1938 – Robot – Charles Lawson (British)

Charles Lawson lighting a cigarette for his robot.

Other than the above images, all that's reported for this robot is that is talks and smokes.  The photo above shows a seat with a lightning-bolt motif on it. The seat suggests robot could arise and sit again.  Robot''s right arm moves to show a stop signal to stop traffic.

I've since found out that this was the first of two robots built by Charles Lawson, a radio engineer from Kettering, England.

Above photo from Lawson's grandson Tim Fischer on flickr – see here.

The 50th anniversary of a Time Magazine article of this robot appeared in 1988, suggesting then that this robot was built in 1938.

See later, more sophisticated robot here.