 It was Bavarian musician and showman Johann Nepomuk Mälzel who hired him to operate The Turk.Schlumberger acted as the Turk's director in Europe and in the United States until his death from yellow fever in 1838.The main source of information on Schlumberger's life is Willard Fiske's book of the first American chess congress and, in particular, the section dedicated to “The history of the Automaton Chess-Player in America”.