a Hungarian author and inventor, known for his chess-playing "automaton" hoax The Turk and for his speaking machine. Von Kempelen studied law and philosophy in Pressburg, and attended the Academy in Gyor, Vienna and Rome, but mathematics and physics also interested him. Besides German he spoke Hungarian, Latin, French, Italian, and later, some English and Romanian, which he learned during his travels in England and assignments in The Banat.
