Tom Standage knows how to hold your attention. An obscure clockwork artefact may seem an unpromising subject, yet a few pages of Standage’s The Mechanical Turk (Penguin, £6.99) will change your mind. This chess-playing marvel was life-size and a sensation at Vienna’s imperial court in 1770, going on to amaze audiences and beat grand masters across Europe. Wolfgang von Kempelen – its most famous operator – even persuaded Ben Franklin to play against it (Franklin lost). The automaton also answered questions – could it have passed the Turing Test? Read this.
Clockwork curio
8 March 2003
