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Robots Of The Victorian Era
prostoalex writes "Somehow the robotic inventions of the 19th century are terribly under-appreciated. But when you read about a new Aibo or running humanoid robot, don't forget the mechanical marvels of the 19th century. The Steam Man, unveiled in literature in 1865, would provide the willing consumer with a truly horseless carriage. The Electric Man(1885) was a working prototype before 19th century was over, too. The Boilerplate was a prototype soldier built in 1893 to resolve potential conflicts between the nations, and, according to promotional photographs, was usually surrounded by young females. And, finally, the Automatic Man, unveiled in 1900, a 7'5'' robot capable of many things, but mainly pulling carriages." (Don't forget the less-fictional, more-fraudulent Ajeeb and The Turk.)
Strange it may seems but Ajeeb is arabic (or persian) for strange.
I've never understood how the operators of all the various chess-playing computers have been able to resist the temptation to construct a Turk replica to make moves for their machines.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Tik-Tok, seen here as illustrated by John R Neill, the original Oz illustrator (He also appeared in a 1985 film). He does resemble "Boilerplate", doesn't he?
The Tin Man (or Tin Woodman of Oz). Everyone knows what he looks like. First appearing in 1900, during the Victorian era for sure, he has to be one of the first cyborgs in anything (if not the very first).
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
dude, don't spoil it. :)
Half the fun of these foot icon stories is reading the posts from people who totaly missed it. My favorite is a post further down that read "you all do realize this is a fabrication right?"
Well shit, I never noticed until you said something!
Hahaha... you make one horrible assumption my friend... Im not American... nor am I a troll.
First off, you will never hear me sing the praises of American actions during WWI and WWII... neither is such a noble persuit, although I will admit that the US did have a HUGE impact on winning that war. WWI on the other hand was a global clusterfuck from day one... even the causes of that war are questionable.
As to France's contributions to WW2, please try not to make me laugh so hard. France lost purely to incompetance and nothing more... they acted as much of a deterant to the Nazi war machine, as a speedbump deters a Hummer. Yes... lets build a wall bristling with guns and point it in one direction and sit back and think we are safe.
Then... There was the supreme moron Charles de GAULLE who almost single handidly prevent the United States from joining the war in the first place, due to his sheer arrogance and sense of self worth. The United States president(s) HATED him, and he is very much responsible for a delay in many actions that occured in the second world war. Hell, he even delayed the land lease act which started to sway power in the allies favour. France hindered the allies war effort more then they helped, pure and simple. The allies owe the victory to the meat grinder that was Russia, and the sacrafice of US and British Commonwealth countries on a factor of 100x more then any action any French people did.
As to my perspective, im a Canadian... so two things... 1) I dont think the US staying a british colony is such a bad thing... Australia and Canada seem like pretty damned nice countries, in my opinion... 2) de GAULLE has caused HUGE problems, by once again meddling in Canadian affairs. We owe a whole wack of our last 20 years of problems ( FLQ crisis, and seperation+referendums ) to that arrogant little worm.
Do you have stairs in your house?
YLFIOne god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
The country that is pushing hard for use of Robotics right now is Japan. The force driving robotics in Japan is the fact that in Japan high levels of immigration are politically unacceptable--and the economic powers that be want Japan to continue to be economically viable. What that means is that there is a _lot_ more push in the area of robotics and automation now than in the 19th century. Japan is quite literally betting their economic future in this direction.
That site didn't have the complete text, which is available here.
Sorta interesting with all its boy inventor stuff...
Does anyone know if/how they managed to get the 'robots' to simulate walking? Up until recently it was nearly impossible to get a robot to simulate real walking while keeping balance.
I think the first modern robot to actually do this was that Honda one that came out last year.
I rather like his radio-controlled robot submarine from 1898.
Heron of Alexandria was making robots back in the day Ancient Invetions Too bad it was forgotten and had to be reinvented later.
I think the coolest robots are the ones making popular music, especially since the kids can't tell the difference.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
The Geutenberg Project has the text of the story "Steam Man of the Prairies" here.
For those who are interested in this work.
+++ ATH0 +++
Lets not forget Pneuman, Tom Strong's loyal pneumatic robot man servant.
You can't take the sky from me...
Gamers who enjoyed reading about these fictional robots from the penny-dreadful and dime-novel days should check out Forgotten Futures. From the site: "Forgotten Futures is Marcus Rowland's table-top role playing game based on scientific romances, the predecessors of science fiction that were published in the late 19th and early 20th century. Each collection focuses on a different theme, and include space travel through the heavily populated solar system of 1900, Ghost Hunting in Edwardian England, and adventures with Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger." Fun stuff, and great value too.