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Elektro, the Oldest U.S. Robot

Posted by Zonk on from the i-bring-my-best-wishes-for-everybody dept.

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."

6 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. That's impressive by chris09876 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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)
    1. Re:That's impressive by GuyMannDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I suppose this is getting a bit nit-picky but your post about how people associate robots with computers instead of mechanics is a bit bizarre since the same thing could be said about computers themselves! Recall that Babbage and Huygens had working mechanical computers long before there was freely-available electricity. I could rewrite your above comment replacing "robots" with "computers" and it would be equally true of the first non-digitial computers:

      I'm really impressed that they had something like that over 60 years ago. ...that's before electricity! Computers now are inherently thought of as electronic I think... it's interesting to see that there really are mechanical versions of them. (I know there are still mechanical computers, but they're almost always controlled by electricity - this one clearly wasn't).

      GMD

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      watch this
  2. World War II by k96822 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:World War II by dustinbarbour · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hahah.. What a laughable comment..

      Seriously.. RADAR, nuclear power, jet aircraft, super glue, alarm clocks, spread spectrum communications.. the list is long and illustrious.

      War is one of the only thigns that gives private companies a reason to truly innovate. its sad that killing another man and defending ourselves is our biggest impetus to advance, but such is the case.

      --
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  3. also used in bad club music by Doktor+Memory · · Score: 3, Interesting

    (I'm pretty sure that it was this Elektro that Meat Beat Manifesto sampled on the "Original Fire" album.)

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    News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.

  4. Synchonicity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    It even appeared in a long-time forgotten movie, "Sex Kittens Go to College," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot."

    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!