Elektro The Smoking Robot - Odd history

Elektro is the name given to a 7 foot tall humanoid robot built by the Westinghouse Corporation in Mansfield, OH in 1937. It made it's debut at the 1939 New York World's Fair where it dazzled audiences with feats that had never before been seen from a robot. It could walk by voice command, speak 700 words, and count on its fingers. It's most impressive feature was it's ability to smoke a cigarette and blow up a balloon using its mouth. Elektro was made of aluminum on a steel frame and weighed 250 lbs.. It was fitted with bellows behind its mouth to allow it to smoke and a photo electric tube in it's head to distinguish between red and green lights. In all, it could perform 26 movements. The movements were initiated by voice command. The operator would speak a series of words into a microphone that when properly spaced would give Elektro precise electrical impulses to tell it what to do. The words spoken didn't matter, as the robot took it's cue by the number of impulses it received and not by recognizing what was said. After the World Fair in 1939, Elektro re-emerged the next year. But this time, he was joined by his robot dog Sparko. While the dog only had two motors that paled in comparison to Elektro's eleven motors, it was still capable of barking, begging and wagging it's tail. Elektro proceeded to tour the country for some time and became an attraction at a Southern California amusement park. In 1960, Elektro went Hollywood with a role in the film Sex Kittens Go to College, where he played the role of Sam Thinko, a robot who falls in love with Mamie Van Doren's character and even shares a scene with several burlesque dancers. After the film, Elektro faded into obscurity and was dismantled. For a long time, the body of the robot was believed to have been lost but it was recovered in 2012 and restored. Elektro and Sparko now rest in the Mansfield Memorial Museum in Ohio. If you liked this video, please subscribe to Crypticc for more.