How did the chess-playing machine unveiled at court in 1770 really work?
A chess-playing machine Wolfgang von Kempelen built in 1770 to impress Empress Maria Theresa. A figure in Ottoman robes sat at a cabinet and won most of its games, reportedly against Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin among others. In reality a chess master hidden inside moved the pieces with levers and magnets. It toured for 84 years, burned in 1854, and its secret was fully published only in 1857.
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Nobody has read a single word of this book. Following the hands it passed through, the signature erased from its first page and the date of its parchment shows how far the case has been carried and where it stops. Decipherments have been announced many times; none has been accepted.
Voynich manuscriptThe Voynich scriptRadiocarbon datingWilfrid Voynich+5In December 1872 a ship was found alone in the mid Atlantic, still under sail. She was seaworthy and her cargo was aboard; her people were not. Following the ship that found her, the port where the hearing was held, the cargo she carried and the missing boat separates what was recorded from what was added later.
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