Topic author: shy
Subject: A genius of dwarf proportions
Posted on: 29 August 2005 6:37:30 PM
Message:

The ‘Terrible Turk’ was not a person, but supposedly a chess-playing robot that drew huge audiences. This bizarre-looking contraption took on all-comers and made strange machine sounds as it played. It took years – and lots of money for owner Johann Maelzel – before someone found that the real chess genius was a dwarf hidden inside the ‘Terrible Turk’.