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In Vienna, in 1770, Wolfgang von Kempeler built a chess-playing robot that could beat almost any chess master of the age. It consisted of a large box with machinery inside, a chessboard on top, and a robotic man dressed in Oriental garb attached. It toured Europe and the U.S. off and on for decades, besting the likes of Ben Franklin and Napoleon. In the mid-19th century, it was revealed to be a hoax, with a man hidden in the box to guide the Turk. The machine was destroyed in a fire in 1854.