Wolfgang von Kempelen

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A charcoal self-portrait of Kempelen, with signature.
A charcoal self-portrait of Kempelen, with signature.

Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd (Hungarian: Kempelen Farkas; Slovak: Ján Vlk Kempelen) (23 January 1734 – 26 March 1804) was a German author and inventor.

Contents

[edit] Life

Kempelen was from Pressburg (Bratislava). He was most famous for his construction of The Turk, a chess-playing automaton later revealed to be a hoax. He also created a manually operated speaking machine,[1][2] which was a genuine pioneering step in experimental phonetics.

Kempelen died in Vienna. The Wolfgang von Kempelen Prize for Computing Science History Prize was named in his honor.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Vajda Pál: Nagy magyar feltalálók. Bp., 1958.; Pap János: Kempelen Farkas.
  • Magyar tudóslexikon. Főszerk. Nagy Ferenc. Bp., 1997.
  • Homer Dudley and T.H. Tarnoczy. The Speaking Machine of Wolfgang von Kempelen. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, March 1950, Volume 22, Issue 2, pp. 151–166. [1]
  • Robert Löhr, "The Chess Machine" (Penguin Press, 2007) is a novel about Kempelen and his chess-playing hoax. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell.
Reconstruction of "The Turk,"the chess-playing automaton.
Reconstruction of "The Turk,"
the chess-playing automaton.

[edit] Notes

Regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University.
  2. ^ Haskins Laboratories Article.

[edit] External links

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