Eric (robot)

Last updated
Eric rebuilt in 2017 Eric the Robot (32822317725).jpg
Eric rebuilt in 2017

Eric was the first British robot, built in 1928 by First World War veteran Captain William Richards, and aircraft engineer Alan Reffell. He was constructed to open the Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers at London's Royal Horticultural Hall in 1928, after George VI (then the Duke of York) cancelled and an exasperated Richards, the exhibition's secretary, offered to "make a man of tin" to take the Duke's place. [1] At the event's opening, Eric rose to his feet, bowed and gave a four-minute opening address. [2]

The robot was operated by two people, [3] and Eric's voice was received live by a radio signal, [1] Richards claiming to be working under a license of the Marconi Company. [3] Although able to sit and stand, Eric could not move his legs to walk. [4] His chest bore the letters "R.U.R.", a reference to the robot manufacturer in Karel Čapek's 1920 play of the same name. [5]

Following his first appearance, Eric was taken on a US tour, introducing himself to an audience in New York in 1929 [6] as "Eric the robot, the man without a soul". [7] The New York Press described him as "the perfect man". [8] Some time after this, Eric disappeared. [2] Having researched Eric's story, Science Museum curator Ben Russell concluded that "no-one quite knows what happened to him, whether he was blown-up or taken to pieces for spare parts". [2]

In 2016, the London Science Museum raised funds through a Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Eric, working from archive material including Illustrated London News photographs. Eric was added to the museum's permanent collection, and appeared as part of a 2017 robots exhibition. [2]

George

George, a later model of Eric, taking breakfast with his inventor William Richards in Berlin, 1930 Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09312, Berlin, Roboter mit seinem Erfinder.jpg
George, a later model of Eric, taking breakfast with his inventor William Richards in Berlin, 1930

In the 1930s, William Richards built a similar robot called "George", which toured the world including Germany and Australia. George could deliver speeches in French, German, Hindustani, Chinese and Danish. He cost almost £2,000 to build, compared to Eric's £140, and The Age newspaper described him as "the educated gentleman, alongside his rough-hewn awkward brother". [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robot</span> Machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically

A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George VI</span> King of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Gill</span> English sculptor, typeface designer, and printmaker (1882–1940)

Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsman of the twentieth century: a letter-cutter and type designer of genius", he is also a figure of considerable controversy following the revelations of his sexual abuse of two of his daughters and of his pet dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Society of Arts</span> British organisation

The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a London-based organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Lutyens</span> English architect (1869–1944)

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings. In his biography, the writer Christopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior". The architectural historian Gavin Stamp described him as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Exhibition</span> 1st Worlds Fair in 1851 in London, England

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851. It was the first in a series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century. The event was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince George, Duke of Kent</span> British prince (1902–1942)

Prince George, Duke of Kent was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was a younger brother of kings Edward VIII and George VI. Prince George served in the Royal Navy in the 1920s and then briefly as a civil servant. He became Duke of Kent in 1934. In the late 1930s he served as an RAF officer, initially as a staff officer at RAF Training Command and then, from July 1941, as a staff officer in the Welfare Section of the RAF Inspector General's Staff. He was killed in the Dunbeath air crash on 25 August 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockwell Kent</span> American artist (1882-1971)

Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Johnston</span> British craftsman, calligrapher and typographer

Edward Johnston, CBE was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leon Underwood</span> British artist

George Claude Leon Underwood was a British artist, although primarily known as a sculptor, printmaker and painter, he was also an influential teacher and promotor of African art. His travels in Mexico and West Africa had a substantial influence on his art, particularly on the representation of the human figure in his sculptures and paintings. Underwood is best known for his sculptures cast in bronze, carvings in marble, stone and wood and his drawings. His lifetime's work includes a wide range of media and activities, with an expressive and technical mastery. Underwood did not hold modernism and abstraction in art in high regard and this led to critics often ignoring his work until the 1960s when he came to be viewed as an important figure in the development of modern sculpture in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. R. W. Nevinson</span> English painter (1889–1946)

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W. Nevinson, and was also known as Richard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Ravilious</span> English painter

Eric William Ravilious was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs, Castle Hedingham and other English landscapes, which examine English landscape and vernacular art with an off-kilter, modernist sensibility and clarity. He served as a war artist, and was the first British war artist to die on active service in World War II when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of Illustrators</span> American professional society

The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Jagger</span> English painter

David Jagger (1891–1958) was an acclaimed and prolific English portrait painter. He was renowned for his commissioned portraits of London's high society and British aristocracy. Notable portraits include those of Robert Baden-Powell (1929), Queen Mary, King George VI (1937), Winston Churchill (1939), Vivien Leigh (1941) and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1958).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sims (painter)</span> English painter (1873–1928)

Charles Henry Sims was a British figurative painter known for his portraits and landscapes. He initially became renowned as a leading Edwardian painter, but following the death of his son in World War I, his work became increasingly idiosyncratic, surreal and controversial. In 1920, he was appointed Keeper, or head, of the Royal Academy Schools, a post he was eventually forced to resign in 1926. At the same time, he became estranged from his wife and children. Sims' final paintings, the Spiritual Ideas, were to some viewers his "most beautiful works," but to others highly disturbing. He died by suicide in 1928.

<i>Abraham Lincoln: The Man</i> Statue of Abraham Lincoln standing by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Abraham Lincoln: The Man is a larger-than-life size 12-foot (3.7 m) bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. The original statue is in Lincoln Park in Chicago, and later re-castings of the statue have been given as diplomatic gifts from the United States to the United Kingdom, and to Mexico.

Francis Whishaw was an English civil engineer. He was known for his role in the Society of Arts, and as a writer on railways. Later in life he was a promoter of telegraph companies.

George Mather Richards (1880-1958) was an illustrator and painter in the 1900s. Throughout his career, he illustrated many textbooks and children's books. Richards is the illustrator of the widely produced 1918 World War I poster titled, "Oh, Boy! That's the Girl!"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Clifford Dixon</span> 20th century English printmaker and art teacher

Frederick Clifford Dixon was notable for his etchings depicting urban life in London in an intricate, realistic and witty manner. His artistic career was cut short with the decline in the print market after the boom years of the 1920s. He then embarked on a career as an art teacher in order to make a living.

Heather "Herry" Perry was a graphic artist, illustrator, and printmaker best known for her prolific design work for Transport for London and London Underground throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

References

  1. 1 2 Riskin, Jessica (10 March 2016). The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument Over What Makes Living Things Tick. University of Chicago Press. p. 301. ISBN   9780226302928.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Knapton, Sarah (10 May 2016). "Britain's first robot 'Eric' to rise again after lost plans found". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 "English Robot Adds Lecture To Repertoire". Chronicle Telegram. 26 Nov 1928.
  4. "An Aluminium "Man" That Rises, Bows, And Makes A "Speech": A Knight-Like Robot". Illustrated London News. 1928.
  5. Wright, Will; Kaplan, Steven (1994). The Image of Technology in Literature, the Media, and Society: Selected Papers from the 1994 Conference [of The] Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. The Society. p. 3.
  6. Schaut, Scott (2006). Robots of Westinghouse, 1924-today. Scott Schautt, Mansfield Memorial Museum. p. 61. ISBN   9780978584412.
  7. ""Robot" Is A Mystery". Evening Tribune. 29 Jan 1929.
  8. Jozuka, Emiko (May 19, 2016). "The Sad Story of Eric, the UK's First Robot Who Was Loved Then Forsaken". Motherboard. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  9. "Meet Mr. Robot - Not Forgetting His Master". The Age. 20 September 1935. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.