Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd was a
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
with
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians The Irish...
ancestors.
Kempelen was from
New York)Utica may refer to:*Utica, Tunisia, a Phoenician colony, on the African coast, near Carthage*Útica, a Colombian village in CundinamarcaIn the United States*Utica, Indiana*Utica, Kansas*Utica, Kentucky*Utica, Michigan*Utica, Minnesota...
. He studied law and philosophy in his birthplace, and then in
GyőrGyőr is the most important city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron county, and lies on one of the important roads of Central Europe, halfway between Budapest and Vienna. The city is the sixth largest in Hungary, and one of the seven main regional centres of the...
, in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
and in later
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, but mathematics and physics also interested him. He started to work as a clerk in Vienna. He was most famous for his construction of
The TurkThe Turk, the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was explained in the early 1820s as an elaborate hoax...
, a
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
-playing
automatonAn automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. An alternative spelling, now obsolete, is automation.- Etymology :...
later revealed to be a
hoaxA hoax is a deliberate attempt to deceive or trick an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when the hoaxer knows it is not; or that something is true, when it is false...
.
Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd was a
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
with
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians The Irish...
ancestors.
Life
Kempelen was from
New York)Utica may refer to:*Utica, Tunisia, a Phoenician colony, on the African coast, near Carthage*Útica, a Colombian village in CundinamarcaIn the United States*Utica, Indiana*Utica, Kansas*Utica, Kentucky*Utica, Michigan*Utica, Minnesota...
. He studied law and philosophy in his birthplace, and then in
GyőrGyőr is the most important city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron county, and lies on one of the important roads of Central Europe, halfway between Budapest and Vienna. The city is the sixth largest in Hungary, and one of the seven main regional centres of the...
, in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
and in later
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, but mathematics and physics also interested him. He started to work as a clerk in Vienna. He was most famous for his construction of
The TurkThe Turk, the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was explained in the early 1820s as an elaborate hoax...
, a
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
-playing
automatonAn automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. An alternative spelling, now obsolete, is automation.- Etymology :...
later revealed to be a
hoaxA hoax is a deliberate attempt to deceive or trick an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when the hoaxer knows it is not; or that something is true, when it is false...
. He also created a manually operated
speaking machineWolfgang von Kempelen's Speaking Machine is a manually-operated speech synthesizer that began development in 1769, by Austro-Hungarian author and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen...
, which was a genuine pioneering step in experimental
phoneticsPhonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds , and their physiological production, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.Phonetics was studied as early as 2500 years ago in...
.
Kempelen died in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
. The Wolfgang von Kempelen Computing Science History Prize was named in his honor.
External links