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1770 Mechanical Chess Player Inspired Babbage
dipfan writes "A new book tells the extraordinary true story of a clock-work chess-playing "machine" named The Turk that wowed Europe and the US in the 18th and 19th century, beating Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon, among others. Although it turned out to be a cleverly designed trick, the device is credited with inspiring Charles Babbage (the father of the computer), who played and lost to the automaton in 1820, with the idea that a mechanical engine could be programed to perform tasks... and the rest is computing history, right up to IBM's Deep Blue. There's an article by the author at Wired, and the preface and first chapter of the book The Mechanical Turk available online."
You gotta be kidding! My old 486 always beats me, and that damned thing is generally slower than a dead rock!
what's that expression? any sufficiently short midget is indistinguishable from magic!
Ummm you dont know whats happening in watchmaking obiously:
The Erotic Hour Striker Jaquemart for a fine example of modern watchmaking.
Nothing has been lost at all.
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Those machines were not built just to get rich:
In 1879 Mephisto (Gunsberg) went on tour, defeating every male player. However, when playing ladies, it would obtain a winning position, then lose the game, offering to shake hands afterwards
.. but also to get chicks!
...that most of the first public appearances of computing technology appear to have been rigged demos?
It seems like some things never change.