1959 – "DUHAB" (Detector of Undesirable HABitués) by Lawrence Lipton / Bill Riola. Photograph caption dated December 5, 1960 reads, "Electronic Cat Detects Subversives for Beatniks. Duhab accompanies poet-author Lawrence Lipton to weed out undesirables." Image source: The Los Angeles Public Library. Lawrence Lipton was talking to the Valley College Writer's Club. Source: The beatnik …
1903 – La Motogirl – Doris Chertney [Chertsey?] / Frederic Melville. Image and text source: here. Belle Epoque Violin Playing Robot, circa 1905 In the French newspaper Le Gaulois, #9558, there is a notice of the appearance, on December 15th, 1903?, at 8:30 PM at the Olympia Theater in Paris, of La Motogirl. Now, we …
"Rose-Marie" the Robot with Will Mackford. The notes on the photographs are bilingual Flemish/French. [Thanks Serge De Man for the language origin.] Photo source here: Although William Mackford is an English name, the annotated images suggest the act to be Belgian-based. [Thanks Serge De Man for the language origin.] Any further information on "Rose-Marie" and/or …
Reading Thoughts by Radio (Source: Popular Mechanics – May, 1924) Can thoughts be read by radio? “Madam Radora” seems to prove that they can. Madam is not a human being, but a life-size automaton shown at the Permanent Radio Fair in New York. Her “thoughts” and movements are controlled entirely by wireless; no wires of …