OCR Text |
Show ELEKTRO, THE MECHANICAL MAN, RESURRECTED ELEKTRO, the mechanical man who first thrilled visitors to the New York World's Fair 10 years ago, shook his aluminum head In amazement amaze-ment today at his re-found ability to smoke cigarettes, count up to 10 on his fingers and even recite a speech. These "human" accomplishments, demonstrated after two-weeks special spe-cial schooling and tooling by West-inghouse West-inghouse Electric corporation engineers, engi-neers, won the seven-foot tall mechanical me-chanical giant and his foot-high robot dog, Sparko, their first Job in eight years. The 260-pound automaton along with Sparko who begs, barks and wags his tail have gone on the stage. They began their new acting careers by putting on several performances per-formances a day at the Westing-house Westing-house exhibit in the Joseph Home company's Pittsburgh Exposition, of Industrial Leadership, which opened recently. Now 11 Years Old Brought back to "life" after a war-time retirement of eight years, Elektro, the one-time child actor, now is 11 years old. While he Is not quite as smart as the average 11-year-old, he has a vocabulary of 77 words, never gets tired or hungry, and speaks only when spoken to. Large for his age, he stands seven feet tall In his aluminum feet and has an 82-inch chest expansion. His chest always Is expanded because, like the rest of his body, it Is made of aluminum alumi-num over a steel frame. This mighty automaton will never need a psychiatrist because his team consists of 82 electrical relays. These relays operate his nervous system of motors, levers, gears and chains to make him walk, talk, count numbers, num-bers, smoke, distinguish colors and salute. Has 26 Tricks Elektro can perform 26 motions in all, but he is a dullard by comparison com-parison with any man. There are 292 muscles In the human body capable of producing thousands of different movements beyond the 500 most rudimentary motions. On the basis of Elektro's 260 pounds and 26 motions, an automaton would have to weigh 5,000 pounds to per- Havlng received a post-graduate course In how to act human, Elektro, the Westinghouse mechanical man, receives his diploma from pretty Jeanne Adamitz. Even Sparko, the mechanical dog, seems to be graduating. form the most elementary human movements. His 60-pound brain includes an "electric eye," 82 electric relays, re-lays, and signal lights. In order to direct the 500 elementary human motions, his brain would have to contain 1,026 relays, weigh 1,000 pounds and occupy 108 cubic feet of space. All of which indicates that the robot never will completely replace the man. Guided By Light Impulses Talking to Elektro Is like dialing an automatic telephone, using light Impulses instead of numbers to cause the relays to act. A series of words properly ' spaced select the movement Elektro is to make. Two-word Two-word commands start the action. One-word commands stop it. Four words return all relays to their normal positions. It makes no difference differ-ence what the words are as long as , the proper number of electrical impulses im-pulses are produced. Two "electric eyes" one with a green filter and one with a red filter enable Elektro to identify red or green lights when they are flashed before his eyes. His walking is accomplished by a motor which drives the four rubber rollers under each foot. Nine motors are required to operate oper-ate the fingers, arms, head and turntables for his talking. Another small motor works the bellows for Elektro's smoking. Like some radio programs, Elektro's talking is produced pro-duced by means of transcriptions. |