Tinius the Cybernetic Turtle c1950 – An engineering student takes a robot through its paces, 1950. [RH-2013- Although looking like a turtle (tortoise) which suggests being a Grey Walter-inspired machines, With it two "eyes" appearing as though it is fixed to the steering, suggests more that it is just phototropic i.e. it is attracted to and will follow a light source as per Norbert Wiener's Moth.]
In 1920, the 1st Rice Engineering Show draws 10,000 spectators from across the city of Houston (Texas) to Rice's campus. Student exhibits include a "bucking bronco," magnetic stunts, nitroglycerin explosions, X-ray demonstrations and a radio-controlled car. The shows continue to draw huge crowds every other year through 1940. An Exposition of Science and Art held in 1950, 1954 and 1956 expands the audience but is phased out after 1956.
Five-ton robot on wheels sticks out it arm to turn a "hot" valve in Hanford plutonium plant.
One-Armed Robot Tackles Hot Jobs
A ONE-ARMED robot is turning the valves in the giant plant at Hanford, Wash., that makes A-bomb plutonium out of uranium. The new robot looks like a railroad handcar with a small Navy gun on top. It has no fancy name, just the unimaginative title "tool dolly." But it can do practically anything the human arm can do, and it can go where human arms can't go—into areas swarming with invisible, deadly radiation.
Operated either remotely or from the dolly itself, the robot can move around on its track; raise, lower, or extend its arm (the "gun"); and grab, twist, or bend with its claw hand. The dolly easily takes apart machinery—and puts it back together again —opens and closes doors, and works with all kinds of tools. Engineers of the General Electric Co., which runs Hanford for the Atomic Energy Commission, developed it.
A gyroscopic toy, that imparts a walking motion via a reciprocating crank, driven via a worm off the flywheel shaft. The bottom part is interchangeable so that the pedaling unicycle can be replaced by walking stilts, or a leg arrangement for tight-rope walking.
Patent number: 2588040 – see full patent details here. Filing date: Apr 11, 1950 Issue date: Mar 4, 1952
To date, I've seen no evidence that this toy was actually made.
It would be great to see a Meccano model of this gyroscopic unicyclist!
Truck Walks on Wheels
ADMIRAL Richard E. Byrd's transport troubles in the Antarctic ten years ago started John F. Kopczynski, a student engineer, thinking: "Why can't wheels walk?"
Conventional wheels merely spun and bogged down helplessly in the deep snow. Walking wheels could pull like the tracks on a tractor without the great weight, awkwardness or slowness of such gear. The fact that nobody had ever come up with a basic improvement on the wheel since the invention first rolled out of the Stone Age, did not keep young Kopczynski from plugging away at his idea for a walking wheel.
After ten years of experiments, Kopczynski now bead of the Pivot Punch and Die Corporation at North Tonawanda. N. Y., this spring rigged up a working model and finally showed that wheels can walk.
MI's artist Frank Tinsley has carried Kopczynski's walking [Continued on page 143]
[Continued from page 57]
idea a step farther by picturing on page 57 a design for a truck that walks on wheels.
That ambulating vehicle is the answer to the Antarctic problem that stalled Admiral Byrd in the cold. Note how easily the truck mushes along through the deepest snow—no clogging tracks, no frantic spinning.
Smooth riding on those big, egg-shaped rear wheels looks as tough as roller-skating on a railroad bed. The egg wheels on each side of the track, though, are mounted on the ends of a rocker arm and chain-geared together so that when one wheel flips up on its pointed end, the other flops flat on its side. The pair of wheels on the opposite rocker arm are set up in reverse on a standard truck axle that served as the pivot for both rockers.
As the wheels flip-flop up and down, the rocker arms seesaw sharply but the trucks supporting axle moves forward on an even keel. Actually this truck rides twice as moothly as a round-wheeled vehicle. For when a walking wheel steps up on a foot-high bump, the axle rises only six inches, since its halfway between the ends of each rocker.
Unlike round wheels, the egg-shaped rollers don't spin themselves into a rut. The pointed ends dig into soft terrain and help provide double the pulling power of conventional wheels. In a recent test, Kopczynski buried his "walk wheels" out of sight in a pile of dirt When he switched on the power for the model's electric motor, the wheels started "walking" and quickly pulled away into the open.
The new wheels equal the track-laying gear-of tanks and tractors in pulling and supporting heavy weight on soft surfaces. However, they are much lighter, faster, easier to handle and cheaper to manufacture and service that the crawlers. Then, too, a track layer rips up good roads with its cleats as it plods awkwardly over the hard pavement. When Kopczynski tried out his one-fourth-scale model in a small vehicle with round front wheel the soft-tired walker ran as smoothly at 2 mph as a new Rolls-Royce.
Kopczynski's odd wheel is a natural for tractors, farm and road equipment, and heavy duty trucks that must leave the paved road With walk wheels, combat cars, gun carrier and other military vehicles can speed swiftly over open roads, then march across country through mud, snow or rough terrain with no worries about getting stuck in No Man's Land For thousands of years we've been rolling along on the same old round wheel. Young John Kopczynski, though, finally made that wheel take a walk—and proved he was just the man to put the old rounder in better shape.
M7-Alice-Chalmers with Elliptical Wheels. Source: See here.
Fred W. Crismon’s “U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles,” as I have so many times before, and Crismon came through again:
This peculiar machine, seen here from the right rear, incorporated one of the strangest concepts ever tried on a wheeled vehicle. The idea was that if the ground pressure could be changed regularly as the wheel turns, and would do so in relation to the other wheels on the same and opposite side, increased traction would result. Four tires and wheels were specially built which were ellipsoidal in circumference, and they were mounted offset at 90 degrees on each side, as well as being offset right side to left side. A front axle with normal tires was used for steering.
This top view of the ellipsoidal-wheeled experimental vehicle shows the unusual configuration. Suspension was of a fabricated walking beam type, and chains drove the four rear wheels. The outer diameter of the inflated tire was approximately three inches greater across the widest section than across the narrowest. A T26E4 tracked snow tractor (Allis-Chalmer) was modified in 1946 to test the concept. It was a dismal failure in that it not only failed to provide better mobility, but operation over any but the softest soils pitched the operator around unmercifully. But the Army will try anything once.
Patent number: 2711221 Filing date: Jul 5, 1950 Issue date: Jun 21, 1955
See full patent details here.
See all Walking Wheels and Walking Machines listed here.
Nellie at Sandy Bay Museum. Photo courtesy Larry Gavette.
Nellie's control panel. Photo courtesy Larry Gavette.
Caption: Perhaps the earliest model built still in existance, this elephant was in the Sandy Bay Country Museum in Exmouth when this video was taken in 1980 or so. This model is the one sold at auction and ended up in Florida, United States in 2010. – video courtesy Larry Gavette.
MY FATHER bought Nellie, our mechanical elephant, in the Seventies through the World's Fair paper. We had dreadful problems insuring it for transport to Devon. It weighted an incredible amount and we had to hire a large trailer and police escorts etc.
We eventually got Nellie to Sandy Bay Holiday Park [Sandy Bay in Devon (now Devon Cliffs holiday Park)]. There she was filmed for local TV and we planned to use her for children's rides, but her brakes were all independent and didn't work well on our sloping site.
My father died 16 years ago and the last I heard is that Nellie was at Cranford Tavern, Exmouth.
Noelle Price, Exeter. (from here-link seems to be dead)
Caption: A silent clip showing Nellie when she was owned by the Cranford Tavern in Exmouth in the 1970's. She eventually ended up at Sandy Bay Holiday Park after her walking days were done. She evenutally was sold in auction, and it is believed she was brought to the United States where, after three owners she has found a safe home in Florida. – Video courtesy Larry Gavette.
Elephant from Christies auction in 1995. Blurb from the Auction Site:
c1949 MECHANICAL ELEPHANT "NELLIE"
Price Realized (Set Currency) £8,050 ($12,463)
Price includes buyer's premium
Estimate£3,000 – £6,000 ($4,645 – $9,289)
Sale 5454, 9 September 1995
London, King Street
Lot Description
c1949 MECHANICAL ELEPHANT "NELLIE"
Registration No. 4554F (not currently registered and thought not road legal)
Chassis No. Unknown
Engine No. 60158
Grey in parts. Driven from behind the ears!
"This remarkable machine was the brainchild of the engineer Frank Stuart of Thaxted in Essex who was quite an expert in a number of theatrical requirements. Thought to have been built in around 1949 Mr Stuart, who specialised in hydraulic developments, decided to demostrate the use of hydraulics in traction movement by building the elephants. It is thought that three were built, Nellie, Potsy and Jumbo. The power unit is a 10hp Ford side valve unit driving its own gearbox and back axle assembly. Essentially the legs are driven to pivot in a small arc which simulates the four legged walk of a real elephant. At the base of each leg there is wheel with a thick solid rubber tyre and motion is created by an ingenious system of hydraulics which brakes the wheel, enabling Nellie to walk forwards. Included in the sale are some quite comprehensive instructions of operation and a useful working drawing of Potsy by Frank Stuart, amongst other interesting articles of history and information. .
The early history of Nellie is unknown although by the late 1950s she was in Essex before becoming owned by The London Tyre company who were taken over by Goodyear. They fully recommisioned the elephant and used it for some demonstrations before selling her to the Ilfracombe Council for part of their holiday amusements. From there she went to the Sandy Bay Holiday Camp in Exmouth. Nellie was last used, we believe, in 1984 when demonstrated on the BBC Pebble Mill At One programme. Sadly, she has been somewhat neglected since then and will require careful restoration and a new skin before returning to the urban jungle! "
It appears that Hew Kennedy and James Hepworth, a farmer and antique dealer respectfully, out of Shropshire may have been the purchasers, for it is mentioned that they took 4 years to restore it before it was offered by Hawkins in the 1998 Olympia Antique Auction. I'm not sure when or why the howdah was removed and discarded.
Jeremy Clarkson rides this elephant in one of his TV programs – Jeremy Clarkson's Extreme Machines Episode 6 -Weird And Wonderful, Aired on 12 February 1998. The date fits in with the Olympia auction below.
Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair – Hawkins & Hawkins – 1998
The same but restored elephant from the Christies auction in 1995.
Optical illusion makes it look as if 'rug' has No. 8 on it!
"THIS giant elephant was on the loose of the capital's streets yesterday. The beast drew gasps from pedestrians as it strode down the road. But the lifelike one-and-a-half ton jumbo was no dangerous Indian or African elephant – more of a pounds 100,000 white elephant. The 8ft-high children's ride was being put through its paces by antiques dealer Emma Hawkins, 25. It wasn't exactly a white-knuckle ride as the hide-covered, steel-framed monster can only reach a stately 12mph. And it had to be helped over a speed bump by a forklift truck. The four-gear machine is driven by a 10bhp Ford engine and is the star attraction star attraction of a Fine Art and Antiques Fair starting at London's Olympia on Thursday. It took restorer Hew Kennedy four years to rebuild the motor and Heath Robinson system of pulleys and levers that control the legs. Emma, 25, said riding the elephant, which has flappable ears and resin tusks, was "far more comfortable than a real one". Her father John Hawkins is offering it for sale at a jumbo price of pounds 100,000. He said: "It's unique. But only someone who is rather eccentric would want it."
Antique dealer Emma Hawkins sits atop a full-sized mechanical elephant outside the Olympia exhibition centre in London, Wednesday June 3, 1998. The elephant has a top speed of 6 miles per hour and is being offered for sale at the Fine Art and Antiques Fair at the centre for £100,000 ($US 160,000). (AP Photo/Louisa Buller)
The elephant below found it way to the U.S. from England some time after 1998 when it was sold at the Olympia Antiques Auction by Emma Hawkins, and purchased by Wil Markey.
Here it is being sold at Red Baron's auction house in Atlanta, 2007 (above). The "seri" (head dress) is one typically used in Barnum's Circus.
Blurb associated with image:
Mechanical elephant latest addition to Bob Perani's unusual collection
Published: Saturday, July 07, 2007, 8:00 PM Updated: Saturday, July 07, 2007, 8:07 PM
By Brooke Rausch | Flint Journal
FLINT — Noggin del Fuego II — a car transformed into a giant flaming orange head — is on display at the Dort Mall, and has been joined by a 60-year-old mechanical elephant and a "one-horse" 1936 Rolls-Royce. Why? "It's just different," said Bob Perani, owner of Perani's Hockey World and the Dort Mall. "I like unusual stuff in here." A quick walk through the mall confirms that.
The mechanical elephant is so tall that a set of doors at the mall had to be modified [or was the elephant’s head lowered?-RH Feb 2011].
The elephant was built 60 years ago by an English inventor named Frank Stuart. He built other versions, and at least one was used at English resort towns where visitors could ride the machine. Perani's elephant has a four-cylinder engine and hydraulic "four-foot" drive system, with a wheel concealed in each foot. Steve Brown, a retail manager for Perani's Hockey World, rode the elephant when he and five others moved it into the mall late in June. The elephant was not running when it was brought to the mall. "We plan to get the elephant running," Perani said. "They had it running down there" (at the Atlanta auction where he bought it). Perani is part of a group that has bought the Flint Generals hockey team, and said he might use one or more of the vehicles to promote the team. Perani's daughter Lahna Ward ……. then said, "That's the first time I've been on ……. an elephant."
In both images (above and below) the howdah is not present.
Perani was the eventual owner for a short period of time. The head looks lowered, maybe to get it through the garage doors.
The Parradine Connection.
For researchers following this elephant, there is a website here that shows a black and white picture of this elephant. John Parradine Jr. made some exquisite British sports cars, and used a Jumbo elephant as his logo. John Jr tells the story (I actually called him on the telephone) of when his father, John Parradine Sr., was cleaning out a garage at his haulage business, he found a set of air-horns. John Sr tells his son the story of a mechanical elephant, supposedly built by John Sr, at the request of an Austrian ex P.O.W. who wanted it to make a living giving kiddies a ride. The air-horns were a failure at making the elephant sound realistic. End of story. Further research lead to finding out that the image on the website is a black and white copy from the Hawkin's auction (see above). John Jr, after seeing the elephant at auction, believed it to the the one from his father's story, without realising that possibly up to 25 mechanical elephants were built by Frank Stuart. We also find out that Parradine Sr, had one elephant in storage, and scrapped it on default of payment. This is the more likely story, unfortunately for John Parradine Jr.
See other early Mechanical Elephants, Horses, and other Walking Animals here.
