1981 – Robot Rickshaw – Ryugi Sugama (Japanese)

Tokyo, Japan: The Orient's ancient rickshaw gets a very modern look near Tokyo recently. Hiromi Magara, clad in a kimono, smiles while riding in a robot driven (or drawn, if you will) rickshaw displayed at Honda's "New Idea" contest recently. The robot driven vehicle, devised by Honda Motors employee Ryugi Sugama at a cost of …

1874 – Adam Ironsides – The Steam Man – C. C. Roe a.k.a. Capt. Rowe (Canadian)

Patent number: 4175 Patent filing year: 1874-01-01 Patent title: STEAM MAN OR WALKING MACHINE Name/City: ROE, CYRENIUS C.: HAMILTON, Ontario, Canada Year granted: 1874-12-15 Source: Star And Sentinel, 08 Aug 1878, p2. Letter from Reading.READING, PA., August 5, 1878. STAR AND SENTINEL,:—The visitors to the sea shore…………….. next column   ………………… This looked rather disheartening to …

1913 – The Thing (Martian Fighting Machine – Tripod) – H.G. Wells (British)

Tripod (The War of the Worlds) From Wikipedia Martian tripod illustration drawn by Henrique Alvim Corréa for a 1906 edition of the novel.Tripods or fighting-machines are a type of fictional three-legged walker from the H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by Martians to invade Earth. The Novel The …

1955 – Phant Walking Tank (Dan Dare) – Frank Hampson (British)

Pic of cover of Eagle – 20 Jan 1956 Vol 7 No. 1. Phant Walking tank. Concept working drawings including the “walking tank” [top left]. From Frank Hampson’s “Ideas Book”. Dan Dare – Rogue Planet 1955-7 The above images were taken by David Buckley when we travelled to the British Science Museum to study W. …

1969 – Walking Cargo Vehicle – Syd Mead (American)

Text below from Syd Mead's book SENTINEL The four-legged, gyro-balanced, walking cargo vehicle shown on pages 80-81 is from the US Steel Interface portfolio series [published in 1969 – see image below]. The environment is arctic and the mission is to deliver goods and critical supplies to an isolated exploratory colony beyond the DEWline. Like …