Month: January 2013

Thanks to Antonio Gual of Barcelona, Spain who notified me of his father's old robot.  The text is also by Antonio. 1953 El robot del meu pare / Dad's robot Als anys 50, el meu pare, l' Antoni Gual Segura i els seus companys de Radio Vilafranca del Penedès van dissenyar i construir "El Chispas", …

Read More “1953 – “El Chispas” (Sparks) Robot – Antoni Gual Segura (Spanish)”

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 …

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Metal feet on Swedish carriage enables it to "walk" up or down stairs. The rocking rhythm on flat surface puts baby to sleep. Source: Mechanics Illustrated May 1957.

Stair-climbing wheels Wheels that shoot out spring-loaded "legs" enable an experimental British vehicle to climb stairs and other obstacles. The vehicle, powered by batteries, is the "miniclimber," developed by Prof. Meredith Thring and Brian Shayer at Queen Mary College, London University. The small machine travels at about three mph. On level ground, the weight of …

Read More “1964c – Walking Wheel Stair Climbers – Meredith Thring (British)”

  Patent number: 880526 – see full patent details here. Filing date: Jun 27, 1907 Issue date: Mar 3, 1908 A very ingenious walking wheel mechanism was invented by the British inventor H. S. Hele-Shaw.  He was inspired by another British invention, Diplock's Pedrail and heavily promoted the Pedrail before inventing his own variation. The carriage …

Read More “1907 – Walking Wheel Carriage – Henry S. Hele-Shaw (British)”