Wolfgang von Kempelen

From Freepedia

Wolfgang von (de Pámánd) Kempelen or Ján Vlk Kempelen or Farkas Kempelen (born 23 January 1734 in Pressburg (today Bratislava), died 26 March 1804 in Vienna) was an author and inventor, who became most famous for his construction of the Mechanical Turk, which was a first-class hoax, and a manually operated speaking machine, which was a genuine pioneer step in experimental phonetics.