Robot Articles

Flying Cars and Food Pills

Robot Articles

Robots in American Popular Culture grew out of my Flying Cars and Food Pills website. It examines the capital "F" Future from the dawn of the industrial revolution through the glory days of Golden Age science fiction and down to that Future's highest peak (and lowest valley) The Jetsons. Robots were one aspect of that Future. Collected here are links to the Robots section of Flying Cars and Food Pills, with early robot stories you can find nowhere else and articles on some fascinating aspects of the history of robots. They closely complement my book and sometimes have the space to go deeper into that subject. Articles are listed in roughly chronological order.

Mosco's Automaton, Chambers's Journal,18

1. MOSCO'S AUTOMATON

From 1869, a never-reprinted story about an automaton a half-century ahead of its time., with an introduction.

2. THE CLERICOMOTOR

The first story to combine an automaton with the phonograph to make a talking robot.

The Black Cat magazine December 1899 cov

3. ELY'S AUTOMATIC HOUSEMAID

An 1899 story by Elizabeth Bellamy about men and women and the "Automatic Household Beneficent Genius," with an Introduction.

The Black Cat magazine October 1900 cove

4. MR. CORNDROPPER'S HIRED MAN

Take Bellamy's plot, switch the sexes, and presto - instant story. W. M. Stannard's swipe, with an Introduction.

5. THE AUTOMATIC MINSTRELS

The first robot stage act. And all the ones before it.

6. PERCY: COMICS' FIRST ROBOT

A robot is the perfect helper, unless he never stops. Meet Percy the mechanical marvel of 1911.

7. THE WALKING MECHANICAL MEN

For 50 years inventors pursued the dream of walking robots, many of them in the spirit of Percy, the Mechanical Man.

8. HOUDINI AND FILM'S FIRST ROBOT

Houdini launched his bid for movie stardom in 1919 by battling The Automaton!

9. THE TRIADIC BALLET

Bauhaus modernism created a dance of humans stripped to pure form and movement; cyborgs in motion.

10. THE LOOK OF THE FUTURE - ROBOTS

Does Bender from Futurama look like an old robot or do all old robots look like Bender?

12. EDISON BELL, YOUNG INVENTOR

Pre-teen Eddie invents atomic power, rocket cars, and his robot pal Frankie Stein.

Mickey Mouse in the World of Tomorrow.JP

12. MICKEY MOUSE'S WORLD OF TOMORROW

The world's most famous mouse fights robots in a imagined future.

13. ROBOTS ON STAMPS

A collection of robot stamps from around the world.