1930s Japanese robot
Yasutaro Mitsui with his steel humanoid, circa early 1930s. Dig those crazy vacuum tubes… Robot of the day – Link
Retro
Hamster wheel steam train
Crabu sent us a link to this mate of his, David Wegmuller’s, latest project, a steam train that carries its own hoop o’ rail. Silly… in the most wonderful sense of the word. Live steam hamster wheel gallery on David’s site – Link Related: LEGO self tracker – Link
Bed headboard holds many gadgets
Gadgetbed from Mechanix Illustrated 1938, I like the swing out door with rotary phone… – Link.
Early animatronics
Short, but really interesting article from Popular Science in 1933 discussing what have got to be some of the earliest examples of animatronics – mechanical dinosaurs from the Chicago World’s Fair. – [via] Link.
Meet Mr. Steampunk: Jake von Slatt
Our pal Jake hit Wired! – For Jake von Slatt, steampunk mechanical hacker, both the do-it-yourself and steampunk movements are driven by the same obsession: the idea that a single mad engineer working in his lab can help change the world by having mastery over his machines. Von Slatt’s lab in western Massachusetts is hardly […]
World’s oldest car for sale
The world’s oldest car is up for sale, low miles, only two owners… steam powered – A steam-powered car, billed as the oldest car in the world that still runs, will be sold in a Pebble Beach, Calif., auction in August. The car was built in France in 1884, about a year before Gottlieb Daimler […]
Junk yard yields parts for odd organ
Here’s a wonderful junkyard organ from Popular Science 1939 – Discarded bottles, an old vacuum-cleaner motor, sections of inner tubing, and other objects salvaged from the scrap heap comprise the parts of a unique junk-yard organ recently exhibited at Atlantic City, N.J. Individual notes are sounded by air from the cleaner motor blowing across small […]
