a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Five-ton robot on wheels sticks out it arm to turn a "hot" valve in Hanford plutonium plant. One-Armed Robot Tackles Hot Jobs A ONE-ARMED robot is turning the valves in the giant plant at Hanford, Wash., that makes A-bomb plutonium out of uranium. The new robot looks like a railroad handcar with a small Navy …
Read More “1950 – General Electric Robotic Manipulator – (American)”
CRANE by SEWARD S. BABBITT. See full patent details here. Patent number: 484870 Filing date: Jun 13, 1892 Issue date: Oct 25, 1892 Seward Babbitt's crane first mentioned around 1980 in terms of robotics history and timelines in textbooks, but in terms of enabling technology only, rather than being identified as a robot in itself. That distinction …
The Robot Garguantua. gar·gan·tu·a -n. A person of great size or stature and of voracious physical or intellectual appetites. [After the giant hero of Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.] Like most, including myself, the true significance is lost in the title ("An Automatic Block-Setting Crane") and opening description of the original article published globally in …
Read More “1937 – The Robot Gargantua – “Bill” Griffith P. Taylor – (Australian/Canadian)”
[Sourced from: Mechanical Toys: How Old Toys Work, by Athelstan and Kathleen Spilhaus (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1989)] The principle of the Bourdon tube, a flattened, flexible tube that straightens out under pressure, was used in pneumatic toys such as the rubber monkey that plays a drum when a rubber bulb is squeezed by …
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS: MONDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25, 1929. "Radio Wizard" to Appear Here Under Auspices of Express-News Operates 4 Cars by Wireless at Once In operating by wireless control four standard, stock model automobiles at the same time, Maurice T. Francill, world-renowned engineer and inventor, performs one of the most difficult experiments in all the …
Read More “1922 – Maurice Francill “Radio Wizard” – Francis Cowgill (American)”