。下棋者的右臂在身前完全伸直，与身体成直角，以一种看似随意的姿态搁在棋盘边上。手背朝上。棋盘本身十八英寸见方。人像的左臂在肘部弯曲，左手拿着一支烟斗。一块绿色的帷布遮住土耳其人的背部，并部分地垂落在两肩的前面。从箱子的外观判断，它分成五个隔间——三个大小相等的柜子，以及位于柜子下方的两个抽屉。以上所说，是自动机最初被带到观众面前时的样子。

Maelzel now informs the company that he will disclose to their view the mechanism of the machine. Taking from his pocket a bunch of keys he unlocks with one of them, door marked 1 in the cut above, and throws the cupboard fully open to the inspection of all present. Its whole interior is apparently filled with wheels, pinions, levers, and other machinery, crowded very closely together, so that the eye can penetrate but a little distance into the mass. Leaving this door open to its full extent, he goes now round to the back of the box, and raising the drapery of the figure, opens another door situated precisely in the rear of the one first opened. Holding a lighted candle at this door, and shifting the position of the whole machine repeatedly at the same time, a bright light is thrown entirely through the cupboard, which is now clearly seen to be full, completely full, of machinery. The spectators being satisfied of this fact, Maelzel closes the back door, locks it, takes the key from the lock, lets fall the drapery of the figure, and comes round to the front. The door marked 1, it will be remembered, is still open. The exhibiter now proceeds to open the drawer which lies beneath the cupboards at the bottom of the box — for although there are apparently two drawers, there is really only one — the two handles and two key holes being intended merely for ornament. Having opened this drawer to its full extent, a small cushion, and a set of chessmen, fixed in a frame work made to support them perpendicularly, are discovered. Leaving this drawer, as well as cupboard No. 1 open, Maelzel now unlocks door No. 2, and door No. 3, which are discovered to be folding doors, opening into one and the same compartment. To the right of this compartment, however, (that is to say the spectators' right,) a small division, six inches wide, and filled with machinery, is partitioned off. The main compartment itself (in speaking of that portion of the box visible upon opening doors 2 and 3, we shall always call it the main compartment) is lined with dark cloth and contains no machinery whatever beyond two pieces of steel, quadrant-shaped, and situated one in each of the rear top corners of the compartment. A small protuberance about eight inches square, and also covered with dark cloth, lies on the floor of the compartment near the rear corner on the spectators' left hand. Leaving doors No. 2 and No. 3 open as well as the drawer, and door No. 1, the exhibiter now goes round to the back of the main compartment, and, unlocking another door there, displays clearly all the interior of the main compartment, by introducing a candle behind it and within it. The whole box being thus apparently disclosed to the scrutiny of the company, Maelzel, still leaving the doors and drawer open, rolls the Automaton entirely round, and exposes the back of the Turk by lifting up the drapery. A door about ten inches square is thrown open in the loins of the figure, and a smaller one also in the left thigh. The interior of the figure, as seen through these apertures, appears to be crowded with machinery. In general, every spectator is now thoroughly satisfied of having beheld and completely scrutinized, at one and the same time, every individual portion of the Automaton, and the idea of any person being concealed in the interior, during so complete an exhibition of that interior, if ever entertained, is immediately dismissed as preposterous in the extreme.

梅尔策尔这时告诉在场的人，他要把机器的机械结构展示给大家看。他从口袋里掏出一串钥匙，用其中一把打开上图中标为 1 的门，把这个柜子完全敞开，让所有在场的人察看。柜子内部看上去塞满了轮子、小齿轮、杠杆和其他机件，挤得非常紧密，目光只能深入这堆东西很短的距离。他让这扇门敞到最大，然后绕到箱子的背后，掀起人像的帷布，打开另一扇恰好位于第一扇门正后方的门。他在这扇门口举着一支点燃的蜡烛，同时一再变换整台机器的位置，于是一道明亮的光完全透过柜子，这时人们清楚地看到，柜子里满是——完完全全塞满了——机件。观众对这一事实感到满意之后，梅尔策尔关上后门，锁好，从锁里拔出钥匙，放下人像的帷布，绕回前面来。读者应当记得，标为 1 的那扇门仍然开着。展示者接着打开位于柜子下方、箱子底部的抽屉——因为虽然看上去有两个抽屉，其实只有一个——两个拉手和两个锁孔只是为了装饰。他把这个抽屉完全拉开，里面露出一只小垫子和一副棋子，棋子固定在一个让它们竖直立着的框架上。梅尔策尔让这个抽屉和 1 号柜子都开着，接着打开 2 号门和 3 号门，原来它们是一对折门，通向同一个隔间。不过，在这个隔间的右边（也就是观众的右边），隔出了一个六英寸宽的小格，里面装满机件。主隔间本身（凡是打开 2 号门和 3 号门后所能看到的箱子部分，我们一律称之为主隔间）衬着深色的布，里面除了两块四分圆形的钢片之外，没有任何机件；钢片分别位于隔间后上方的两个角上。隔间底部靠近观众左手的后角处，有一个约八英寸见方的小凸块，也用深色的布包着。展示者让 2 号门、3 号门以及抽屉和 1 号门都开着，这时绕到主隔间的背后，打开那里的另一扇门，把一支蜡烛放在隔间后面、伸进隔间里，从而把主隔间的整个内部清楚地展示出来。整只箱子看来就这样被完全揭开、接受众人的审视了；梅尔策尔仍然让门和抽屉开着，把自动机整个转过来，掀起帷布，露出土耳其人的背部。人像的腰部打开了一扇约十英寸见方的门，左大腿上也打开了一扇小一些的门。从这些开口看进去，人像内部似乎也塞满了机件。一般说来，这时每一位观众都完全相信，自己已经在同一时刻看到并彻底审视了自动机的每一个部分；而在如此彻底地展示其内部的情况下，即便有人曾经想过里面可能藏着一个人，这个念头也会立刻被当作极其荒唐的想法而打消。

M. Maelzel, having rolled the machine back into its original position, now informs the company that the Automaton will play a game of chess with any one disposed to encounter him. This challenge being accepted, a small table is prepared for the antagonist, and placed close by the rope, but on the spectators' side of it, and so situated as not to prevent the company from obtaining a full view of the Automaton. From a drawer in this table is taken a set of chess-men, and Maelzel arranges them generally, but not always, with his own hands, on the chess board, which consists merely of the usual number of squares painted upon the table. The antagonist having taken his seat, the exhibiter approaches the drawer of the box, and takes therefrom the cushion, which, after removing the pipe from the hand of the Automaton, he places under its left arm as a support. Then taking also from the drawer the Automaton's set of chess-men, he arranges them upon the chessboard before the figure. He now proceeds to close the doors and to lock them — leaving the bunch of keys in door No. 1. He also closes the drawer, and, finally, winds up the machine, by applying a key to an aperture in the left end (the spectators' left) of the box. The game now commences — the Automaton taking the first move. The duration of the contest is usually limited to half an hour, but if it be not finished at the expiration of this period, and the antagonist still contend that he can beat the Automaton, M. Maelzel has seldom any objection to continue it. Not to weary the company, is the ostensible, and no doubt the real object of the limitation. It will of course be understood that when a move is made at his own table, by the antagonist, the corresponding move is made at the box of the Automaton, by Maelzel himself, who then acts as the representative of the antagonist. On the other hand, when the Turk moves, the corresponding move is made at the table of the antagonist, also by M. Maelzel, who then acts as the representative of the Automaton. In this manner it is necessary that the exhibiter should often pass from one table to the other. He also frequently goes in rear of the figure to remove the chess-men which it has taken, and which it deposits, when taken, on the box to the left (to its own left) of the board. When the Automaton hesitates in relation to its move, the exhibiter is occasionally seen to place himself very near its right side, and to lay his hand, now and then, in a careless manner upon the box. He has also a peculiar shuffle with his feet, calculated to induce suspicion of collusion with the machine in minds which are more cunning than sagacious. These peculiarities are, no doubt, mere mannerisms of M. Maelzel, or, if he is aware of them at all, he puts them in practice with a view of exciting in the spectators a false idea of the pure mechanism in the Automaton.

梅尔策尔先生把机器推回原位之后，便告诉在场的人，自动机愿意和任何有意与它较量的人下一盘棋。挑战一旦被接受，就为对手准备一张小桌子，放在绳子旁边，但在观众这一侧，并且摆放得不妨碍众人完整地看到自动机。从这张桌子的抽屉里取出一副棋子，梅尔策尔通常——但并不总是——亲手把它们摆在棋盘上；那棋盘不过是画在桌面上的普通数目的方格。对手就座之后，展示者走到箱子的抽屉前，从里面取出那只垫子，先从自动机手里拿走烟斗，再把垫子放在它的左臂下面作为支撑。然后他又从抽屉里取出自动机的那副棋子，把它们摆在人像面前的棋盘上。接着他关上各扇门并上锁——把那串钥匙留在 1 号门上。他也关上抽屉，最后给机器上发条，方法是把一把钥匙插进箱子左端（观众的左边）的一个孔里。对局随即开始——由自动机先走。比赛的时间通常限定为半小时，但如果到时还没有下完，而对手仍坚持说他能赢过自动机，梅尔策尔先生很少反对继续下去。表面上的目的——无疑也是真正的目的——是不让在场的人厌倦。读者当然明白，当对手在他自己的桌子上走一步棋时，相应的一步由梅尔策尔本人在自动机的箱子上走出，这时他充当对手的代表；反过来，当土耳其人走棋时，相应的一步也由梅尔策尔先生在对手的桌子上走出，这时他充当自动机的代表。这样一来，展示者就必须经常在两张桌子之间来回走动。他还常常走到人像后面，把它吃掉的棋子拿走——那些棋子被吃掉后，由它放在棋盘左边（它自己的左边）的箱子上。当自动机对它的下一步犹豫不决时，人们偶尔会看到展示者站到紧靠它右侧的地方，不时以一种漫不经心的样子把手搭在箱子上。他还有一种特别的拖步动作，足以在那些狡黠多于明智的人心里引起他与机器串通的怀疑。这些特点无疑只是梅尔策尔先生的习惯动作；或者，如果他确实意识到了它们，那么他这样做是为了在观众心中激起一种错误的观念，让他们以为自动机是纯粹的机械。

The Turk plays with his left hand. All the movements of the arm are at right angles. In this manner, the hand (which is gloved and bent in a natural way), being brought directly above the piece to be moved, descends finally upon it, the fingers receiving it, in most cases, without difficulty. Occasionally, however, when the piece is not precisely in its proper situation, the Automaton fails in his attempt at seizing it. When this occurs, no second effort is made, but the arm continues its movement in the direction originally intended, precisely as if the piece were in the fingers. Having thus designated the spot whither the move should have been made, the arm returns to its cushion, and Maelzel performs the evolution which the Automaton pointed out. At every movement of the figure machinery is heard in motion. During the progress of the game, the figure now and then rolls its eyes, as if surveying the board, moves its head, and pronounces the word echec (check) when necessary. If a false move be made by his antagonist, he raps briskly on the box with the fingers of his right hand, shakes his head roughly, and replacing the piece falsely moved, in its former situation, assumes the next move himself. Upon beating the game, he waves his head with an air of triumph, looks round complacently upon the spectators, and drawing his left arm farther back than usual, suffers his fingers alone to rest upon the cushion. In general, the Turk is victorious — once or twice he has been beaten. The game being ended, Maelzel will again if desired, exhibit the mechanism of the box, in the same manner as before. The machine is then rolled back, and a curtain hides it from the view of the company.

土耳其人用左手下棋。手臂的一切动作都成直角。这样，那只手（戴着手套，自然地弯曲着）被移到要走的那枚棋子的正上方，最后落下来，手指在大多数情况下都能毫不费力地拿住它。不过，有时棋子没有恰好放在它应在的位置上，自动机便抓不住它。发生这种情况时，它不会再试第二次，而是让手臂继续朝原定的方向移动，就像棋子仍在手指之间一样。这样指明了这步棋本该走到的地方之后，手臂便回到垫子上，由梅尔策尔完成自动机所指示的那步走法。人像每动一下，都能听到机件在运转。对局进行中，人像不时转动眼珠，仿佛在审视棋盘，还会摇头，并在需要的时候说出“echec”（将军）一词。如果对手走错了一步，它会用右手手指在箱子上快速地敲几下，粗鲁地摇头，把走错的棋子放回原处，然后自己接着走下一步。赢了棋，它会带着得意的神气晃动脑袋，扬扬自得地环顾观众，并把左臂收得比平时更靠后，只让手指搭在垫子上。一般说来，土耳其人总是赢家——它也曾输过一两次。对局结束后，如果有人要求，梅尔策尔会用与先前同样的方式，再次展示箱子里的机械。然后机器被推回去，一道帘幕把它从众人的视线中遮住。

There have been many attempts at solving the mystery of the Automaton. The most general opinion in relation to it, an opinion too not unfrequently adopted by men who should have known better, was, as we have before said, that no immediate human agency was employed — in other words, that the machine was purely a machine and nothing else. Many, however maintained that the exhibiter himself regulated the movements of the figure by mechanical means operating through the feet of the box. Others again, spoke confidently of a magnet. Of the first of these opinions we shall say nothing at present more than we have already said. In relation to the second it is only necessary to repeat what we have before stated, that the machine is rolled about on castors, and will, at the request of a spectator, be moved to and fro to any portion of the room, even during the progress of a game. The supposition of the magnet is also untenable — for if a magnet were the agent, any other magnet in the pocket of a spectator would disarrange the entire mechanism. The exhibiter, however, will suffer the most powerful loadstone to remain even upon the box during the whole of the exhibition.

人们曾多次尝试解开这台自动机之谜。关于它最普遍的看法——而且不乏本应更有见识的人也持这种看法——正如我们前面说过的，是认为其中没有使用任何直接的人力；换句话说，这台机器纯粹是机器，别无其他。然而，也有许多人坚持认为，是展示者本人通过经由箱脚起作用的机械手段，控制着人像的动作。还有人很有把握地说是磁铁在起作用。对于第一种看法，我们目前除了已经说过的之外，不再多说。至于第二种看法，只须重申我们前面讲过的：这台机器是在脚轮上推来推去的，而且只要观众要求，甚至在对局进行当中，它也会被推到房间里的任何地方。磁铁的假设同样站不住脚——因为如果是磁铁在起作用，观众口袋里的任何其他磁铁都会把整个机械搅乱。然而，展示者却会允许把最强的天然磁石在整个展览期间一直放在箱子上。

The first attempt at a written explanation of the secret, at least the first attempt of which we ourselves have any knowledge, was made in a large pamphlet printed at Paris in 1785. The author's hypothesis amounted to this — that a dwarf actuated the machine. This dwarf he supposed to conceal himself during the opening of the box by thrusting his legs into two hollow cylinders, which were represented to be (but which are not) among the machinery in the cupboard No. 1, while his body was out of the box entirely, and covered by the drapery of the Turk. When the doors were shut, the dwarf was enabled to bring his body within the box — the noise produced by some portion of the machinery allowing him to do so unheard, and also to close the door by which he entered. The interior of the automaton being then exhibited, and no person discovered, the spectators, says the author of this pamphlet, are satisfied that no one is within any portion of the machine. This whole hypothesis was too obviously absurd to require comment, or refutation, and accordingly we find that it attracted very little attention.

第一次尝试用文字解释这个秘密——至少是我们自己所知道的第一次尝试——是 1785 年在巴黎印行的一本大册子。作者的假说可以归结为：是一个侏儒在操纵这台机器。他设想，在打开箱子展示的时候，这个侏儒把两条腿伸进两个空心圆筒里藏起来——据说这两个圆筒就在 1 号柜子的机件当中（其实并不在）——而他的身体则完全在箱子外面，被土耳其人的帷布遮住。门关上以后，侏儒就可以把身体挪进箱子里——机件某一部分发出的噪声使他能够不被听见地这样做——并关上他进来的那扇门。这本小册子的作者说，接着展示自动机的内部，没有发现任何人，观众便相信机器的任何部分里都没有人。这个假说整个都荒谬得太明显，不值得评论或驳斥，因此我们看到，它几乎没有引起什么注意。

These bizarre attempts at explanation were followed by others equally bizarre. Of late years, however, an anonymous writer, by a course of reasoning exceedingly unphilosophical, has contrived to blunder upon a plausible solution — although we cannot consider it altogether the true one. His Essay was first published in a Baltimore weekly paper, was illustrated by cuts, and was entitled "An attempt to analyze the Automaton Chess-Player of M. Maelzel." This Essay we suppose to have been the original of the pamphlet to which Sir David Brewster alludes in his letters on Natural Magic, and which he has no hesitation in declaring a thorough and satisfactory explanation. The results of the analysis are undoubtedly, in the main, just; but we can only account for Brewster's pronouncing the Essay a thorough and satisfactory explanation, by supposing him to have bestowed upon it a very cursory and inattentive perusal. In the compendium of the Essay, made use of in the Letters on Natural Magic, it is quite impossible to arrive at any distinct conclusion in regard to the adequacy or inadequacy of the analysis, on account of the gross misarrangement and deficiency of the letters of reference employed. The same fault is to be found in the "Attempt &c.," as we originally saw it. The solution consists in a series of minute explanations, (accompanied by wood-cuts, the whole occupying many pages) in which the object is to show the possibility of so shifting the partitions of the box, as to allow a human being, concealed in the interior, to move portions of his body from one part of the box to another, during the exhibition of the mechanism — thus eluding the scrutiny of the spectators. There can be no doubt, as we have before observed, and as we will presently endeavor to show, that the principle, or rather the result, of this solution is the true one. Some person is concealed in the box during the whole time of exhibiting the interior. We object, however, to the whole verbose description of the manner in which the partitions are shifted, to accommodate the movements of the person concealed. We object to it as a mere theory assumed in the first place, and to which circumstances are afterwards made to adapt themselves. It was not, and could not have been, arrived at by any inductive reasoning. In whatever way the shifting is managed, it is of course concealed at every step from observation. To show that certain movements might possibly be effected in a certain way, is very far from showing that they are actually so effected. There may be an infinity of other methods by which the same results may be obtained. The probability of the one assumed proving the correct one is then as unity to infinity. But, in reality, this particular point, the shifting of the partitions, is of no consequence whatever. It was altogether unnecessary to devote seven or eight pages for the purpose of proving what no one in his senses would deny — viz: that the wonderful mechanical genius of Baron Kempelen could invent the necessary means for shutting a door or slipping aside a pannel, with a human agent too at his service in actual contact with the panel or the door, and the whole operations carried on, as the author of the Essay himself shows, and as we shall attempt to show more fully hereafter, entirely out of reach of the observation of the spectators.

在这些怪诞的解释尝试之后，又有一些同样怪诞的尝试。不过，近年来，一位匿名作者通过一番极不合乎哲理的推理，居然误打误撞地得出了一个似乎有理的解答——尽管我们不能认为它完全正确。他的文章最初发表在巴尔的摩的一份周报上，配有插图，题为《试析梅尔策尔先生的自动下棋机》。我们推测，这篇文章就是戴维·布鲁斯特爵士在他的《自然魔术书简》中提到的那本小册子的原本，布鲁斯特毫不犹豫地宣称那是一个彻底而令人满意的解释。分析的结果大体上无疑是正确的；但布鲁斯特之所以宣称这篇文章是一个彻底而令人满意的解释，我们只能解释为他对它读得非常粗略、漫不经心。在《自然魔术书简》所采用的那篇文章的摘要中，由于所用的参照字母排列严重错乱、残缺不全，根本无法对其分析是否充分得出任何明确的结论。我们最初见到的那篇《试析》等等，也有同样的毛病。这个解答由一系列细致的说明组成（附有木刻插图，整个占了许多页），其目的是要证明：可以移动箱子里的隔板，从而使藏在里面的一个人在展示机械的过程中，能够把身体的各部分从箱子的一处挪到另一处——由此躲过观众的审视。正如我们前面说过的，也正如我们下面将要努力证明的，这个解答的原理，或者毋宁说它的结果，无疑是正确的：在展示内部的整个过程中，确有某个人藏在箱子里。然而，我们反对的是那一整套冗长的描述，说隔板如何移动来适应藏身者的动作。我们反对它，是因为它不过是一种事先假定的理论，然后让种种情况去迁就它。它不是、也不可能是通过任何归纳推理得出的。无论隔板是怎样移动的，当然每一步都是在观察不到的地方进行的。证明某些动作可能以某种方式完成，与证明它们实际上就是以这种方式完成的，相去甚远。可能还有无穷多种其他方法，能得到同样的结果。那么，所假定的这一种恰好是正确的那一种，其概率就是一比无穷。但实际上，隔板如何移动这一点，根本无关紧要。用七八页篇幅去证明一件任何头脑清醒的人都不会否认的事——即肯佩伦男爵那非凡的机械天才，能够发明出关门或者把一块镶板推到一旁所需的手段，何况他还有一个人手听候差遣，就紧挨着那块镶板或那扇门，而且整个操作，正如那篇文章的作者自己所表明、我们也将在后面更充分地努力表明的那样，完全是在观众的视线之外进行的——这是完全没有必要的。

In attempting ourselves an explanation of the Automaton, we will, in the first place, endeavor to show how its operations are effected, and afterwards describe, as briefly as possible, the nature of the observations from which we have deduced our result.

我们自己尝试解释这台自动机时，将首先努力说明它的动作是如何完成的，然后尽可能简短地说明我们据以推出这一结论的那些观察的性质。

It will be necessary for a proper understanding of the subject, that we repeat here in a few words, the routine adopted by the exhibiter in disclosing the interior of the box — a routine from which he never deviates in any material particular. In the first place he opens the door No. 1. Leaving this open, he goes round to the rear of the box, and opens a door precisely at the back of door No. 1. To this back door he holds a lighted candle. He then closes the back door, locks it, and, coming round to the front, opens the drawer to its full extent. This done, he opens the doors No. 2 and No. 3, (the folding doors) and displays the interior of the main compartment. Leaving open the main compartment, the drawer, and the front door of cupboard No. 1, he now goes to the rear again, and throws open the back door of the main compartment. In shutting up the box no particular order is observed, except that the folding doors are always closed before the drawer.

为了正确理解这个问题，有必要在这里简单地重述一下展示者展示箱子内部时所采用的程序——这套程序他从不在任何实质性的细节上偏离。首先，他打开 1 号门。让它开着，他绕到箱子后面，打开恰好位于 1 号门背后的一扇门。他在这扇后门口举着一支点燃的蜡烛。然后他关上后门，锁好，再绕到前面，把抽屉完全拉开。这一步做完，他打开 2 号门和 3 号门（那对折门），展示主隔间的内部。让主隔间、抽屉和 1 号柜子的前门都开着，他又走到后面，打开主隔间的后门。关闭箱子时，他不遵循特定的顺序，只是折门总是在抽屉之前关上。

Now, let us suppose that when the machine is first rolled into the presence of the spectators, a man is already within it. His body is situated behind the dense machinery in cupboard No. 1., (the rear portion of which machinery is so contrived as to slip en masse, from the main compartment to the cupboard No. 1, as occasion may require,) and his legs lie at full length in the main compartment. When Maelzel opens the door No. 1, the man within is not in any danger of discovery, for the keenest eye cannot penetrate more than about two inches into the darkness within. But the case is otherwise when the back door of the cupboard No. 1 is opened. A bright light then pervades the cupboard, and the body of the man would be discovered if it were there. But it is not. The putting the key in the lock of the back door was a signal on hearing which the person concealed brought his body forward to an angle as acute as possible — throwing it altogether, or nearly so, into the main compartment. This, however, is a painful position, and cannot be long maintained. Accordingly we find that Maelzel closes the back door. This being done, there is no reason why the body of the man may not resume its former situation — for the cupboard is again so dark as to defy scrutiny. The drawer is now opened, and the legs of the person within drop down behind it in the space it formerly occupied. There is, consequently, now no longer any part of the man in the main compartment — his body being behind the machinery in cupboard No. 1, and his legs in the space occupied by the drawer. The exhibiter, therefore, finds himself at liberty to display the main compartment. This he does — opening both its back and front doors — and no person is discovered. The spectators are now satisfied that the whole of the box is exposed to view — and exposed too, all portions of it at one and the same time. But of course this is not the case. They neither see the space behind the drawer, nor the interior of cupboard No. 1 — the front door of which latter the exhibiter virtually shuts in shutting its back door. Maelzel, having now rolled the machine around, lifted up the drapery of the Turk, opened the doors in his back and thigh, and shown his trunk to be full of machinery, brings the whole back into its original position, and closes the doors. The man within is now at liberty to move about. He gets up into the body of the Turk just so high as to bring his eyes above the level of the chess-board. It is very probable that he seats himself upon the little square block or protuberance which is seen in a corner of the main compartment when the doors are open. In this position he sees the chess-board through the bosom of the Turk which is of gauze. Bringing his right arm across his breast he actuates the little machinery necessary to guide the left arm and the fingers of the figure. This machinery is situated just beneath the left shoulder of the Turk, and is consequently easily reached by the right hand of the man concealed, if we suppose his right arm brought across the breast. The motions of the head and eyes, and of the right arm of the figure, as well as the sound echec are produced by other mechanism in the interior, and actuated at will by the man within. The whole of this mechanism — that is to say all the mechanism essential to the machine — is most probably contained within the little cupboard (of about six inches in breadth) partitioned off at the right (the spectators' right) of the main compartment.

现在，让我们假设：当机器最初被推到观众面前时，里面已经有一个人了。他的身体位于 1 号柜子里那堆密集的机件后面（这堆机件的后部设计成可以根据需要从主隔间整块滑进 1 号柜子），他的两腿则完全伸直，放在主隔间里。当梅尔策尔打开 1 号门时，里面的人没有任何被发现的危险，因为最敏锐的眼睛也只能看进里面的黑暗约两英寸深。但打开 1 号柜子的后门时，情形就不同了。这时一道明亮的光充满柜子，如果那人的身体在那里，就会被发现。但它不在那里。把钥匙插进后门锁里，就是一个信号；藏在里面的人听到这个信号，便把身体尽可能地向前弯成锐角——把它全部或几乎全部挪进主隔间。然而，这是一个痛苦的姿势，不能维持很久。于是我们看到，梅尔策尔关上了后门。这一步做完，那人的身体就没有理由不恢复原来的位置——因为柜子里又黑得让人无法细看了。接着抽屉被拉开，里面那人的两腿便垂落到抽屉后面、原先被它占据的空间里。因此，这时主隔间里已经没有那人身体的任何部分——他的身体在 1 号柜子的机件后面，两腿在抽屉所占的空间里。所以，展示者发现自己可以放心地展示主隔间了。他就这样做——打开主隔间的后门和前门——没有发现任何人。观众这时相信，整只箱子都已展现在眼前——而且所有部分是在同一时刻展现的。但事实当然并非如此。他们既没有看到抽屉后面的空间，也没有看到 1 号柜子的内部——展示者在关上这个柜子的后门时，实际上也就等于关上了它的前门。梅尔策尔这时把机器转过来，掀起土耳其人的帷布，打开它背部和大腿上的门，表明它的躯干里满是机件，然后把整台机器转回原来的位置，关上各扇门。里面的人现在可以自由活动了。他钻进土耳其人的身体，高度恰好使他的眼睛高出棋盘的平面。他很可能坐在门打开时可以在主隔间一角看到的那个小方块或者说凸块上。在这个位置上，他透过土耳其人的胸部——那是用薄纱做的——看到棋盘。他把右臂横过胸前，操纵那套指挥人像左臂和手指所需的小机件。这套机件就在土耳其人左肩的正下方，因此，如果我们设想藏身者把右臂横过胸前，他的右手就很容易够到它。人像头部和眼睛的动作、右臂的动作以及“echec”的声音，是由内部的其他机械产生的，由里面的人随意操纵。所有这些机械——也就是说，这台机器所有不可或缺的机械——很可能都装在主隔间右边（观众的右边）隔出来的那个小柜子（约六英寸宽）里。

In this analysis of the operations of the Automaton, we have purposely avoided any allusion to the manner in which the partitions are shifted, and it will now be readily comprehended that this point is a matter of no importance, since, by mechanism within the ability of any common carpenter, it might be effected in an infinity of different ways, and since we have shown that, however performed, it is performed out of the view of the spectators. Our result is founded upon the following observations taken during frequent visits to the exhibition of Maelzel.

在对自动机运作的这番分析中，我们有意避免提到隔板是如何移动的；现在读者不难理解，这一点无关紧要，因为凭借任何一个普通木匠都能做到的机械，它可以用无穷多种不同的方式实现；而且我们已经表明，无论怎样完成，它都是在观众视线之外完成的。我们的结论建立在以下这些观察之上，它们是我们多次去看梅尔策尔的展览时得来的。

1. The moves of the Turk are not made at regular intervals of time, but accommodate themselves to the moves of the antagonist — although this point, (of regularity) so important in all kinds of mechanical contrivance, might have been readily brought about by limiting the time allowed for the moves of the antagonist. For example, if this limit were three minutes, the moves of the Automaton might be made at any given intervals longer than three minutes. The fact then of irregularity, when regularity might have been so easily attained, goes to prove that regularity is unimportant to the action of the Automaton — in other words, that the Automaton is not a pure machine.

1．土耳其人走棋并不是隔着固定的时间间隔，而是随着对手走棋的情况而调整——尽管这一点（规则性）在各种机械装置中都极为重要，而且只要限制对手每步棋所用的时间，就可以轻而易举地做到。例如，如果这个限度是三分钟，自动机的走棋就可以安排在任何长于三分钟的给定间隔上。那么，在本可以如此轻易地做到规则的情况下却不规则，这一事实就足以证明，规则性对自动机的动作无关紧要——换句话说，自动机并不是一台纯粹的机器。

2. When the Automaton is about to move a piece, a distinct motion is observable just beneath the left shoulder, and which motion agitates in a slight degree, the drapery covering the front of the left shoulder. This motion invariably precedes, by about two seconds, the movement of the arm itself — and the arm never, in any instance, moves without this preparatory motion in the shoulder. Now let the antagonist move a piece, and let the corresponding move be made by Maelzel, as usual, upon the board of the Automaton. Then let the antagonist narrowly watch the Automaton, until he detect the preparatory motion in the shoulder. Immediately upon detecting this motion, and before the arm itself begins to move, let him withdraw his piece, as if perceiving an error in his manoeuvre. It will then be seen that the movement of the arm, which, in all other cases, immediately succeeds the motion in the shoulder, is withheld — is not made — although Maelzel has not yet performed, on the board of the Automaton, any move corresponding to the withdrawal of the antagonist. In this case, that the Automaton was about to move is evident — and that he did not move, was an effect plainly produced by the withdrawal of the antagonist, and without any intervention of Maelzel.

2．当自动机准备移动一枚棋子时，可以观察到它的左肩正下方有一个明显的动作，这个动作会使遮在左肩前面的帷布轻微地晃动。这个动作总是比手臂本身的动作早大约两秒钟——而且手臂从来没有在没有肩部这一预备动作的情况下动过。现在，让对手走一枚棋子，并让梅尔策尔像平常一样在自动机的棋盘上走出相应的一步。然后让对手仔细盯着自动机，直到他察觉肩部的预备动作。一察觉这个动作，在手臂本身开始移动之前，就让他把自己那枚棋子收回，仿佛发现了自己的走法有错。这时就会看到，在其他一切情况下都紧随肩部动作而来的手臂动作，被抑制住了——没有做出来——尽管梅尔策尔还没有在自动机的棋盘上作出任何与对手收回棋子相应的动作。在这种情况下，自动机原本要走棋，这是显而易见的；而它没有走，显然是对手收回棋子所造成的结果，并没有梅尔策尔的任何介入。

This fact fully proves, 1— that the intervention of Maelzel, in performing the moves of the antagonist on the board of the Automaton, is not essential to the movements of the Automaton, 2— that its movements are regulated by mind — by some person who sees the board of the antagonist, 3— that its movements are not regulated by the mind of Maelzel, whose back was turned towards the antagonist at the withdrawal of his move.

这一事实充分证明：其一，梅尔策尔在自动机的棋盘上代走对手的棋步，这种介入对于自动机的动作并不是必不可少的；其二，自动机的动作是由心智控制的——由某个能看到对手棋盘的人控制的；其三，它的动作不是由梅尔策尔的心智控制的，因为在对手收回那步棋的时候，他是背对着对手的。

3. The Automaton does not invariably win the game. Were the machine a pure machine this would not be the case — it would always win. The principle being discovered by which a machine can be made to play a game of chess, an extension of the same principle would enable it to win a game — a farther extension would enable it to win all games — that is, to beat any possible game of an antagonist. A little consideration will convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games, is not in the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game. If then we regard the Chess-Player as a machine, we must suppose, (what is highly improbable,) that its inventor preferred leaving it incomplete to perfecting it — a supposition rendered still more absurd, when we reflect that the leaving it incomplete would afford an argument against the possibility of its being a pure machine — the very argument we now adduce.

3．自动机并不总是赢棋。假如这台机器是一台纯粹的机器，情形就不会如此——它会永远获胜。一旦发现了使一台机器能够下棋的原理，把同一原理加以扩展，就能使它赢下一盘棋——再进一步扩展，就能使它赢下所有的棋——也就是说，能够击败对手任何可能的下法。稍加思考，任何人都会相信：就所需操作的原理而言，使一台机器击败所有的棋局，其难度丝毫不比使它击败一局更大。那么，如果我们把这位下棋者看作一台机器，就必须假定（而这是极不可能的）它的发明者宁愿让它不完善，也不愿使它完善——当我们想到，让它保持不完善，恰恰会为反对它是纯粹机器的可能性提供一个论据——也就是我们现在所提出的这个论据——这个假定就显得更加荒谬了。

4. When the situation of the game is difficult or complex, we never perceive the Turk either shake his head or roll his eyes. It is only when his next move is obvious, or when the game is so circumstanced that to a man in the Automaton's place there would be no necessity for reflection. Now these peculiar movements of the head and eyes are movements customary with persons engaged in meditation, and the ingenious Baron Kempelen would have adapted these movements (were the machine a pure machine) to occasions proper for their display — that is, to occasions of complexity. But the reverse is seen to be the case, and this reverse applies precisely to our supposition of a man in the interior. When engaged in meditation about the game he has no time to think of setting in motion the mechanism of the Automaton by which are moved the head and the eyes. When the game, however, is obvious, he has time to look about him, and, accordingly, we see the head shake and the eyes roll.

4．当棋局形势困难或复杂时，我们从来看不到土耳其人摇头或转眼珠。只有当它的下一步显而易见，或者棋局的情形使得一个处在自动机位置上的人无须思考的时候，才会这样。而头部和眼睛的这些特殊动作，正是人们在沉思时惯有的动作；聪明的肯佩伦男爵（假如这台机器是一台纯粹的机器）一定会把这些动作安排在适合表现它们的场合——也就是复杂的场合。但我们看到的情形恰恰相反，而这种相反恰好符合我们关于内部有人的假设。当他专心思考棋局时，他没有工夫去想着开动自动机上那套使头部和眼睛活动的机械。然而，当棋局显而易见时，他就有工夫四下张望，于是我们看到人像摇头、转动眼珠。

5. When the machine is rolled round to allow the spectators an examination of the back of the Turk, and when his drapery is lifted up and the doors in the trunk and thigh thrown open, the interior of the trunk is seen to be crowded with machinery. In scrutinizing this machinery while the Automaton was in motion, that is to say while the whole machine was moving on the castors, it appeared to us that certain portions of the mechanism changed their shape and position in a degree too great to be accounted for by the simple laws of perspective; and subsequent examinations convinced us that these undue alterations were attributable to mirrors in the interior of the trunk. The introduction of mirrors among the machinery could not have been intended to influence, in any degree, the machinery itself. Their operation, whatever that operation should prove to be, must necessarily have reference to the eye of the spectator. We at once concluded that these mirrors were so placed to multiply to the vision some few pieces of machinery within the trunk so as to give it the appearance of being crowded with mechanism. Now the direct inference from this is that the machine is not a pure machine. For if it were, the inventor, so far from wishing its mechanism to appear complex, and using deception for the purpose of giving it this appearance, would have been especially desirous of convincing those who witnessed his exhibition, of the simplicity of the means by which results so wonderful were brought about.

5．当机器被转过来让观众察看土耳其人的背部，帷布被掀起，躯干和大腿上的门被打开时，可以看到躯干内部塞满了机件。我们在自动机移动时——也就是整台机器在脚轮上移动时——仔细观察这些机件，觉得机械的某些部分在形状和位置上的变化太大，无法用简单的透视法则来解释；后来的几次察看使我们确信，这些不正常的变化应归因于躯干内部的镜子。在机件中间装上镜子，不可能是为了对机械本身产生任何影响。它们的作用，无论最终证明是什么作用，必然都与观众的眼睛有关。我们立刻断定，这些镜子的摆放是为了在视觉上把躯干里少数几件机件成倍地增多，使它看起来塞满了机械。由此直接推出的结论是：这台机器不是一台纯粹的机器。因为假如它是，发明者非但不会希望它的机械看起来复杂，并为了造成这种外观而使用欺骗手段，反而会特别希望让看他展览的人相信，产生如此奇妙结果的手段是多么简单。

6. The external appearance, and, especially, the deportment of the Turk, are, when we consider them as imitations of life, but very indifferent imitations. The countenance evinces no ingenuity, and is surpassed, in its resemblance to the human face, by the very commonest of wax-works. The eyes roll unnaturally in the head, without any corresponding motions of the lids or brows. The arm, particularly, performs its operations in an exceedingly stiff, awkward, jerking, and rectangular manner. Now, all this is the result either of inability in Maelzel to do better, or of intentional neglect — accidental neglect being out of the question, when we consider that the whole time of the ingenious proprietor is occupied in the improvement of his machines. Most assuredly we must not refer the unlife-like appearances to inability — for all the rest of Maelzel's automata are evidence of his full ability to copy the motions and peculiarities of life with the most wonderful exactitude. The rope-dancers, for example, are inimitable. When the clown laughs, his lips, his eyes, his eye-brows, and eye-lids — indeed, all the features of his countenance — are imbued with their appropriate expressions. In both him and his companion, every gesture is so entirely easy, and free from the semblance of artificiality, that, were it not for the diminutiveness of their size, and the fact of their being passed from one spectator to another previous to their exhibition on the rope, it would be difficult to convince any assemblage of persons that these wooden automata were not living creatures. We cannot, therefore, doubt Mr. Maelzel's ability, and we must necessarily suppose that he intentionally suffered his Chess Player to remain the same artificial and unnatural figure which Baron Kempelen (no doubt also through design) originally made it. What this design was it is not difficult to conceive. Were the Automaton life-like in its motions, the spectator would be more apt to attribute its operations to their true cause, (that is, to human agency within) than he is now, when the awkward and rectangular manoeuvres convey the idea of pure and unaided mechanism.

6．土耳其人的外貌，尤其是它的举止，如果我们把它们看作对生命的模仿，那就是非常拙劣的模仿。它的面容毫无巧思可言，在与人脸的相似程度上，连最普通的蜡像都比它强。眼珠在头里不自然地转动，眼睑和眉毛却没有任何相应的动作。尤其是手臂，它的动作极其僵硬、笨拙、一顿一顿，而且总是成直角。所有这一切，要么是因为梅尔策尔无力做得更好，要么是有意的忽略——偶然的忽略是谈不上的，因为这位聪明的主人把全部时间都花在改进他的机器上。我们当然绝不能把这些不像生命的外观归因于他无能——因为梅尔策尔所有其他的自动机，都证明他完全有能力以最惊人的精确模仿生命的动作和特点。例如那些走钢丝的人偶，就是无与伦比的。小丑笑的时候，他的嘴唇、眼睛、眉毛和眼睑——实际上他脸上的一切部位——都带着相应的表情。在他和他的同伴身上，每一个姿势都如此自然、如此不带人工的痕迹，以至于要不是它们个头很小，又在上钢丝表演之前在观众手中传看过，恐怕很难让任何一群人相信这些木头自动机不是活物。因此，我们不能怀疑梅尔策尔先生的能力，就必然要假定，他是有意让他的下棋者保持肯佩伦男爵当初（无疑也是有意地）把它造成的那种矫揉造作、不自然的样子。这一意图是什么，不难想见。假如自动机的动作栩栩如生，观众就更容易把它的动作归于真正的原因（也就是内部的人力），而不像现在这样，笨拙的、直角的动作给人一种纯粹的、没有人辅助的机械的印象。

7. When, a short time previous to the commencement of the game, the Automaton is wound up by the exhibiter as usual, an ear in any degree accustomed to the sounds produced in winding up a system of machinery, will not fail to discover, instantaneously, that the axis turned by the key in the box of the Chess-Player, cannot possibly be connected with either a weight, a spring, or any system of machinery whatever. The inference here is the same as in our last observation. The winding up is inessential to the operations of the Automaton, and is performed with the design of exciting in the spectators the false idea of mechanism.

7．在对局开始前不久，展示者照例给自动机上发条；这时，一只对上紧一套机械时发出的声音稍有经验的耳朵，会立刻发现：下棋机箱子里由钥匙转动的那根轴，不可能与任何重锤、发条或任何机械系统相连。这里的推论与上一条观察相同。上发条对自动机的动作无关紧要，这样做是为了在观众心中激起有机械在运转的错误观念。

8. When the question is demanded explicitly of Maelzel — "Is the Automaton a pure machine or not?" his reply is invariably the same — "I will say nothing about it." Now the notoriety of the Automaton, and the great curiosity it has everywhere excited, are owing more especially to the prevalent opinion that it is a pure machine, than to any other circumstance. Of course, then, it is the interest of the proprietor to represent it as a pure machine. And what more obvious, and more effectual method could there be of impressing the spectators with this desired idea, than a positive and explicit declaration to that effect? On the other hand, what more obvious and effectual method could there be of exciting a disbelief in the Automaton's being a pure machine, than by withholding such explicit declaration? For, people will naturally reason thus,— It is Maelzel's interest to represent this thing a pure machine — he refuses to do so, directly, in words, although he does not scruple, and is evidently anxious to do so, indirectly by actions — were it actually what he wishes to represent it by actions, he would gladly avail himself of the more direct testimony of words — the inference is, that a consciousness of its not being a pure machine, is the reason of his silence — his actions cannot implicate him in a falsehood — his words may.

8．如果有人直截了当地问梅尔策尔：“自动机到底是不是一台纯粹的机器？”他的回答总是一样的：“对此我什么也不说。”而自动机之所以名声在外，处处激起极大的好奇，主要正是由于人们普遍认为它是一台纯粹的机器，而不是由于别的什么情况。那么，把它说成一台纯粹的机器，当然符合主人的利益。还有什么办法，能比明确肯定地这样宣称，更明显、更有效地把这个所希望的观念印在观众心里呢？反过来，还有什么办法，能比不肯作出这样明确的声明，更明显、更有效地激起人们对自动机是纯粹机器的怀疑呢？因为人们自然会这样推理：把这东西说成纯粹的机器，符合梅尔策尔的利益——他却拒绝直接用言语这样说，尽管他毫不犹豫、而且显然急于通过行动间接地这样表示——假如它真是他想用行动表明的那样，他会乐于利用言语这种更直接的证明——由此推论，他之所以沉默，是因为他知道它不是一台纯粹的机器——他的行动不会使他陷于谎言，他的言语却可能。

9. When, in exhibiting the interior of the box, Maelzel has thrown open the door No. 1, and also the door immediately behind it, he holds a lighted candle at the back door (as mentioned above) and moves the entire machine to and fro with a view of convincing the company that the cupboard No. 1 is entirely filled with machinery. When the machine is thus moved about, it will be apparent to any careful observer, that whereas that portion of the machinery near the front door No. 1, is perfectly steady and unwavering, the portion farther within fluctuates, in a very slight degree, with the movements of the machine. This circumstance first aroused in us the suspicion that the more remote portion of the machinery was so arranged as to be easily slipped, en masse, from its position when occasion should require it. This occasion we have already stated to occur when the man concealed within brings his body into an erect position upon the closing of the back door.

9．展示箱子内部时，梅尔策尔打开 1 号门和紧挨在它后面的那扇门之后，会在后门口举着一支点燃的蜡烛（如前所述），并把整台机器来回移动，以使在场的人相信 1 号柜子里完全塞满了机件。机器这样被来回移动时，任何细心的观察者都会看出：靠近 1 号前门的那部分机件完全稳定、纹丝不动，而较靠里的部分却随着机器的移动而极其轻微地晃动。正是这个情况，最先引起了我们的怀疑：较远的那部分机件被安排得可以在需要时整块地从原来的位置轻易滑开。我们已经说过，这个需要出现在后门关上、藏在里面的人把身体直起来的时候。

10. Sir David Brewster states the figure of the Turk to be of the size of life — but in fact it is far above the ordinary size. Nothing is more easy than to err in our notions of magnitude. The body of the Automaton is generally insulated, and, having no means of immediately comparing it with any human form, we suffer ourselves to consider it as of ordinary dimensions. This mistake may, however, be corrected by observing the Chess-Player when, as is sometimes the case, the exhibiter approaches it. Mr. Maelzel, to be sure, is not very tall, but upon drawing near the machine, his head will be found at least eighteen inches below the head of the Turk, although the latter, it will be remembered, is in a sitting position.

10．戴维·布鲁斯特爵士说土耳其人的人像和真人一般大小——但事实上它远比常人高大。在判断大小时，最容易出错。自动机的身体通常是孤立摆放的，由于没有办法直接把它和人的身形相比较，我们便听任自己把它当作普通大小。不过，只要在展示者走近它时——这种情况有时会发生——观察一下这位下棋者，这个错误就可以纠正。梅尔策尔先生诚然个子不高，但他走近机器时，人们会发现他的头至少比土耳其人的头低十八英寸，而读者应当记得，后者是坐着的。

11. The box behind which the Automaton is placed, is precisely three feet six inches long, two feet four inches deep, and two feet six inches high. These dimensions are fully sufficient for the accommodation of a man very much above the common size — and the main compartment alone is capable of holding any ordinary man in the position we have mentioned as assumed by the person concealed. As these are facts, which any one who doubts them may prove by actual calculation, we deem it unnecessary to dwell upon them. We will only suggest that, although the top of the box is apparently a board of about three inches in thickness, the spectator may satisfy himself by stooping and looking up at it when the main compartment is open, that it is in reality very thin. The height of the drawer also will be misconceived by those who examine it in a cursory manner. There is a space of about three inches between the top of the drawer as seen from the exterior, and the bottom of the cupboard — a space which must be included in the height of the drawer. These contrivances to make the room within the box appear less than it actually is, are referrible to a design on the part of the inventor, to impress the company again with a false idea, viz., that no human being can be accommodated within the box.

11．自动机所在的那只箱子，长恰好三英尺六英寸，深二英尺四英寸，高二英尺六英寸。这样的尺寸，足以容纳一个比常人高大得多的人——单是主隔间，就能容纳任何一个普通人，以我们前面所说藏身者采取的那种姿势待在里面。由于这些是任何怀疑它们的人都可以通过实际计算来证明的事实，我们认为不必多谈。我们只想提醒一句：箱子顶部看上去是一块大约三英寸厚的木板，但观众只要在主隔间打开时弯下身子往上看，就可以确信它其实非常薄。抽屉的高度也会被那些匆匆察看的人误判。从外面看到的抽屉顶部与柜子底部之间，有大约三英寸的空隙——这个空隙必须算在抽屉的高度之内。这些使箱子内部的空间显得比实际更小的设计，应归因于发明者的一个意图，那就是再一次给在场的人造成一个错误的观念，即箱子里不可能容纳一个人。

12. The interior of the main compartment is lined throughout with cloth. This cloth we suppose to have a twofold object. A portion of it may form, when tightly stretched, the only partitions which there is any necessity for removing during the changes of the man's position, viz: the partition between the rear of the main compartment and the rear of the cupboard No. 1, and the partition between the main compartment, and the space behind the drawer when open. If we imagine this to be the case, the difficulty of shifting the partitions vanishes at once, if indeed any such difficulty could be supposed under any circumstances to exist. The second object of the cloth is to deaden and render indistinct all sounds occasioned by the movements of the person within.

12．主隔间内部完全衬着布。我们推测这块布有双重目的。它的一部分在绷紧时，可能构成在那人变换位置的过程中唯一需要移开的隔板，即主隔间后部与 1 号柜子后部之间的隔板，以及主隔间与抽屉打开后其后方空间之间的隔板。如果我们设想情况就是这样，那么移动隔板的困难——假如在任何情况下真能认为存在这样的困难的话——就立刻消失了。布的第二个目的，是使里面的人活动时发出的一切声音变得沉闷、模糊不清。

14. Although M. Maelzel, in disclosing the interior of the machine, sometimes slightly deviates from the routine which we have pointed out, yet never in any instance does he so deviate from it as to interfere with our solution. For example, he has been known to open, first of all, the drawer — but he never opens the main compartment without first closing the back door of cupboard No. 1 — he never opens the main compartment without first pulling out the drawer — he never shuts the drawer without first shutting the main compartment — he never opens the back door of cupboard No. 1 while the main compartment is open — and the game of chess is never commenced until the whole machine is closed. Now if it were observed that never, in any single instance, did M. Maelzel differ from the routine we have pointed out as necessary to our solution, it would be one of the strongest possible arguments in corroboration of it — but the argument becomes infinitely strengthened if we duly consider the circumstance that he does occasionally deviate from the routine, but never does so deviate as to falsify the solution.

14．梅尔策尔先生在展示机器内部时，虽然有时会稍稍偏离我们所指出的程序，但他的偏离从来不会妨碍我们的解答。例如，人们曾见他首先打开抽屉——但他从不在没有先关上 1 号柜子后门的情况下打开主隔间——他从不在没有先拉出抽屉的情况下打开主隔间——他从不在没有先关上主隔间的情况下关上抽屉——他从不在主隔间开着的时候打开 1 号柜子的后门——而且对局总是在整台机器关闭之后才开始。现在，假如观察到梅尔策尔先生从来没有在任何一次偏离我们所指出的、我们的解答所必需的那套程序，那将是支持它的最有力的论据之一——但如果我们恰当地考虑到这样一个情况，即他确实偶尔偏离这套程序，却从不以足以推翻这一解答的方式偏离，那么这个论据就会得到无限的加强。

15. There are six candles on the board of the Automaton during exhibition. The question naturally arises — "Why are so many employed, when a single candle, or, at farthest, two, would have been amply sufficient to afford the spectators a clear view of the board, in a room otherwise so well lit up as the exhibition room always is — when, moreover, if we suppose the machine a pure machine, there can be no necessity for so much light, or indeed any light at all, to enable it to perform its operations — and when, especially, only a single candle is placed upon the table of the antagonist?" The first and most obvious inference is, that so strong a light is requisite to enable the man within to see through the transparent material (probably fine gauze) of which the breast of the Turk is composed. But when we consider the arrangement of the candles, another reason immediately presents itself. There are six lights (as we have said before) in all. Three of these are on each side of the figure. Those most remote from the spectators are the longest — those in the middle are about two inches shorter — and those nearest the company about two inches shorter still — and the candles on one side differ in height from the candles respectively opposite on the other, by a ratio different from two inches — that is to say, the longest candle on one side is about three inches shorter than the longest candle on the other, and so on. Thus it will be seen that no two of the candles are of the same height, and thus also the difficulty of ascertaining the material of the breast of the figure (against which the light is especially directed) is greatly augmented by the dazzling effect of the complicated crossings of the rays — crossings which are brought about by placing the centres of radiation all upon different levels.

15．展览时，自动机的棋盘上点着六支蜡烛。人们自然会问：“为什么要用这么多支？在一间本来就总是照得很亮的展览厅里，一支蜡烛，至多两支，就足以让观众清楚地看到棋盘——而且，如果我们假定这台机器是纯粹的机器，那么它完成动作根本不需要这么多的光，甚至根本不需要任何光——尤其是，对手的桌子上只放着一支蜡烛？”第一个、也是最明显的推论是：需要这么强的光，是为了让里面的人能够透过土耳其人胸部那种透明的材料（很可能是细纱）看见外面。但当我们考虑到蜡烛的排列方式时，另一个理由立刻显现出来。一共有六支蜡烛（如前所述）。人像两边各有三支。离观众最远的最长——中间的短约两英寸——离观众最近的又短约两英寸——而一边的蜡烛与另一边相对的蜡烛在高度上的差别，又不同于两英寸——也就是说，一边最长的那支，比另一边最长的那支短约三英寸，依此类推。由此可见，没有任何两支蜡烛是一样高的；也由此可见，由于各个光源的中心都被放在不同的高度上，光线错综复杂地交叉，产生炫目的效果，这就大大增加了辨认人像胸部（光线正是特意朝那里照的）是什么材料的难度。

17. The Turk plays with his left arm. A circumstance so remarkable cannot be accidental. Brewster takes no notice of it whatever, beyond a mere statement, we believe, that such is the fact. The early writers of treatises on the Automaton, seem not to have observed the matter at all, and have no reference to it. The author of the pamphlet alluded to by Brewster, mentions it, but acknowledges his inability to account for it. Yet it is obviously from such prominent discrepancies or incongruities as this that deductions are to be made (if made at all) which shall lead us to the truth.

17．土耳其人用左臂下棋。如此引人注目的一个情况，不可能是偶然的。布鲁斯特对此完全没有注意，我们相信，他只是陈述了有这么一回事而已。早期论述这台自动机的作者们，似乎根本没有注意到这一点，也没有提到它。布鲁斯特提到的那本小册子的作者提到了它，但承认自己无法解释。然而显而易见，正是要从这类显著的矛盾或不协调之处出发进行推论（如果真要推论的话），才能把我们引向真相。

The circumstance of the Automaton's playing with his left hand cannot have connexion with the operations of the machine, considered merely as such. Any mechanical arrangement which would cause the figure to move, in any given manner, the left arm — could, if reversed, cause it to move, in the same manner, the right. But these principles cannot be extended to the human organization, wherein there is a marked and radical difference in the construction, and, at all events, in the powers, of the right and left arms. Reflecting upon this latter fact, we naturally refer the incongruity noticeable in the Chess-Player to this peculiarity in the human organization. If so, we must imagine some reversion — for the Chess-Player plays precisely as a man would not. These ideas, once entertained, are sufficient of themselves, to suggest the notion of a man in the interior. A few more imperceptible steps lead us, finally, to the result. The Automaton plays with his left arm, because under no other circumstances could the man within play with his right — a desideratum of course. Let us, for example, imagine the Automaton to play with his right arm. To reach the machinery which moves the arm, and which we have before explained to lie just beneath the shoulder, it would be necessary for the man within either to use his right arm in an exceedingly painful and awkward position, (viz. brought up close to his body and tightly compressed between his body and the side of the Automaton,) or else to use his left arm brought across his breast. In neither case could he act with the requisite ease or precision. On the contrary, the Automaton playing, as it actually does, with the left arm, all difficulties vanish. The right arm of the man within is brought across his breast, and his right fingers act, without any constraint, upon the machinery in the shoulder of the figure.

自动机用左手下棋这一情况，如果仅仅把它当作机器来看，就不可能与它的运作有什么联系。任何能使人像以某种给定方式移动左臂的机械装置，只要倒过来，就能使它以同样的方式移动右臂。但这些原理不能推广到人体的构造上，在人体中，左右两臂在构造上——无论如何在能力上——有着显著而根本的差别。想到后面这个事实，我们自然会把下棋机身上明显的不协调，归因于人体构造的这一特点。如果是这样，我们就必须设想某种颠倒——因为下棋机下棋的方式，恰恰是一个人不会采用的方式。这些念头一旦产生，本身就足以提示内部有人的想法。再走几步难以察觉的推理，我们最终就得到了结论。自动机用左臂下棋，是因为只有这样，里面的人才能用他的右臂下棋——这当然是必需的。比如，让我们设想自动机用右臂下棋。为了够到移动手臂的那套机械——我们前面已经说明，它就在肩膀正下方——里面的人就必须要么以一种极其痛苦而笨拙的姿势使用右臂（即把右臂紧贴着身体，夹在身体和自动机的侧壁之间），要么把左臂横过胸前来使用。在这两种情况下，他都无法以必需的轻松和精确来操作。相反，自动机像实际上那样用左臂下棋，一切困难就都消失了。里面那人的右臂横过胸前，右手手指毫无拘束地操纵人像肩部的机械。

We do not believe that any reasonable objections can be urged against this solution of the Automaton Chess-Player.

我们不相信对自动下棋机的这一解答，还能提出什么合理的反对意见。