Built in 1937, 
Elektro the Robot truly was one of a kind.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Westinghouse Electrical Laboratories was in direct competition for a good deal of their business with a very strong adversary indeed— namely, General Electric.
General Electric, a direct descendent of Thomas Edison’s ‘Edison General Electric Company’ had been a leader in electric and electronic research throughout the early part of the century, and Westinghouse was looking for a public project that could out do anything GE had come up with.
Specifically, Westinghouse wanted a robot, and they started serious research on it as far back as 1924.
Their first metal robot was called “Herbert Televox”, developed by Roy Wensley at Westinghouse’s East Pittsburgh plant…
It was primitive, but it could rise from a seated position, respond to commands given in the form of whistles, and switch appliances on and off.
‘Herbert’ went through several…
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They built in a bellows, so that the robot could smoke cigarettes! Wonderful. That really says so much about the era it was from.
Best wishes, Pete.
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