MEPHISTO.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3175, 23 April 1879, Page 1

MEPHISTO.

An ingenious chess-playing figure of novel construction is now being exhibited in London at the Royal Acquarjum under the title of " Blephisto.'T'l'he.liistorT of chess automata is a remarkable one. Yon Kempelen's chess-player made the tour of the Courts, of Europ.e, and its secret was twice sold to crowned heads. The clever concealment of a human being in' the interior was the explanation of all its wonderful achievements, and the merit of its invbutioh lay in the devices by -which the, pianipulation hid the person Within while appearing to court inspeotion. The Crystal Palace automaton was an adaptation of the same idea. "Mephisto" depends upon another principle. He is actuated from without by a human intelligence, and the problem is to ascertain how the moTes upon the board become known to his director and how the counter-moves are communicated to the figure. The new chess-player, who had been exhibited at the inventor's Souse for some time before his introduction *° t"e P« blic» " » Mephistopheles seated in a nh*ir» theohair being placed at Tin ordinary >* table, rfc piece of furniture on which he wtM; On£"T *}*& seat, but this, as well as *ho W °, f '^ figure may be inrestigated Wu' w P^J " going on, and it is clear that thex." n ; , person concealed in either. " Mephisto_ raises his arm, grasps the piece with his hand, and moves it to its proper iqfunre. He removes from' the board the pieces he captures, .and signifies "check" by tduching the opponent's king. Sometimes'ho moves trery quickly; sometimes take time to deliberate. Occasionally he lifts his face to his opponent and looks up with a smile. These. are little tricks to increase the effect of his skill as a scientific chess player—which is, indeed, considerable. Ordinarily the board is i uncovered, but occasionally a newspaper I is placed,over it, so that the moves could not be reflected by a mirror in the ceiling, and "Mephisto" plays a move in spite of the obstruction. The mystery of " Mephisto's " action is to, be explained by .the use of clever, mechanism. The movements of the arm are very free and

varied; more so, for instance, than those of Mr Maskelyne's automaton whistE layer. But altogether Mr Babbage eld it to be possible so to calculate beforehand the changes which could be rung upon the squares of the chess-board by the pieces placed upon it, and to construct mechanism to provide for all, the merit is not claimed for " Mephisto " of being entirely automatic. The inventor says, by way of apology for in part supplying the deficiencies of mechanism by human intelligence, that life is too short to construct a chess-player who should be entirely automatic. He is also the inventor of a permutating lock, the key of which is provided with nineteen pins, each of which admits of three positions, and it has been calculated that even for the minor number of permutai tions resulting from these figures of a nian would be engaged 130 life-times, ten hours a day, 300 days a year, fifty years of his life, to work them through. The thirty two on the sixty-four squareß of the chess-board with the varying powers of some, will give a still larger number of combinations, and as " Mep- . histo " was perfected in six or seven yeard, it is not surprising to learn that he is not entirely automatic, but is a medium for the exercise of human intelligence manifested only in a novel and at present an occult way. . . '