a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
1964 onwards – Marine Mammals and Ordnance Recovery Ahab, a 5,500 pound killer whale, recovers a piece of inert ordnance using an acoustic pinger to guide him during the Deep Ops project. The whale is also equipped with a grabber device and a hydrazine system to allow the object to float easily to the surface. …
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1890 – Crustacean Diving Dress by Col. William Carey. Source: English Mechanic and World of Science – Volume 53, 1891 – Page 351 Col. William Carey, C. B., late R.A., the “crustacean diving dress,” which he has protected by [Great Britain] patents 3083, 4467, and 6494 [6431?] of 1890, in which he shows how the …
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Fritz Kahn (1888–1968) was a German-Jewish gynaecologist and science author who developed a sophisticated graphic analogy between anatomy and machinery. His work was widely distributed in Germany until it was banned under the Nazi regime. He continued to publish, relocating to Palestine and Paris before escaping to the USA with the help of Albert Einstein. …
U&lc. Illustrated by Murray Tinkelman, December 1979 I love machinery. I love drawings, photographs and diagrams of machinery, particularly diagrams. They look important, they demand respect, and they inspire confidence. How dare anyone doubt that those dotted lines, those beautiful arrows, and the mystically placed little uppercase letters indicate something of great but obscure significance? …
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Painting by FRED FREEMAN, originally appearing in the July 11, 1960 issue of LIFE Magazine. The creature unreeling an electric cable as he explores a distant planet is a man prepared for space as some scientists propose. Electrodes and other attachments would control many of the physical functions normally initiated by the brain, such as …
Read More “1960 – Cyborg – Kline and Clynes (American and Austrian)”