Wolfgang von Kempelen
Von Kempelen was most famous for his construction of The Turk, a chess-playing automaton presented to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1769. The machine had a life-sized model of a human head and body, dressed in Turkish robes and wearing a turban. It was seated behind a large wooden box on with a chessboard on the top. The machine could play a game of chess against a human opponent. But it was a trick. There was a person, a skilled chess player, hidden inside the box. The Turk was a really a puppet, worked from below by levers. The Turk won most of the games played during its shows around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years. It played and defeated many people including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.