1930s Westinghouse ROBOT Industrial Age World’s Fair Press Photo

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1930s Westinghouse ROBOT Industrial Age World’s Fair Press Photo:
$1000.00

Electrical engineers at Westinghouse (Pittsburgh campus) had invented a voice controlled circuit system that could open & close doors by voice. Looking to garner interest in their project, they created Herbert Televox to show off the technology. He fell flat - literally. He WAS flat & his vocabulary limited. No one cared.

Westinghouse handed the project off to the Mansfield Ohio campus who built Willie Vocalite here, seemingly from HVAC duct work. He was ‘more lifelike’, had a larger vocabulary and like the rest of America in the 1930s - smoked a cigarette.

Willie toured widely before being replaced by a very sophisticated Metropolis inspired number named Elektro by the end of the decade.

4 x 9” w/ uneven trim & NYC press markings. Such an aesthetically attractive & rich image that I’ve used archival gallery white rag mat to 11 x 14” w/ a poly bag.