a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
November, 1915 THE ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER by Hugo Gernsback. Front cover -"THE RADIUM DESTROYER" from a painting by Thomas H. Wrenn. (typo- actually Thomas N. Wrenn) Warfare of the Future The Radium Destroyer THE European War has clearly demonstrated what a tremendous part modern science plays in the offense as well as in the defense of …
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After recently posting the entry on Vladimir Ischein's Walking Wheel (1983), I recalled having seen something similar. It turned out to be the toy "Space Crawler" of Major Matt Mason from 1967. This toy led to several other toymakers making similar devices. 1967 – Mattel's Major Matt Mason's Space Crawler Some Space Crawler Images sourced …
The vehicle in the book is described as being bee-like; when not flying, then walking. During the 1920s and 1930s, the lunar rovers of science fiction were sometimes more humorous than scientific. Homer Eon Flint, in 1923, proposed in his novel "Out of the Moon" what might be termed an ornithomorphic design. It resembled a …
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Some of these early concepts for lunar exploration had elements of practicality; others were pure whimsy. One of the first, by Polish science-fiction writer Jerzy Zulawski (1874-1915), fell into the first category. His rover design appeared as an illustration in his 1901 tale "Szrebyym Globie" ["On the Silver Globe"] and featured full pressurization, electrical power, …
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I first saw this mentioned in David M. Earle's interesting book titled "Re-Covering Modernism: Pulps, Paperbacks, and the Prejudice of Form", but John Ptak's recent post reminded me of it. I have used his image of the prototype walking machine. The model of King Grey, the Electric Titan. Although called "Electric", the motive power is …
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