a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Source: Popular Science May 1965. "Mechanical elephant looks real – This battery-driven elephant looks so much like the real thing that people have complained of its treatment. Built for a British ice show, it annoyed some to see it walk on ice. Guided by controls in the neck, it's powered by a one-hp., 50-volt motor …
Read More “1965 – “Electrophant” Mechanical Elephant – Frank Stuart (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)”
My initiial intention with this posting was to show "Zoe" as an example of an early Anthropomorphic mechanical master-slave manipulator as well as being a drawing machine. What is presented are some images and illustrations of John Nevil Maskelyne's "Zoe", and an operational description of what could be "Zoe", but nevertheless a contemporary suggestion of how a …
Read More “1877 – “Zoe” the Drawing Automaton – John Nevil Maskelyne (British)”
[Source: A Century of Toys From The London Toy & Model Museum, 1982, Exhibition Catalogue] Blurb from Youtube: A very rare and clever toy produced in Germany approximately 1885 until about 1905. The little hand-cranked tin artist draws with a graphite stick onto paper via 'programmed' double-cams (x and y axis). I read about it …
Read More “1895 – Mechanical Toy Artist – Caroline Spilsbury Pocock (British)”
In the picture above, 17-year old Frank Grimes of Alphington, near Exeter, is seen introducing his cat to a mechanical man he has made out of odds and ends. It is powered by an electric motor, but only Frank knows the secret of how it walks backwards and forwards, swings its arms, turns its head, …