a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Jiro Aizawa, born 1903, is very significant in terms of Japan's history of robots, toy robots in particular. (also Dr. Aizawa, Uncle Robot, Dr. Robot, Zirou Aizawa, Dr. Aizawa Zirou, and 二郎相澤 in Japanese.) In 1910*1, when in 5th grade, Aizawa saw his first mechanical man in a London exhibition [RH Note that the word robot was not …
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This toy was available for purshase in France in 1950 by the French Hatchette toy company. It was invented by Jacques Maurice Robert Leblic and the French patent 998,830 was granted on 26 September 1951. The bumper-bar at either end operates a reversing switch for the drive motor. When a lamp is shone on the photo-electric cell, …
Originally published in the Electrical Experimenter (issue unknown but probably late 1916). This version from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 24th Dec 1916 p12 It is probably more a ‘electric dog’ than a creature built to exhibit phototropic behaviour and the like. Although it has a selenium cell, it is for selector circuit activation purposes, not …
W. Grey Walter's early contact with Edmund C. Berkeley. Who is Edmund C. Berkeley? Probably more renowned for building what has been now considered as the first Personal Computer, called 'Simon' and construction details were published in Radio Electronics in 13 parts from 1950 to 1951. He wrote a book on computers called Giant Brains …
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