Early Musical Robots

One blog reader asked what the the story behind the picture with the walking, talking, and yodeling "radio man" for last week's post was. The article is from a 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics, and "Radio Man" was designed by Swiss engineer August Huber in the 1930's. Like all early robots, he looks way cooler than the modern ones. That's all I know. And instead of wasting my time researching more about Radio Man, here are a few more early robots, all stolen from the "Robot" section of the excellent Modern Mechanix blog. (Click on the images to get a larger version.)

 

Two more robots after the jump.

Comments

[Pol Dodu]

Hello,
If you're talking robot orchestra, I have to mention "Les Robots-Music", devised in the 1950's by engineer R. M. Diomgar and a group of ex-prisoners of war, they toured French fairs in support of their association from the 50's to the 80's, and thus have fascinated a whole generation of French.
On my site, their history and how they may or may not have influenced and been saved by Kraftwerk : http://vivonzeureux.fr/Pages/pidgrobotsmusickraftwerk.html
A collection of documents and testimonies, including a link to a recent performance in a Berlin museum : http://vivonzeureux.fr/Pages/robotsmusiclivredor.html