Large Robot Diving Bell to Explore for Lost Treasure (Oct, 1930)
Large Robot Diving Bell to Explore for Lost Treasure
AFTER fifteen years of patience and industry, Harry L. Bowdoin, marine engineer and inventor of Saybrook, Connecticut, has finally perfected diving equipment which will permit him to descend to depths of over 600 feet in search of lost treasure and new scientific data.
Part of his equipment is the observation tank shown on the left. The tank is an elaborated diving bell powered with its own propellers and is equipped with searchlights to light the depths. Quartz windows on all sides permit observation.The diving bell will be used by Bowdoin in connection with his diving suit. The diver, descending in the suit, will attempt to locate the sunken treasure from outside the bell. The necessary dredging, dynamiting, and other heavy work, may then be performed by the three men inside the tank. Owing to the enormously strong construction of the bell, the men will be able to work under ordinary atmospheric pressure.
Robot. They keep using that word; I do not think it means what they think it means.
Don: I noticed that too. Remember the word first came into usage in 1923 so I think folks were still trying to wrap their arms around what the word meant. I did a cursory search of the MM blog and found a bunch of references from the 1930′s and one from 1950 before I stopped looking. You’ll see that they are all mechanical devices that assist with work or perform some automatic function.
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They did use the word “robot” for just about everything, the same way “computer” was/is over used now. Look at some of the articles from the 60s/70s on here and you will see they used computer in ways we don’t use it now.
Maybe it would be more accurate to subsitute the term “waldo” for robot in most of those case?
Jeff: No, waldo has a specific definition of manipulator. You could say that the “robot” suit is equipped with a waldo or two based on the picture.
I looked up his patents and Harry was definitely an inventor. When he wasn’t developing Submarine Armor in 1914 he was working on machines to manufacture ice cream cones.