magyarulKempelen - Two Machines
"Speaking without lips, thinking without brain..."
Lecture of Dr. Ernst Strouhal and Dr. Brigitte Felderer (Universität für angewandte Kunst [University of Applied Arts], Vienna)
The Austrian lecturers - researchers of the life of Kempelen known the world over - report on their most recent research findings in connection with Kempelen's two most significant inventions: the speech machine and the chessplayer automaton. Wolfgang Kempelen's (1734-1804) speech machine and his book entitled The Mechanism of Human Speech, published first in Vienna in 1791, are counted among the most important resources of experimental acoustics. His most famous invention, nevertheless, remained the chess-playing android, and in connection with this, the lecture will circumambulate the thematic issues of appearance, technical reception and rational entertainment.
Within the framework of a slide show, the lecturers will present the box that they produced together with Viennese technician Jakob Scheid, and which contains the active requisites of Kempelen's inventions (including the arm of the chessplaying machine).
The lecture will be held in German, with simultaneous translation to Hungarian.