Above: Mr. 'Rastus Robot, the most lifelike of mechanical men, conducting a conversation with S. M. Kintner, assistant vice-president of the Westinghouse Co., Mr. Robot needs some prompting, it is true; that is given by the flashlight in his interlocutor's right hand, which controls the "sound-on-film" conversation previously rehearsed. Here…
Targeting a different market audience, Westinghouse produced a female version of Herbert Televox. Katrina was based on the second model that ran sound tapes, and appeared between May 1930 through April 1931. Note that only the wallboard cutout is different, and I suppose the voice tapes were of a female voice…
The above image is sourced from : http://www.circusmuseum.nl/eng/ search under Wendling Collectie Circusarchief Jaap Best Tekst achterzijde foto Televox. Der Maschinen Mensch. Erfinder: Ing. Eugène Wendling. 1930. Grand Hotel et surselva Waldhaus-Films Jaar vervaardiging 1930 Personen Wending, Eugène *Not to be confused with Wensley's Herbert Televox in America. from Chapius…
from Simpsons' Daily Leader-Times 12 Mar 1930 p9 With the increasing replacement of men by machins, the laborer in the future may look something like the grotesque figure shown in the above photo. This mechanical "robot" man attracted .considerable attention at the" British Industrial Fair held recently at Birmingham, England.…
Built by Hungarian inventor Tarján Ferenc (Budapest, 1895.11.04.- Budapest, 1956.11.28.) (English = Frank or Francis Tarjan). The robot was shown at the Corvin department store in January 1929 in Budapest . Operated in a fully acoustically isolated, remote controlled chamber. This room is a miniature studio, which not only speech, but controlled…
A rare picture of " Telelux ". The "Telelux" Sound and light were transformed into mechanical action at the banquet of the National Tool Exposition recently to illustrate their possibilites in regulating traffic, aiding the aviator, and performing automatic functions. A beam of light was thrown into the "eyes" of…
Rupert I - 1928 Rupert was built as a mechanical representation of major organs of a human. The Popular Science [Apr 1929] article suggests it was built by British schoolboys. Rupert II - 1929 (re-modelled innards) from Popular Science Apr 1929 p58 Boys Build "Human Engine" in Study of Anatomy USING…
Whilst Roy James Wensley's "Televox" came about in 1927, he had invented and patented an earlier "supervisory control system" (patent filed in 1923). This system was effectively a system that could "remotely control" equipment via power lines, wireless, telephone lines, but not sound, which is how it is differentiated with the later "Televox". Some…
Ivan Sutherland with M. Versatilis. Source: Carnegie Mellon University Archives Machina Versatilis , pictured above and below, was so named due to the versatile modular plug-in boards. M. Versatilis was the final of three models built, and at least two of this model were supposedly built. The first version, see blog post…
An Electro-mechanical Model of Simple Animals