The Westinghouse Electric Corporation built Elektro at its Mansfield, Ohio facility between 1937 and 1938. Standing 7-feet-tall and weighing 265 pounds, this humanoid robot could walk by voice command, speak around 700 words via a 78-rpm record player, blow up balloons, move his head / arms, and even smoke cigarettes. His body consisted of a steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin.
His photoelectric “eyes” could actually distinguish red and green light. After the 1939 New York World’s Fair, he made another appearance at the 1940 event with “Sparko”, a robot dog that could bark, sit, and beg to humans. Eventually, Elektro toured North America in 1950 in promotional appearances for Westinghouse, and was displayed at Pacific Ocean Park in Venice, California in the late 1950s into the early 1960s.
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