Jacques-Francois Mouret (1787-1837) was the operator of the Turk automaton from 1819 to 1824.  He was one of 15 chess players who occupied the cramped innards of the machine over 85 years.  He sold the secret of how the Turk operated to the Magazin Pittoresque in 1834.  He was an alcoholic chess master who sold it to the Parisian tabloid for the price of a drink.  This was the first authentic revelation of the Automaton's secret.  In 1836, the magazine Palamede re-published Mouret's disclosures.  He was a nephew of Philidor.  He was a chess tutor to King Louis Philippe, who was king of France from 1830 to 1848.