Saturday, April 08, 2006

The smoking robot


I just visited the Mansfield Museum with the robot display. It is a small three room museum with mostly local history stuff. The robot display, though, was quite extensive. The curator was there giving tours and explaining early robot technology. He was pleasantly enthusiastic, verging on odd. I suppose that is pretty much standard for pre-depression robot afficionadoes. Elektro was actually the third robot Westinghouse developed. The first was basically an electric box that turned on and off Westinghouse appliances by phone. Nice marketing tool, huh? The second robot had an odd little french moustache. I really couldn't see past that so I don't know what he did. Anyway, Elektro was third. He was built in '37.
A correction from my previous post. He could stand and sit and move and carry on wittily with his technician before an audience. Most surprisingly, he smoked. I guess that is essential for a movie star. He was in Sex Kittens go to College(1960).
By the way, Westinghouse was in Mansfield, OH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektro

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