as well as the drawer, and door No.
I, 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.

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, a