1850
VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY
by Edgar Allan Poe
AFTER THE very minute and elaborate paper by Arago, to say nothing
of the summary in 'Silliman's Journal,' with the detailed statement
just published by Lieutenant Maury, it will not be supposed, of
course, that in offering a few hurried remarks in reference to Von
Kempelen's discovery, I have any design to look at the subject in a
scientific point of view. My object is simply, in the first place,
to say a few words of Von Kempelen himself (with whom, some years ago,
I had the honor of a slight personal acquaintance), since every
thing which concerns him must necessarily, at this moment, be of
interest; and, in the second place, to look in a general way, and
speculatively, at the results of the discovery.
It may be as well, however, to premise the cursory observations
which I have to offer, by denying, very decidedly, what seems to be
a general impression (gleaned, as usual in a case of this kind, from
the newspapers), viz.
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