10 Great Hoaxes - The Loch Ness Photo

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

9. The Loch Ness Monster Photo

We've all seen the photo of the Loch Ness Monster taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson in 1934. But what's the story? Many people have thought of it as being real for a very long time, and many people have thought it to be a hoax. Well, if it's on this list, then it is a hoax... and what's been called "The Surgeon's Photo" (because Wilson was a physician) is indeed a hoax.

"The Surgeon's Photo" of the Loch Ness Monster

This hoax (once again) involves revenge. The story begins with a man named Duke Wetherell, who was a movie maker and big game hunter. He was hired by "The London Daily Mail" to track down the Loch Ness Monster in 1933. He went to the loch and found some strange tracks that he made a cast of. He submitted the casts, but they were determined to be hippo tracks; someone had pulled a fast one on Wetherell. The newspaper was very upset at him and humiliated him. He decided to get revenge.

Wetherell's stepson (named Christian Spurling) was a model-maker, so Spurling was asked to make a model of a monster for Wetherell. Spurling made the "monster" out of a toy submarine and some plastic. It was somewhere between 8-12 inches high (as opposed to the 3 foot high that most people think when they see the photo). Wetherell took his son Ian with him to the loch where they took photos of the "monster", then buried it. Wetherell gave the undeveloped photos to a friend, who gave them to Wilson. Wilson was the one who actually had the photos developed. The photos were then sold to "The London Daily Mail". The result was unplanned as news spread everywhere and the popularity of the photos were unstoppable. Since the hoax was too big at that point, none of the men involved chose to let the secret out.

Fast forward to 1993. Two Nessie hunters (David Martin and Alistair Boyd) were investigating the photo. They came across an article from 1975 with Ian Wetherell who claimed that his father had faked one of the Nessie photos. Ian was dead by 1993, but Spurling was still alive. Martin and Boyd talked to Spurling (age 93 at that point) who admitted that Wetherell had come to him and asked him to build a fake monster. Spurling went on to explain why the hoax was created, including that when Wetherell took the fake to the loch, he said "We'll give them their monster."

There are many that still don't believe that the photo was a hoax. Martin and Boyd are still believers in the Loch Ness Monster, even if the photo turned out to be a hoax. Boyd has claimed to have seen the monster, so he remains committed to it. But the photo has indeed fooled a lot of people in the nearly 80 years since it was created.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Roswell Autopsy

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

8. The Roswell Autopsy

On August 28, 1995, a video aired on the Fox network. The program was called "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction". You may even remember this event. It was hosted by Johnathan Frakes, known for his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which made him perfect for the program. The video aired three times on Fox, each one surpassing the previous in ratings, as well as being shown in 32 countries.

The video's story begins and ends with Ray Santilli. Santilli came from London and has said that he came across the video from a man who claimed to be ex-military. This man said that he was the cameraman of the video. Santilli came to Fox with the video, claiming it was the authentic video of an alien autopsy from a UFO crash. Fox was excited and thought they had a gold mine with the video.

John Jopson was enlisted to direct the interview sequences and the segments with Frakes. When he viewed the video, he immediately thought it was a fake. He let his feelings be known to Fox, but they didn't want him to pursue any kind of investigation. Jopson insisted, but Fox felt that if it was revealed to be a hoax before the show aired, then ratings would drop significantly. Jopson hired a private investigator to determine the video's authenticity, but Fox intervened and ordered that the only investigating would be on the identity of the ex-military man who'd given the video to Santilli.

There were a couple of interviews made for the show, specifically with a pathologist and a special effects guru from Hollywood who both said that the footage looks like a real autopsy, but didn't actually say that they thought it was real. They both actually felt that it was a fake, but their comments were edited out of the final show. Jopson later confirmed this a few years later, saying that there were some arguments during the editing of the final show. Meanwhile, the Alien Autopsy became Fox's highest rated show up to that point.

Still of Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction

It wasn't until 2006 that the truth came out. A comedy was made called simply "Alien Autopsy", which was based on the events that supposedly led up to the release of Santilli's autopsy video. Two days before it was released, Eamonn Holmes's show aired an episode where Eamonn investigated the famous video. Santilli and a producer admitted on this show that the video was a reconstruction of a film that Santilli had seen in 1992. He claimed that the original had degraded too much to be seen, so he reconstructed it. He said that there were a couple of frames from the original in it, but he wouldn't say which ones. He also went on to say that the film was shot in an empty London flat using a dummy alien body filled with animal parts to make it look real. The video contained a man reading a statement saying that he was the cameraman. Santilli admitted that he was a homeless man from LA that they had convinced him to play the part.

The alien autopsy fooled a lot of people all across the world, and some still maintain it's authenticity. It's a great story of how people can be led to believe something. It is a well-documented hoax from recent history, so it is available online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mRDtG6N7qQ
Here is the first part of Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-LgUFx8xv8
Here is part 1 of 4 of the Eamonn Investigates documentary.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Cottingley Fairies

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

7. The Cottingley Fairies

The best hoaxes are the ones that have unforeseen results, and this one is no exception. This hoax began in 1917 as just some fun for two girls and ended up being an international hoax that lasted for 65 years.

In 1917, two girls (ten-year-old Frances Griffiths and her cousin sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright) had just moved from South Africa to England, specifically to the village of Cottingley. The two of them often played outside by a stream called Cottingley Beck, much to the annoyance of their parents (since they were always coming in wet and dirty). They claimed they enjoyed playing by the stream because that's where the fairies and gnomes were. Naturally, the parents thought of this as nonsense. Elsie's father was a photographer (with a darkroom inside his house), so to prove what the had claimed to see, Elsie and Frances took a camera near the stream. They brought the camera back and when Elsie's father developed the photograph, it showed Frances by a bush with a couple fairies dancing on it. Her father immediately dismissed it as a fake. A couple months later, the girls brought the camera back with a picture of Elsie holding out her hand to a foot high gnome. Her father was so annoyed that he refused to let them borrow the camera anymore. On the other hand, Elsie's mother saw the photos and thought they were authentic.

In 1919, Elsie's mother attended a meeting of the Theosophical Society that discussed fairies. After the meeting was over, she showed the photos to the speaker, who was so impressed with them that the photos made their way to the large conference of the Theosophical Society which was held a few months later. It was there that the photos gained the attention of a head member of the Society: Edward Gardner. He thought the photos were important for the future of the Society and for the future life of humanity in general. He took the photos to a photography expert who authenticated the photos as being real and unfaked.

First photo. Frances with the fairies.

It was around this time that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (most known for being the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) became aware of the photos. Doyle was an avid spiritualist, and he desired to view the photos to see if he could figure out if they were fake or not. Gardner invited Doyle to view the photos, which Doyle ended up feeling had to be authentic. Once the photos had Doyle's approval, then they must be real in the minds of those involved. Doyle and Gardner went on to find other expert opinions, such as to have the Kodak company look at the photos. Kodak agreed that the photos weren't faked, but the company also said that they couldn't be real photos of fairies and that photographic interpretation shouldn't be the only way of authentication. Doyle showed the photos to a physicist friend who said they had to be faked.

In 1920, Gardner went to meet the family and try to get more photos. He found the family respectable, even though Elsie's father still believed the photos to be fake (although he couldn't prove it). Gardner brought his own equiptment. Frances and Elsie took three more photos, each one having fairies. Doyle wrote a few articles over the next year, publishing the photos from the girls (but changing their names to Alice and Iris). The public's reaction was mixed, with some believing the photos to be real and others believing they were fake.

Fourth photo. Elsie with the fairy.

In 1921, Gardner went to visit the family one more time. This time he brought equiptment and a clairvoyant, named Geoffrey Hodson. The girls weren't able to create any more photos of fairies, but Hodson claimed to see fairies everywhere. Gardner published the event. Frances and Elsie were tired of the whole thing by that time. Public interest also soon faded, however they were never quite gone from the public consciousness. In 1966, Elsie was interviewed and she said that they were photographs of her imagination, but she didn't say whether the photos were real or not.

In the early 1980's a scientific study was done on the validity of the photos. The results came back that they had to be fakes. The largest criticism of the photos was that the fairies looked like fairies from nursery rhyme books. That criticism was still around in the 1980's when the study was performed. In an article published in 1983, Frances and Elsie finally admitted that the photos were fake, and they couldn't understand why anyone would have believed such a silly story, although once Doyle announced they had to be real, then they felt they couldn't tell the truth.

Frances died in 1986, and Elsie died in 1988. They both claimed to have seen fairies, but admitted that the photos were faked using copies from a book called "Princess Mary's Gift Book". The two cousins quickly grew to hate the fairies when they were children, mostly because of the media circus that they created. They fairy pictures still exist and sell for high dollar amounts.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Hitler Diaries

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

6. The Hitler Diaries

In 1983, a German magazine called "Stern" announced that they had Adolf Hitler's diaries. The diaries consisted of 60 volumes that were supposedly the authentic diaries of Hitler from 1932-1945. As the story went, they were in a plane that was shot down in 1945 near Dresden. "Stern" obtained the diaries over a span of 18 months and paid about 9 million Deutchse marks for them.

In order to authenticate the diaries, there was a page from the diaries that was to be evaluated three times, as well as forensic studies were to be conducted. Only basic visual analyses were actually conducted and the forensic studies weren't performed. The visual analyses confirmed that they were indeed Hitler's diaries. Two historians did get to see the sample and both swore by their authenticity.

Once they began to make their way into the public consciousness, many people didn't believe them to be authentic. The most obvious objection was "who could actually forge 60 volumes?" Others thought that it was a ploy by the Russians or the East Germans. Soon, it was revealed that the same source that supplied the diaries had also supplied a forged diary to another group. Forensic studies were finally performed and the findings showed that the ink and paper were too new to have been used in the 1930's-40's. The diaries had actually contained parts of speeches from Hitler as well as carefully created "personal comments". Upon further investigation, there turned out to be historical innacuracies, and autograph experts denounced the diaries as very poor fakes, which nearly destroyed the reputations of those that confirmed the authenticity of the diaries.

Believe it or not, all 60 columes had been forged by a man named Konrad Kujau. He worked with the journalist who'd originally said that he'd found the diaries. Both Kujau and the journalist went to trial in 1984 for forgery and embezzlement. They were sentenced to 42 months in prison. After he was released, Kujau actually opened a studio and sold forgeries to people. So, in a sense, the ordeal boosted his career, but those that said that the diaries were real all had a blow to their reputations, including the magazine.

On a similar note, in 1986 a book was published about the ordeal, called "Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries". In 1991, a docudrama 5-part series aired on British TV which was adapted from the book. If you want to watch it, it was released in the US on dvd in 2010.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Fiji Mermaid

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

5. The Fiji Mermaid

The Fiji Mermaid is a well-known hoax that dates back to the 1840's. The idea of mermaids dates back hundreds of years. Men who had been at see for far too long reported seeing creatures that were half human and half fish. Many people have since come to believe that the manatee is most likely responsible for these sightings. However, people had for a long time tried to find and exhibit actual mermaids. Some had even been on display, though they were all found out to be fake.

In 1842, an associate of P.T. Barnum named Moses Kimball (who also had a strange wonders museum but in Boston) found the Fiji Mermaid and brought it to Barnum's attention. They agreed that Kimball would be the owner and Barnum would lease it from Kimball. Going under the name of "The Feejee Mermaid", it became a strange and popular attraction for Barnum. The story that was told to each visitor was that it was caught by a "Dr. J. Griffin", which wasn't true.

The Fiji Mermaid act has been duplicated many times over, but the original has been the most popular version. The ultimate fate of the original Fiji Mermaid is unknown. Some think that it was lost in the fire that destroyed Barnum's museum in the 1860's, and others think that it was lost in the fire that destroyed Kimball's museum in 1880. Some places say that they have the original, but the truth is that the original has been lost for well over 100 years.

The original Fiji Mermaid, it was determined, had the torso and head of an orangutan and the remainder of the body was a large salmon. It supposedly looked rather grisly, but there are no pictures of it. There are similar creations that survive to this day, but they aren't quite the same. The original supposedly had no seams that could be easily visible. From what history tells us, it was a very well-made fake. Although it didn't last long in the public, it's had a lasting effect on people. It fooled a lot of people in the 1800's into believing that mermaids truly did exist.

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10 Great Hoaxes - Zero Gravity Day

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

4. Zero Gravity Day

In order for this hoax to make sense, you must first understand the backstory. Like many hoaxes, there is some reason for decieving people into believing the hoax. For the Cardiff Giant, the main goal was to make the fundamentalist Methodists look silly. Zero Gravity Day was meant to make some scientists look silly.

In 1974, a book was published called "The Jupiter Effect", written by John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann. In the book, they wrote about the rare occurrence where all the planets were alligned in order on one side of the sun, an event which happens only once every 179 years. The previous occurrence was in 1803, which meant that 1982 would be the next time (8 years after the book's publication). What Gribbin and Plagemann were worried about was the massive earthquakes that would be caused by the forces of gravity from all the planets alligned in order. The book focused specifically on Los Angeles to be at a greater risk than any other US city. This effect on the earth was called The Jupiter Effect. Many scientists thought that the Jupiter Effect was a hoax by itself, and many pointed out the obvious: there were no massive earthquakes in 1803, the last time the planets alligned in such a way. However, many people still seemed to believe the theory.

In 1976, the Jupiter Effect was still fresh in people's minds. In the morning of April 1, an astronomer named Patrick Moore went on the BBC and announed that at 9:47, Jupiter and Pluto would line up and cause the forces of gravity to be negated, causing people to temporarily feel weightless if they jumped into the air. So, at 9:47 am, Moore said over the radio: "Jump now!" A minute later, the BBC's phone lines began ringing off the hook with people calling to say that it had worked. One woman claimed her and her husband floated around the room together; one man said he and eleven friends (including the table they were sitting around) began to float; one man called and demanded money because he jumped and hit the ceiling and injured himself.

Having spoofed the Jupiter Effect predicted in the book from Gribbin and Plagemann, Moore set about writing letters of disapproval to any place that gave any promotion of the Jupiter Effect. The prediction itself faded into obscurity when nothing happened in 1982. Gribbin and Plagemann wrote a sequel to "The Jupiter Effect" where they tried to explain that the actual earthquakes and such happened in 1980, which is what caused Mount St. Helens to blow up. However, this book didn't hardly sell. In 1999, Gribbin turned his back on the whole Jupiter Effect theory, wishing he'd never gotten involved with it.

But for one day, some strange people swore that they felt the weightlessness caused by a joke given on the radio. Moore was able to get his joke out, and the effect it had in the scientific community was large. Between his joke and the fact that nothing happened in 1982, Gribbin and Plagemann couldn't successfully sell their silly ideas about the Jupiter Effect.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Cardiff Giant

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

3. The Cardiff Giant

The Cardiff Giant is a story that began in the late 1860's. A man named George Hull from Cardiff, New York, had an argument with some fundamentalist Methodists about a Bible verse (Genesis 6:4, specifically) where it states that there were giants who once lived on earth. He decided to pull a hoax on them. He had a chunk of gypsum carved out in Iowa, and shipped to Chicago where it was carved into a ten-foot tall statue (which he said was supposed to be in honor of Abraham Lincoln). The statue was aged with various stains and acids, and it was also beaten with needles that had been embedded into a board which would simulate pores from weathering. Hull transported the statue to his cousin's farm in November of 1868. At that time, he'd already spent $2600 on the hoax (which would be approximately $42,000 in 2010).

In 1869, Hull's cousin (whose property the statue was buried in) decided to build a well. They just so happened to dig for the well where the statue was buried. The men thought it was a petrified Indian, so they set up a tent and began charging people to enter the tent and see the giant. It gained attention, and as it did so, geologists and archeologists denounced the giant as fake, but many fundmantalist religious people defended it at authentic (which ties back to the argument between Hull and the Methodists).

Hull ended up selling his part of the hoax for $23,000 to a group of men (headed by David Hannum) who took the giant to Syracuse, NY to exhibit it. P.T. Barnum gained interest in the giant and offered the men $50,000 for the giant so he could display it in his show. The men refused the sale, so Barnum (one who didn't take no for an answer) had a mold made secretly from the giant and a plaster replica was made. Barnum displayed his copy in New York City and proclaimed that the Cardiff Giant was the fake. Hannum sued Barnum for calling his a fake. The judge ordered that he had to bring his giant to prove that it was real. Unable to find a way out of the situation, Hannum admitted that his was a fake, which meant that Barnum's was a copy of a fake. The revelation of the truth happened on February 2, 1870. The judge ruled that Barnum cannot be sued since the giant really was a fake.

Both the original fake and the copy of the fake are still on display, one at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, NY, and the other at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, MI. But which one is Hull's/Hannum's and which one is Barnum's? You be the judge!

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Food Machine

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

2. The Food Machine

In 1877, Thomas Edison was being praised as a genius. He successfully created the phonograph that year, and he was riding high in the minds of Americans. His inventions (or more accurately, the inventions created at his lab, not always by Edison himself) were important for America, and each success brought more attention to the lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In 1878, it seemed there was no limit to what Edison could accomplish. So, to prove that point, an article was printed in the "New York Graphic" stating that Edison had created a new machine that would revolutionaize the world and end world hunger. This new machine supposedly could turn water into wine and soil into cereal. Other newspapers caught wind of the story and published their own commentaries, each one praising Edison for being a genius and masterful, as well as being able to create anything he wanted. It was at this time that Edison was first called the Wizard of Menlo Park. Edison enjoyed the name and promoted himself as such.

One of the most glowing reviews came from the "Commercial Advertiser" from Buffalo, New York. The next day, the "Graphic" republished the article (in its entirety) from the "Commercial Advertiser" as well as other comments from other newspapers. Above the reprints was the headline: "They bite!" In case you don't understand the meaning, it was their way of saying that the other newspapers had taken the idea that Edison had created this wonderful machine and run with it without checking it our for themselves.

Cardiff Giant being exhumed in 1869

Obviously, the "Food Machine", as it's become known, never really existed. However, the episode did prove that people are quite gullible when provided the opportunity to show their ignorance. And all Edison received was more publicity and a nickname.

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10 Great Hoaxes - The Turk

Throughout history, there have been some hilarious, controversial, and confusing hoaxes that have been created. Hoaxes are different from urban legends, rumors, pseudoscience, or even jokes since a hoax is a deliberate and intentional attempt to create something that is false but present it as the truth. We will look at ten of the most interesting hoaxes that fooled a lot of people.

1. The Turk

In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen debuted the Mechanical Turk, also called the Automaton Chess Player or simply the Turk. The debut was made at Schönbrunn Palace in order to impress Empress Maria Theresa, and also in reaction to an illusion show put on by François Pelletier. Kempelen said that he would invent something that would be better than Pelletier's illusions, and six months later, the Turk made its debut.

The Turk itself consisted of a cabinet and a life-size model of a man. The model had a turban, a beard, and robes (all supposedly authentic of Turkish people at the time). The model's right arm would be outstretched across the cabinet, and the left arm would be bent and holding a three foot long smoking pipe. The cabinet itself was 3 1/2 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 1/2 feet high. On the opposite side of the model were two doors and one drawer. The drawer could hold the chess board and pieces when not playing.

An engraving of the Turk

The left side door opened to show gears that looked like clock gears. There was a door on the back side of the cabinet that looked into the gears too. This way, if they were opened at the same time, one could see straight through and see the gears all the way through. The right hand side had a cushion and held spare parts for the machine. When opened from the front, a clear unobstructed view could be seen through to the robe of the Turk.

After it's 1770 debut, Kempelen lost interest in it, even though it's popularity spread. In the 1770's, only one challenger faced the Turk: a Scottish noble. Following the match, Kempelen disassembled the Turk and tried to move on. However, in 1781, Emperor Joseph II ordered Kempelen to bring the Turk to Vienna, which he reluctantly did. Following the successful showing of the Turk to Grand Duke Paul of Russia, Kempelen was recommended to tour Europe with the Turk. Kempelen was hesitant, but finally agreed. In 1783, the Turk began a tour of Europe, beginning in Paris. It then went to London, where the first suggestions came up that the Turk was a hoax. These allegations weren't proven, and the tour continued to Leipzig, Dresden, Amsterdam, and other cities. Following the tour, the Turk sat unused until Kempelen's death in 1804.

Following Kempelen's death, his son sold the Turk to Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, a musician who was interested in odd machines. Mälzel had once before tried to buy the Turk before Kempelen died, but Kempelen asked for too much (his son sold it for half as much to Mälzel). Mälzel then had the task of repairing the Turk and learning its secrets, which he did. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte came to Schönbrunn Palace and played the Turk. There are several different versions as to the outcome of the match, but all of them end with Napoleon convinced of the Turk's validity. In 1811, Mälzel brought the Turk to Milan where it played the Viceroy of Italy, who offered to buy it at three times the amount Mälzel paid for it. Supposedly, Mälzel agreed, but bought it back four years later. In 1819, Mälzel took the Turk on a tour of the United Kingdom. At this time, Mälzel changed two things: the Turk's opponent was allowed to move first, and the king's bishop's pawn was eliminated from the Turk's side, which presented a huge handicap against the Turk. With this handicap, however, the Turk was 45-3-2. In the 1820's, Mälzel took the Turk to the United States and toured it as far west as the Mississippi and as far north as Canada. In 1838, Mälzel died on a ship, leaving the Turk to the ship captain.

The Turk ended up in the hands of Mälzel's friend John Ohl, who tried to sell it for the ship captain, but ended up buying it himself. He quickly sold it to Dr. John Kearsley Mitchell who restored the Turk and allowed for the occasional challenge, but he eventually donated it to the Chinese Museum, owned by Charles Willson Peale. The Turk was soon nearly forgotten and ended up in a corner of the museum, taking up dust. In 1854, a fire broke out and burned the Turk, completely destroying it. In 1984, a man named John Gaughan spent $120,000 of his own money to make a working replica of the Turk, complete with the original chess board from the real Turk (which was stored separately in 1854). It took five years, but it debuted in 1989.

So, you're probably wondering at this point, how is this a hoax? It's a hoax because there was a man in the model of the Turkish man. How can someone see through the cabinet and not see him? Simple. He was able to conceal himself carefully when someone looked through. The man inside could also communicate with the man on the outside (whether it be Kempelen or Mälzel) through a code of number sequences. This dial of numbers was explained to be just computations from the Turk's mechanisms, but it really was a back and forth code between the two men. And who was inside? It is still a mystery who was inside the Turk model while Kempelen owned it, but while Mälzel owned it, a number of well-known chess masters took on the reigns of the Turk, one of which was William Schlumberger, who died after the Turk visited Havana, Cuba, which left Mälzel dejected (because he had no operator) before his own death.

The reconstructed Turk by Gaughan

The truth of the Turk was guessed at for many years, but the revelation of the hoax was revealed through a series of articles by Dr. Silas Mitchell, the son of the last private owner Dr. John Kearsley Mitchell. He felt that chess players should know the truth. The articles weren't written until after the fire that destroyed the Turk. In 1859, William Kummer, who worked as an operator of the Turk under Mitchell, revealed that there was a candle inside the cabinet to allow him to see. A tube was rub up through the Turk and out through the top of the turban. The smoke was mixed with smoke made on the outside so that no one can see where it was coming from.

All in all, the Turk fooled a lot of people for a very long time. The amazing skills of the Turk had people fooled into thinking a machine was that advanced (it was even able to successfully complete the knight's tour on a chessboard). Lately, IBM has created Deep Blue which is a computer that actually can compete with human players in chess.

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