Review: Robots of Westinghouse

Robots of Westinghouse (2006) by Scott Schaut is unusual in that it isn't so much a history of a particular technology as it is a biography of a robot family. In 1924, the Westinghouse corporation was trying to find a way to market its new Televox system. This was an early remote telemetry and control system by which users could control machines at a distance using sounds over a telephone line. Intended to monitor and operate such things as valves, dynamos, pumps and other industrial equipment, it was hardly the sort of thing that was going to capture the public's imagination. Then someone hit on the idea of taking a Televox unit, sticking it inside a cutout robot, hooking it up to a load of appliances, and then sending Televox's inventor Mr R J Wensley around the country to give demonstrations of this wondrous mechanical man.

For the next 15 years Westinghouse produced a series of increasingly sophisticated robots under various names; culminating in Elektro, the Westinghouse Motoman. Elektro was one of the main attractions at the Westinghouse Pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. A far cry from the early cutout Televox, Elektro was a huge art deco robot capable of walking, talking (with the aid of 78 RPM phonograph records), counting on his fingers, recognising colours, and even smoking cigarettes. He was a sensation and the world's first robot celebrity. If you asked a member of the public of that time what a robot looked like, the description would be very close to Elektro.

Drawing a wealth of images and documents, Schaut provides that most detailed history to date of Elektro and his kin. He not only provides an exhaustive description of the Westinghouse robots and the technology behind them, but also their careers and the public's reaction to them. There's even a bit of pathos in the story as Schaut relates Elektro's later career after the close of the World's Fair in 1940. The mechanical star was sent on the road to tour shops and department stores across the country promoting Westinghouse goods. The years took their toll and like an aging film star Elektro played cheaper and cheaper venues including an exhibit at an amusement park. By the 1960s, he was reduced to a bit part in a low-budget sex comedy followed by storage and a narrow escape from the scrap yard.

However, there is a happy ending to the story. in 2004, Elektro was restored and placed on exhibit at the Mansfield Memorial Museum in Mansfield Ohio; site of the Westinghouse plant where Elektro was manufactured. Mr Schaut, curator of the museum, does a credible job of telling the tale of the robots and their place in popular culture. He makes full use of the materials available to him including many images that have not been seen by the public for decades. Some readers may find the technical descriptions a bit dull to slog through, but anyone of a mechanical or just plain geeky disposition will enjoy rummaging through this historical loft.