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Mephisto was the name given to a chess-playing "pseudo-automaton" built in 1876. Unlike The Turk and Ajeeb it had no hidden operator, instead being remotely controlled by electromechanical means.[1]
Constructed by Charles Godfrey Gumpel (c.1835 - 1921), an Alsatian manufacturer of artificial limbs, it took some 6 or 7 years to build and was first shown in 1878 at Gumpel's home in Leicester Square, London. Mephisto was mainly operated by chess master Isidor Gunsberg.[1]
- ^ a b Tim Harding (12 April 2012). "Isidor Arthur Gunsberg". Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Ten Biographies. London: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 283–286. ISBN 978-0-7864-6568-2.