François Pelletier was a French illusionist, famed in his time for his use of
magnets as an entertainment basis for his act. His reputation was such that he was invited to perform at the court of
Maria Theresa of Austria at
Schönbrunn Palace in 1769. His act inspired the construction of the purported
chess-playing
automatonThe Turk, following observation of the performance by the
HungarianWolfgang von Kempelen.
Luc-Vincent Thiéry, Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, 1787, p. 495. (
Gallica BNF |
Google Books)
Tom Standage, The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine. Walker and Company,
New York City, 2002.
ISBN0-8027-1391-2
Gerald M. Levitt, The Turk, Chess Automaton. McFarland and Company Inc. Publishers,
Jefferson, North Carolina, 2000.