a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Messmore & Damon Mechanical Elephant. (Sourced from the Messmore & Damon catalogue.) This mechanical elephant does everything but walk! Although Messmore & Damon had been around for some time, the interest here is around the animated elephants. There were early mammoths made for The World a Million Years Ago for the Chicago Fair, but the …
Read More “1939 – Mechanical Elephants by Messmore & Damon (American)”
I have very little information on Voltaire and his "robot". The information below is from the link now dead www.magician.org.uk/hmc/archive-2-2005-01.html 9.2 In Town Tonight – Voltaire posted 29/01/05 by Richard Morrell in Oracle Articles [No comments] Many magicians know the wonderful act of Mr. Electric – Marvyn Roy. The subject of my In Town Tonight …
Read More “1945c – Voltaire – William Jean Arrendorff – (British)”
Copy of original artwork. Labyrinth scene with Humongous: Excerpt from Inside the Labyrinth: Check Youtube for clips on "The Making of the Labyrinth". The text for Inside the Labyrinth documentary was originally transcribed by Stephanie Massick. JIM HENSON: "It seemed like right late in the story what we wanted was for our heroes to come …
Read More “1986 – “Humongous” (Labyrinth) – Jim Henson (American) / George Gibbs (British)”
"Psycho" at the Museum of Science, London. (Image source: Mechanical Toys – Charles Bartholomew) My intent in putting up this entry is to draw attention on the aspect of remote control by which the slave component is anthropomorphic. This fits in with the early history of teleoperators and manipulators. All other aspects of "Psycho" are well …
Read More “1875 “Psycho” the Whist-playing Automaton – Maskelyne & Clarke (British)”
John Gaughan's version of "The Turk" Like my post on Maskelyne's "Psycho" and "Zoe" automatons, the interest here is its place in history in terms of remote master-slave manipulators, and I shall confine myself to just that. There is significant other matter on "The Turk" published elsewhere already. Well established as a fake contrivance [pseudo automaton, faux (false) automaton], …
Read More “1770 – “The Turk” Chess Automaton – Wolfgang von Kempelen (Hungarian)”