ion into the
presence of the spectators.

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 ~ 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 I, 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