• Your shopping cart is empty!

Smoking Robot Industrial Age World’s Fair Press Photo

Smoking Robot Industrial Age World’s Fair Press Photo

$1,200.00

Though the sculpture looks like something Duchamp may have built, it’s actually showcasing some ground breaking science.    One of the earliest robotic prototypes was developed as an advertising stunt by Electrical Engineers at Westinghouse’s Pittsburgh campus.    They had invented a voice controlled circuit system that could open and close doors by telephone line - and incredibly no one...

  • Availability: In Stock

Though the sculpture looks like something Duchamp may have built, it’s actually showcasing some ground breaking science. 

 

One of the earliest robotic prototypes was developed as an advertising stunt by Electrical Engineers at Westinghouse’s Pittsburgh campus. 

 

They had invented a voice controlled circuit system that could open and close doors by telephone line - and incredibly no one cared. Looking for a way to engage the public and during the hey day of World’s Fairs, Westinghouse created a robot. 

 

Their first effort, Herbert Televox, fell flat - literally. He was flat and his vocab limited. Pittsburgh’s robot had failed to captivate anyone. The project was handed off to the Mansfield Ohio Westinghouse plant (built to meet WWI demands) known as the ‘parts shed’ internally. 

 

Mansfield devised Willie Vocalite here, seeming from left over HVAC duct work. He appeared more ‘life like’, had a larger vocabulary and most importantly in the early 1930s - smoked a cigarette! 

 

Willie toured to great acclaim through the early 1930s, replaced only by a much more sophisticated Metropolis inspired robot named Elektro by the end of the decade. His feet were vacuum cleaners. 

 

Original photograph measures approximately 4 x 9” w/ NYC press markings and uneven trim. Archival mat and sleeved to 11 x 14”.