Strickly speaking, the 1900 Electric Man is a pseudo-walking machine only, so I will include him in the Early Walking Machine category, not here. A further note of clarity. This entry is here as there was an article published in 1900 by "The Strand" illustrated magazine titled "The Electric Man". This has been…
Dr. Lube's 'Mr. Eisenbrass' Characteristics: Electrically powered - electro-magnets, solenoids Rubber skin Activated by piano-style keyboard Stand-up. bow, sit down. Electro-mechanical voice styled after Prof. Faber's machine From 'The Racine Advocate' 10th May 1848 p1 Article also appeared in Scientific American Vol3#34-13May1848 p272 but written in 3rd person. [Note that…
The robots that are in this category of my blog are those that look and attempt to behave like human beings according to their creator's abilities and available technologies. Although I'll use the word "humanoid", words such as "humaniform" and "anthropomorphic" tend to be used as well. My focus is also on…
Grey Walter showing ELMER's internals
Before I introduce Elmer, the first of Grey's tortoises, a little background on Grey's technical skills. We already learnt from the previous post that Grey was building "wireless" sets with his Dad in 1919. The BNI Archives have a photo of a young Grey Walter at a metal turning lathe, so …
Grey Walter operating a lathe - BNI 1939
Grey Walter operating lathe - BNI - 1939
A timeline showing the history of Humanoid Robots, events with dates being the creation or announcement of the robots. If image is clickable, then a blog post exists for it. Check out facebook or the updates page for the recent posts. Etymology of the word ROBOT 1848- "Mr. Eisenbrass" - German-Automaton Dr Lube 1867- all The Steam…
This page contains a timeline showing significant Cybernetic animals and events, the dates being the creation or announcement of the cybernetic models. If IMAGE IS CLICKABLE, then a post exists for it. Check out the updates page for recent posts. PRE-CYBERNETIC ERA 1911- Toy Beetle 1912- Miessner / Hammond - Electric Dog "Seleno" +…
Ray Cooper, the last director of the Burden Neurological Institute, wrote this bio on Grey Walter for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ( http://www.oxforddnb.com ) . (William) Grey Walter (1910-1977), Walter, (William) Grey (1910-1977), neurophysiologist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on 19 February 1910, the only child of Karl…
portrait of W. Grey Walter
There are various bio's out there on Grey Walter already, but I thought I'd try a different approach. One of the better references on Grey Walter and his tortoises is, interestingly enough, the book titled "Discussions on Child Development" in one volume 1971. Most researchers on Grey Walter and his…
This is the beginning of a series of posts on the history of cybernetic animals, early robots, steam men, and other walking machines covering the late 19th century and the 20th century. My initial focus will be my recent work on W. Grey Walter and his tortoises, with starters to…
Dr. W Grey Walter's portrait as it appears in the foyer at the BNI
Reuben Hoggett has had a life-long interest in robots. His earliest images are that of Grey Walter's tortoise as illustrated in Nigel Calder's book 'Robots', an image of Bruce Lacey's robot best 'man' Rosabosom in a 60's newspaper article, and Dr Who and the Daleks, of course. These books…