a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Other than a brief one-line sentance in "The Morning Oregonian 04 May 1872 p4, I have not found any futher infromation on this contrivance. "An inventive Kalamazoologist has succeeded in bringing out an eight-legged steam walking machine."
In June of this year (2009), I went to the UK and to Europe to visit some of the great computer pioneers and in particular, to talk to them about their early cybernetic models they built. I travelled with David Buckley (see his site here), and one of our stops was to see Heinz Zemanek …
Read More “1954 – Vienna Turtle – Eichler / Zemanek (Austrian)”
Hugo Gernsback contributed significantly to the advancement of new technologies, such as Automaton and Robots. He was responsible for some of the greatest technical magazines published, and published many articles himself. In this case, he predicts and describes a radio controlled police automaton in his magazine "Science & Invention" May 1924. This automation is referred to …
Read More “1924 – Radio Police Automaton – Gernsback (American)”
Captain Alban J. Roberts – mobile, light operated automaton 1920’s (responsible for robots attributed to Jasper Maskelyne (music halls). I have also seen this automaton incorrectly attributed to Capt W. H. Richards -Eric (in error due to similar names) . We also see the name Alan Roberts pop up as well. See video clip here. Note that clip …
Read More “1923-8 – Robot – Capt. Alban J. Roberts (New Zealand/Australia/U.K.)”
I have not been able to locate an image of Rowe's Steam Man, or should I say Steam Men as he made at least two of them. There is a possibility that Rowe's second Steam Man was re-incarnated as Prof. Moore's Steam Man in 1891. More on that in a later post. At one time I had articles included …
Read More “1874-1883 Steam Man – Capt. Rowe a.k.a. C. C. Roe (Canadian)”