Wolfgang Kempelen, baron, a Hungarian mechanician, born in Presburg, Jan. 23, 1734, died in Vienna, March 26, 1804. He entered at first upon an administrative career, and became aulic councillor. He was an excellent chess player, and was frequently invited to play with Maria Theresa, who was a passionate lover of the game. Having a great mechanical genius, he in 1769 astonished Europe with his automaton chess player. Taken to Paris in 1784, and afterward exhibited by Mr. Malzel in England and the United States, the chess player caused an extraordinary excitement, and the problem was not explained for many years. (See Automaton.) Kempelen also invented an automatic speaking human figure, which pronounced very distinctly several words; a curiosity several times successfully imitated, and of which the maker published an explanation in Le mecanisme de la parole, sui-vi de la description d'une machine parlante, et enrichi de 27 planches (1791). He wrote several German poems, Perseus und Andromeda, a drama, and Dev unbekannte Wohltha-ter, a comedy.

He was also councillor of finance to the emperor of Austria, director of the salt mines of Hungary, and referendary of the Hungarian chancery at Vienna. Full details of the mystery of the automaton chess player, with its later history, are given in an article by Prof. G. Allen of Philadelphia in "The Book of the First American Chess Congress" (New York, 1859).