A CALCULATING MACHINE SWINDLE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1124, 16 August 1882, Page 4

A CALCULATING MACHINE SWINDLE.

A decent news letter from Vienna says:—“ Two months ago an automaton called King lu was exhibited in ! Vienna for the first time, and has I caused a great commotion. The au- j tomaton, as also the stool upon which it was reated, were too small to admit , of the possibility of any person being ! concealed in them. Besides, the stool j was of glass, and disclosed most complicated machinery, consisting, of wheels of all kinds and dimensions, and springs and chains. The machine was wound up at the beginning of each performance, and was then able to answer any question in arithmetic put to it by the spectators. The exexhibitor, Herr Rosen, was offered money by members of the aristocracy to disclose his secret, but he refused point blank. When the whole town had gone to see King-Fu, the Court’s curiosity was roused, and the Emperor had M. Rosen called to perform one evening before himself, the Empress and little Princess Valerie. The automaton solved all the problems put to it, and, when the performance was over, the Empress said to Rosen, • Now you will not mind telling us the secret of your King-Fu?” But Rosen did mind. The next day he quarrelled with his servant, who, being dismissed, betrayed his former master, and he told a dreadful story of a young man who was concealed within King-Fu, and who suffered horrible agonies during each performance. Thepolice intervened and found that there certainly was a boy (Rosen’s own nephew) inside King-Fu, but that he was, all things considered, pretty comfortable, and certainly suffered no agony.. The papers got wind of the affair, and Rosen announced his departure from Vienna. But justice, in the shape of the police, stopped him, and actually put him in prison on the charge that he had cheated the public out of 20,000 florins. After five davs' detention M. Rosen was liberated, there being no real charge against him. The public, although duped, was entirely on M. Rosen's side. Those who believed that a machine, once wound up, could answer multitudinous questions, must have believed in a miracle ; and those who did not believe it must of course have tacitly acknowledged that they were being deceived in some manner. When M. Rosen complained of having spent a week in prison, he was answered that he certainly deserved some punishment for having cheated the 1 very highest court in Europe' into believing—what? He packed King-Fu up, and left Vienna with his 20,000 florins, his nephew, and his automaton."