Month: September 2009

Place marker. E. C. Tolman, Discrimination vs. learning and the schematic sowbug, Psychol. Rev., 48, 1941, 367-382.

François Dussaud is more famous for inventions around the phonograph and cinema. A Swiss inventor, born in Geneva (b. 1870 – d. 1953)  later lived in France. His patents are filed under the name of Charles François Dussaud. Note: The article below is from the French magazine Sciences & Vie 1938. It quotes 1938 for …

Read More “1934 – Endomechanic Vehicle – François Dussaud (Swiss/French)”

This is what everyone’s been waiting for – new and more detailed information on “Philidog” by Henri Piraux (sometimes Henry Piraux, of Philips France). One of the articles to be presented tells us that the dog has gone through a bit of an evolution. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to get a date of the original incarnation.  …

Read More “1928 – Phil the Radio Dog a.k.a. “Philidog” – Henri Piraux (French)”

I found a single reference to a French Electric Dog that "will jump out of its kennel when a whistle sounds". The rest of the brief article talks about Miessner's "Electric Dog". Ingenious Mechanism – Le Grand Reporter, 30 Dec 1921 p2  The electric dog which will follow a lantern in the dark—a mechanical curio constructed by …

Read More “1915 – Electric Dog – Christian Berger – (Hungarian / American)”

 Originally published in the Electrical Experimenter (issue unknown but probably late 1916). This version from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 24th Dec 1916 p12 It is probably more a ‘electric dog’ than a creature built to exhibit phototropic behaviour and the like.  Although it has a selenium cell, it is for selector circuit activation purposes, not …

Read More “1916 – Wireless Dog – Steinbrook”