Clockwork Game - The Illustrious Career of a ChessPlaying Automaton

• In 1769, the court of Empress Maria Theresia witnessed one of that era's most amazing feats of engineering: a machine that could play chess. Artfully constructed by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen, the chess-machine played a unique game against each opponent, far surpassing the abilities of all its fellow automata. Throughout its eighty-five year career, audiences across Europe and the Americas flocked to see the mechanical marvel seemingly capable of human intelligence; Napoleon, Charles Babbage, and Benjamin Franklin were among its challengers, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote an essay attempting to explain how it worked. Despite its demise over a hundred fifty years ago, its mystery continues to fascinate, and its audience's reaction to its Orientalist trappings casts fresh light on our present sense of the 'exotic'.
• Written and Illustrated by Jane Irwin, author of the Vögelein graphic novels, Clockwork Game retells the true story of the world's first chess-playing automaton, blending reality and fiction into a singular graphic novel.

Summary

• In 1769, the court of Empress Maria Theresia witnessed one of that era's
  most amazing feats of engineering: a machine that could play chess. Artfully
  constructed by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen, the
  chess-machine played a unique game against each opponent, far surpassing the
  abilities of all its fellow automata. Throughout its eighty-five year career,
  audiences across Europe and the Americas flocked to see the mechanical marvel
  seemingly capable of human intelligence; Napoleon, Charles Babbage, and Benjamin
  Franklin were among its challengers, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote an essay
  attempting to explain how it worked. Despite its demise over a hundred fifty
  years ago, its mystery continues to fascinate, and its audience's reaction to
  its Orientalist trappings casts fresh light on our present sense of the
  'exotic'.


• Written and Illustrated by Jane Irwin, author of the Vögelein
  graphic novels, Clockwork Game retells the true story of the world's
  first chess-playing automaton, blending reality and fiction into a singular
  graphic novel.

Product details

• Authors: BBC, Jane Irwin, Jane Irwin, Various
• Assisted by: Jane Irwin (Illustration), Nisi Shawl (Editor), Nisi Shawl (Editor)
• Publisher: Diamond US
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 13 to 16
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.05.2014
• EAN: 9780974311029
• ISBN: 978-0-9743110-2-9
• No. of pages: 216
• Weight: 544 g
• Subject: Fiction > Comic, cartoon, humour, satire