1912 – Seleno, the Electric Dog – Hammond / Miessner

A lot has already been published already about Seleno, try these links:  http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/HistoryMakers/HM-ElectricDog1912.htm and my Addendum. Here are some pics and excerpts showing different aspects of the "Electric Dog". Technical articles on the Electric Dog appeared in Scientific American Supplement No. 2267 p376-7 June 14, 1919 written by Benjamin Franklin Miessner, in the Electrical Experimenter, 1915, p. …

Time-Lapse Photographs of ELMER with ELSIE

I have only come across two time-lapse photographs with both ELMER and ELSIE. One has to be careful in interpreting time-lapse photographs as there are possibly different events happening at different times, off picture interference, and possibly different start times of each tortoise. An important observation highlighted by Owen Holland is the direction of rotation …

480 BC – Wooden Horse Carriage – Lu Ban (Chinese)

Early Chinese Mechanical Horse / Ox The wooden ox (木牛流馬,lit. wooden ox flowing horse) was created by Zhuge Liang while he served Shu-Han. It was a thought to be either a mechanical, walking replica of an ox whose main purpose was to carry supplies such as grain to an army that was running low on supplies. …

230 AD – Wooden Ox / Gliding Horse – Zhu-ge Liang

Wooden Ox / Gliding Horse Zhu-ge Liang 230 AD Chu-Ko Liang's "Wooden Oxen and Gliding Horse" ( notice different spelling to Zhu-ge Liang ) See book "Reconstruction designs of lost ancient Chinese machinery" By Hong-Sen Yan (search google books) Models: see http://140.116.71.92/acmlab/newpage15.htm Wang-Chien Type Wooden Oxen and Gliding Horse (below) Lin-Kuanli Type Wooden Oxen and …

1935 Maze Solver – Dr. Stevenson Smith and Thomas Ross

MECHANICAL RAT FINDS WAY IN MAZE  – Popular Science Nov 1935 As if endowed with powers of reasoning, a mechanical “rat” devised by Dr. Stevenson Smith, University of Washington psychologist, threads its way through an artificial maze like those used to study the behavior of living rats. The three-wheeled, electric-powered device moves along a grooved path …