1926 – Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace) – Fritz Kahn (German-Jew)

Fritz Kahn (1888–1968) was a German-Jewish gynaecologist and science author who developed a sophisticated graphic analogy between anatomy and machinery. His work was widely distributed in Germany until it was banned under the Nazi regime. He continued to publish, relocating to Palestine and Paris before escaping to the USA with the help of Albert Einstein. …

More Meccano Walking Machines & Robots

Meccano model of GE's Walking Truck designed by Hugh Henry. All legs are completely rotatable in the same direction. For a complete set of images see the NZ Meccano web site here.  Thanks Antonio Gual for encouraging  Tony Brown (the author of the Modelplan) who found some pictures of Hugh Henry's original. (Has anyone built …

1913 – Giant Mechanical Mosquito – Dr. Gustav Luchy (Swiss)

During some earlier research on Walking Machines, discovered an article in The Salt Lake Tribune. (Salt Lake City, Utah), March 09, 1913 headlined "The Giant Mechanical Mosquitoes Of Dr. Gustav Luchy." Now that it's come time to write it up, I see that Lyle Zapato's in his blog ZPi has already done a fine job in researching …

1994 – Profi Bionic – Fischertechnik (German)

The 6 models one can construct with this set. Source: Profi Instruction pdf here. Box cover. Source: Fischertechnik Online Museum here. The gait pattern for each of the models.   (Google translation from German) The new computing box 'Bionic Robots' builds on the 1994  PROFI  ' I'm walking' set . New in this case is that …

1979 – “Meccanoids” Meccano Kit – (British)

Meccano put out a robot models kit called "Meccanoids" in 1979, with instructions and parts for any of 10 models. See Instruction booklet pdf here. Venusian Desert Bug Sirus Stroller Saturn Dinosaur Martian Mantis Space Skate Lunar Lurcher Mercurian Creeper Uranian Rhino Cosmic Spider Cyborg Robot Comments from some Meccano Men : "Then there are the …