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Elektro, the Oldest U.S. Robot
Roland Piquepaille writes "If you happen to be around Ohio this coming fall, don't miss an exhibit at the Mansfield Memorial Museum featuring the 7-foot-tall Elektro, the oldest robot in the U.S.. "Elektro is the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940 for several hundred thousand dollars each," according to the article from the Plain Dealer, Cleveland. Back in 1939, Elektro was able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke. It used a 78-rpm record player to simulate conversation and had a vocabulary of more than 700 words. It even appeared in a long-time forgotten movie, "Sex Kittens Go to College," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot." Primidi.com has an overview containing other details, references and pictures."
Used in porn.
Go figure.
after reading 'oldest robot' and 'Sex Kittens Go to College', Nothing to See Here. Move Along has oh so much more meaning to it.
brb, have go figure out how to jab a fork in my imagination.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
[Watching this movie was] Like watching Judge Judy do aerobics in a thong
Ahh thanks so much for that wonderful imagery.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
#include
Cool
I'm really impressed that they had something like that over 60 years ago. ...that's before computers! Robots now are inherently thought of as computerized I think... it's interesting to see that there really are mechanical versions of them. (I know there are still mechanical robots/machines, but they're almost always controlled by a computer - this one clearly wasn't).
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
If you happen to be around Ohio this coming fall, don't miss an exhibit at the Mansfield Memorial Museum featuring the 7-foot-tall Elektro, the oldest U.S. robot with its 65 years. "Elektro is the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940 for several hundred thousand dollars each," according to this article from the Plain Dealer, Cleveland (free reg. is sometimes necessary). Back in 1939, Elektro was able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke. It used a 78-rpm record player to simulate conversation and had a vocabulary of more than 700 words.Thousands of people enjoyed Elektro at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It even appeared in a long-time forgotten movie, "Sex Kittens Go to College," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot." Read more...
Other information about this exhibit is featured on this page at the Mansfield & Richland County Convention & Visitors Bureau website.
"Elektro was the first true robot ever built in the United States," said museum director, Scott Schaut. "Built in total secrecy by Westinghouse, Elektro was promoted as the ultimate appliance. In fact, it was thought that Elektro would one day be able to cook, do laundry and entertain the children."
But let's return to the Plain Dealer article.
[After being restored for $500 by Jack Weeks, whose father, John, helped create the robot in Mansfield for Westinghouse,] Elektro is back home -- repaired, polished and drawing crowds to the Mansfield Memorial Museum. Recently, he was taken off display for repairs, but he will return in September.
"We had more than 4,000 people come to the museum to see Elektro since September," said Schaut. "It was wildly popular, and a good way to get people to visit the museum."
Jack Weeks with the restored Elektro Here Jack Weeks, 70-year old, stands close to the 7-foot, 65 year-old Elektro (Credit: Mansfield Memorial Museum).
Elektro, like the other robots built by Westinghouse seventy years ago, was pretty expensive, but also brought back money.
Elektro is the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940. The company predicted the robots -- built for an estimated cost of several hundred thousand dollars each -- would be the ultimate household appliances, handling daily drudge work such as washing dishes and cutting the grass.
[But] "they made millions off him," Schaut said. "People came in from all over the world to see him at the New York World's Fair. In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, Elektro traveled around the country from appliance store to store. People flocked to see him. It was a hugely successful promotion."
Elektro at the New York World's Fair in 1939 If you want to know more about Elektro, David H. Szondy has assembled photos and drawings from the past on this page. This one shows Elektro at the New York World's Fair in 1939 (Credit: David H. Szondy).
Later, Elektro went to Hollywood.
Elektro did what many Californians do -- he wound up in the movies. He played Thinko, a giant robot that handicapped horses, in the 1960 film "Sex Kittens Go to College (1960)," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot," with Mamie Van Doren and Tuesday Weld.
Now that you're a fan of Elektro, you might want to buy an image. From this page, you can buy one from Corbis. But be sure to have your credit card with you. A small version (7.29 x 9.11 cm) costs $90 while a larger one (17.09 x 21.36 cm) goes for $200! Personally, I think these prices are outrageous.
Sources: Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, February 9, 2005; and various websites
Oops, wrong website...
Here's a picture:h tm
http://www.davidszondy.com/future/robot/elektro1.
Omar
Why does sex and technology mix so well? Just think of the internet.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Look inside this thing...I bet you find a very old, very cramped, and very ornery midget surrounded by all sorts of levers, buttons, switches, and pedals. ^_^
Roland Piquepaille and Slashdot: Is there a connection?
I think most of you are aware of the controversy surrounding regular Slashdot article submitter Roland Piquepaille. For those of you who don't know, please allow me to bring forth all the facts. Roland Piquepaille has an online journal (I refuse to use the word "blog") located at http://www.primidi.com/ . It is titled "Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends". It consists almost entirely of content, both text and pictures, taken from reputable news websites and online technical journals. He does give credit to the other websites, but it wasn't always so. Only after many complaints were raised by the Slashdot readership did he start giving credit where credit was due. However, this is not what the controversy is about.
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends serves online advertisements through a service called Blogads, located at www.blogads.com. Blogads is not your traditional online advertiser; rather than base payments on click-throughs, Blogads pays a flat fee based on the level of traffic your online journal generates. This way Blogads can guarantee that an advertisement on a particular online journal will reach a particular number of users. So advertisements on high traffic online journals are appropriately more expensive to buy, but the advertisement is guaranteed to be seen by a large amount of people. This, in turn, encourages people like Roland Piquepaille to try their best to increase traffic to their journals in order to increase the going rates for advertisements on their web pages. But advertisers do have some flexibility. Blogads serves two classes of advertisements. The premium ad space that is seen at the top of the web page by all viewers is reserved for "Special Advertisers"; it holds only one advertisement. The secondary ad space is located near the bottom half of the page, so that the user must scroll down the window to see it. This space can contain up to four advertisements and is reserved for regular advertisers, or just "Advertisers". Visit Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends (http://www.primidi.com/ ) to see it for yourself.
Before we talk about money, let's talk about the service that Roland Piquepaille provides in his journal. He goes out and looks for interesting articles about new and emerging technologies. He provides a very brief overview of the articles, then copies a few choice paragraphs and the occasional picture from each article and puts them up on his web page. Finally, he adds a minimal amount of original content between the copied-and-pasted text in an effort to make the journal entry coherent and appear to add value to the original articles. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now let's talk about money. Visit http://www.blogads.com/order_html?adstrip_category =tech&politics= to check the following facts for yourself. As of today, December XX 2004, the going rate for the premium advertisement space on Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends is $375 for one month. One of the four standard advertisements costs $150 for one month. So, the maximum advertising space brings in $375 x 1 + $150 x 4 = $975 for one month. Obviously not all $975 will go directly to Roland Piquepaille, as Blogads gets a portion of that as a service fee, but he will receive the majority of it. According to the FAQ, Blogads takes 20%. So Roland Piquepaille gets 80% of $975, a maximum of $780 each month. www.primidi.com is hosted by clara.net (look it up at http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index. jhtml ). Browsing clara.net's hosting solutions, the most expensive hosting service is their Clarahost Advanced (http://www.uk.clara.net/clarahost/advanced.php ) priced at £69.99 GBP. This is roughly, at the time of this writing, $130 USD. Assuming Roland Piquepaille pays for the Clarahost Advanced hosting service, he is out $130 leaving him with a maximum net profit of $650 each month. Keeping your website registered with Network Solutions cost $34.99 per year, or about $3 per m
Elektro also had a dog named Sparky, and they were introduced at the 1929 World's Fair. Here's another link for your viewing pleasure.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
Yet another project abandoned because of WWII. It makes me wonder, if WWII hadn't happened, what would the world be like now? It seems we've stopped dreaming. Sure, we've made new technology because of WWII, but it is mostly technology to kill people.
How would the family be today? Would we have to have the husband and wife work just to pay the mortgage? Because businesses learned that they can exploit women just as much as men to make money during WWII, it changed our family structure forever.
I have to wonder; would we have flying cars today hadn't it been for WWII? Ah heck, probably not. After all, there is so much money in tires that some tire corporation would probably lock up the technology with litigation somehow.
How many decades behind are we, anyway?
I did, and nearly got murdered.;-)
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Elektro was able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke.
...wow, just look how far technology has progressed since then!
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
MEDIBOT !
Wow, isn't that something this robot was equipped with a bellows for smoking. Funny how times have changed. below is a link to a sectional drawing showing the inner workings of the robot.
http://www.davidszondy.com/future/robot/elektro
"Because Robots are strong and their claws are made of metal.
Robot Insurance: For when the metal ones come for you"
..it's Electro... prick.
Doesn't this bot remind you a bit of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still?
OT, How come there are no more World's Fairs? Disney's EPCOT just doesn't do it for me anymore. Can't we see some futuristic cars and segways and all-digital homes all together instead of visiting the "Innoventions" exhibit?
Can it run Linux?
Good to see that in 70 years we have robots now that can do almost anything now......oh wait a sec Terminator was a movie.
1940 = "Robot able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke."
2005 = "Robot able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke, AND, look cool, run and have a processor core that can calculate integrals if needed but unable to prove where 65 years of research have gone
Prior Art.
"Hel...lo. I...am...Elektro. I...am...prior...art...for...all...robots...to... come. Your...patent...is...invaild. Ha...ha...ha."
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Maybe he's the only survivor because they all smoked!
I am Awesome-O. I generate movie scripts for the MPAA.
We have an emergency protocol #90206.
OMG - A 7 foot Robosapien!
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
Can't help but feel a bit dissapointed.
initially I thought it was the first *industrial* robot. Cool as this thing is, it is in fact only an expensive toy. It doesn't really robota, or work, heehee...
And what about the mmuch older automata, that played chess etc... Different ballpark perhaps, not relating to RUR (Rostrum's Universal Robot)
They gave Elektro "bellows for smoking", no mention about "funnel for beer" though, then put him in soft-core porn...
e ktro-interior.jpg)
Bender would be so proud! His grandpa was a sexy smoking robot! (blueprint:http://davidszondy.com/future/robot/el
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
I'm sure by the time I finish writing this there will be have a dozen comments about whether or not Roland Pickapeckofpickledpeppers is or is not a scummy plagiarist with a secret deal with the OSDN (Overlords of Slashdot Donations Network, that is), delivering vast quantities of cocaine in exchange for his stories automatically appearing on the slashdot front page.
;-).
To save everyone else the trouble of repeating the same arguments over and over, why don't you just read the main crux of the complaint and an official response. Then kindly move along unless you have something new and dramatic to add, in which case you might be able to get in one or two posts before the OSDN thugs and/or hired assassins start knocking on your door
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
It's an automaton, like the show at Chuck E. Cheese or Vauban's duck.
The show is over according to the information on this page: http://www.mansfieldtourism.com/CVB_Site/Pages/ele ctro.htm/
Why not support Roland? He spent some time finding the article and submitting it. For which he makes a little money, at no cost to you. What's your problem with that? You're so vehement about getting stuff "for free" that you can't stand someone else benefitting, though you're still getting it for free? That goes beyond cheapness - you're a thief, who wants to steal from someone, even when it doesn't benefit you in the least. You'll even do the extra work of posting the full text to steal without benefit. You're really sick. BTW, why don't you avoid Slashdot altogether, as its staff and owners make a pretty healthy living off exactly the same kind of work as Roland, but with a guarantee.
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make install -not war
...is to give it the ability to smoke: Smoking bot
http://www.frenchgeek.com/
Moderation -1
100% Troll
Hey, that's not a Troll, it's Flamebait!
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make install -not war
Elektro's dog Sparko has worms! Follow the link from Roland's site for the pictures and look at the Sparko page and you will see that I speak the truth! ;)
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Once, his legs were removed and his torso was hauled around Mansfield in a wagon.
I think that might have been in an episode of Li'l Rascals. Oh-Tay!
Because all that dreamers look forward to in the future these days is the rapture.
According to the Mansfield Memorial Museum website http://www.mansfieldtourism.com/CVB_Site/Pages/ele ctro.htm:
The exhibit will be on display at the Museum from September 7 through November 20, 2004.
The exhibit is over. You can go about your business. Move along.
"Well Ranger Brad, I'm a scientist. I don't believe in anything." - Dr. Roger Fleming
(I'm pretty sure that it was this Elektro that Meat Beat Manifesto sampled on the "Original Fire" album.)
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Elektro was not really a robot in the traditional sense of the word. He was a early forerunner of animatronics, and a man with a remote control decided every one of his motions and voice responses.
Can't find a link, but he was featured at one point on the History Channel. They showed some video of him talking to the crowd at the world's fair, telling some lame jokes that were recorded in a "robotty" voice to try and fool the audience. It worked pretty well.
All in all, he's pretty fucking scary looking, yet at the same time a little fruity.
Growing up in Mansfield, I am kinda suprised to see a dying town grace Slashdot. However this is just a town trying to grasp at a past long gone. Quite depressing.
Let's celebrate a surviving robot from a factory that no longer exists in Mansfield. Let Mansfield be known for something other than the skiing, auto-racing, crooked law enforcement and the prison where Shawshank was filmed. Yeah.. I can see dollars signs with this addition. Reminds me of the Married with Children episode where the Bundys visit a southern town where the main attraction was to meet the man that met Andy Griffith. Grasp at whatever past you have before you both fade away.
Please let Mansfield rust in peace and who ever leaves last, please turn the lights off in that dam carousel.
I bet you can't get Linux running on THAT!!!!!
To be honest, I'm quite surprised this comment is still here. /. has, on MANY occasions, removed and/or rewritten content. I have been the victim atleast 100 times now.
/. anymore. I only use it to find decent articles pertaining to my feild, but even that content is beginning to lack.
I have also had GOOD articles I write get completely and totally twisted around to say something completely different from the original intent.
Personally, I don't normally read ANYTHING on
Slashdot is becoming less of "News for Nerds" and more of a "content and work by others that have nothing to do with anything, but we make money from it, please, keep paying us so you can do our work"
JENNIFER GARNER Elektro Robotic acting really can kill!
Boilerplate is older than that.
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
But seriously, I heard they were originally going for the robots on a defense contract, but the contract was cancelled in 1950 when Dr. Eric Vornoff announced he was on the verge of perfecting his atomic supermen.
That fell through when Dr. Vornoff held a CBS televised joint press conference with the newly minted Department Of Defense (formerly the National Military Establishment). When asked by a reporter about the nature of his work, Dr. Vornoff said, "Hunted, despised, Living like an animal! The jungle is my home. But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
The DOD tried to reactivate the Elektro project, but all but one had been sold to the Japanese yakuza for use in roughing up indebted bakuto (gamblers).
Titled "The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair" produced by Westinghouse in 1939 as a promotion for their exhibit. I own a copy. It has a wonderful anticommunist sub-plot. Great fun.
Howard Roark, Architect
I believe in a Man's right to exist for his own sake.
To nit-pick on another point, this is almost certainly NOT the first US robot. Humanoid robots are called androids. Robots can be much simpler, and usually come first.
No text
On the other hand, I guess it wouldn't have a problem concealing a battery from the stewards.
Squirrel!
Once I wrote that subject line I just had to smile. Of course I was referring to ATM encryption codes that I believe were developed by online porn companies that wanted folks to feal secure in giving them their credit card numbers.. Is that a myth? But then again, do sex kittens ever go to college? Or just frat row?
It's really amazing how sometimes you can hear a new word, or a title of a book, song, or movie and then by innundated by references to it. In flipping through channels last night, I happened to see a reference to this movie on CMT. Being a compulsive channel-flipper, I watch maybe 5 minutes of CMT every six months, but I was immediately presented with a show "delving" into the myths and legends of country music (I know, insert joke here) and they explained how Conway Twitty actually appeared in "Sex Kittens Go to College."
This kind of thing seems to happen to me frequently, so I guess now I can expect to see a couple of references to Elektro in the next week.
Guess there's something to the whole idea of a cultural gestalt!
For those who are actually thinking of traveling to Mansfield ohio to see this robot, I'm sorry in advance.
I live here because my wifes family and my family are here...but i dont have to like it.
Thank God for slashdot, you warm and cuddly nerd site you!
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This is MY galaxy...go find your OWN!
I'm hear, I'm a hater of Primani Prickwad, now get with the removing of the Karma, Slashbot Janitors!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
that is all.
He's telling the truth! The Roland dude should be sued for copyright infringement.
In Mansfield, Ohio, only old robots go to college with sex kittens!
I think the name of the genre was "nudie cutie".
Not quite soft porn.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Electra isn't a robot either. It didn't act autonomously. Equating sex kittens with porn is about the same as calling Electra a robot.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Uber Geeks like Turning did all their computational theory using mechanical models of symbols, moving tapes etc. The move to electromechanical devices (relays) then to electronics (vacuum tubes) was just a progression of driven by the desire to realise faster computers. Relays could switch faster than mechanical latches and had the benefit of being easy to connect (wire instead of mechanical linkages). Vacuum tubes could switch many times faster than relays because they don't bounce and have mechanical inertia issues.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Klaatu was the spaceman played by the very human Michael Rennie.
Gort was the robot.
In any case Gort was much slimmer and sleeker than Elektro. He also had that mysterious visor instead of the silly anthropomorphic face.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"I support our killbots in Iraq."
Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System (SWORDS)
I'm thinking case mod. F*ck mini-itx, I'm going to put an IBM zSeries mainframe in that sucker and, yes it will run Linux.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Pick a peck of Piquepailles
Apparently some mods with no sense of humor went crazy on you...
:)
I would've modded it funny.
It would be really cool if this could even be true, but it can't. We didn't even have the tecnology to make robots walk by themselves until the mid nineties (Honda's ASIMO, mid nineties). And can you imagine using a record player to simulate a 'vocabulary' of 700 words? Best of all, they say the robot is now defunct due to wear and tear and general misuse. The truth is it never worked. There are several stories of 'The First Robot' on the web, and all of them have been either completely made up or greatly altered. I wonder if the writer of this story is even aware that the story is a spoof.
What about Tesla's radio controlled torpedo boat (patent 613,809) from the 1890s -- or does this "oldest" award apply to humanoid robots only? Tesla is also responsible for the first logical AND gate (patents 723,188 and 725,605 from 1903) to insure against enemy jamming.
If you happen to be around Ohio this coming fall...
I love Ohio but not a chance this year...I only show up there in fall to overvote for Bush.
I am the smoker robot. Smoking is the answer.
Slashdot is providing a summary and a link. The last thing I want to do is click over to another damn summary. I just want to read the original article! If I wanted to read uninformed clips and summaries of the original article, I would be reading the /.comments <sic>
Anyone care to explain why this isn't funny? I thought he was making a joke about the similarities/indistiguishability between flamebait and troll.
Sigs are for the weak.
I, Very old Robot
Not to mention the Internet is sort of a non-stop World's Fair... (uncensored, too, for the most part. ;)
-l
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Both parent and it's source link are incorrect.
I remember visiting Universal Studios to 'talk' to KITT. They would have us wait in line to go sit in the car. They must've had some guy in a booth somewhere, which probably isn't as cool as 700 pre-recorded neat-o responses.
It sure was fun when I asked KITT for his 'auto'graph, though. I told him to use his little analyzer printer. Heh, heh.
Noooo - by not flaming, and pointing out that it's a joke, you're undermining my case for "Flamebait"! ... ;) (in case you hadn't guessed by yourself :).
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make install -not war
Probably posting this too late for anyone to notice, but you can download a video which contains footage of Elektro from the Prelinger Archive:
l le ction=prelinger&collectionid=38847a
http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?co
Elektro shows up about 15 minutes into the film (in the Westinghouse exhibit); too bad it's silent, but still pretty cool.
second society
Several weeks ago, I enjoyed a QSO on 7238kc with the special event station celebrating the demo of Elektro.
TNX for the reminder! I need to send them a QSL card to get my autographed pix of Elektro.
WD4DUG
Most of this argument is based on the "fact" that all of his stories are accepted. How, exactly, would anyone know? Any user's rejected stories are not displayed to other users.
/.) is somehow reprehensible.
Try it out. Submit a story, get it rejected, then logout and check your own user page. You won't see anything.
What nonsense. I'm not even getting why the author seem to think valid, totally aboveboard means to bring traffic to your site (i.e., busting your ass to snag interesting stories first, for your blog &