Uncovering the History of Robots - Boilerplate Robot & Beyond

[benzun_1999]

hi, i am doing a small presentation on the history of robots and found loads of fake robots. The best is boilerplate robot..which dates back to Victorian age even before differential engine was invented. So i will be happy is some one helps to identify the hoax.
http://bigredhair.com/boilerplate/"
http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~jaeger/visualMedia/robotHistory.html"
-benzun

 

[edward]

The website, http://bigredhair.com/boilerplate/
is a hoax.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites.html

Here is an article bout Commedian Chris Elliot getting caught up in it by using a reference to Boilerplate in a book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/books/01elli.html

To his satirical 19th-century mix of gas-powered wooden cellphones and imagined New York landmarks like the original Ray's Pizzeria, Mr. Elliott adds a minor but intriguing character named Boilerplate, a robot said to be developed by the inventor Archibald Campion in the late 1800's. According to a deliciously detailed Internet site that tracks the robot's history (bigredhair.com), Boilerplate was designed to replace humans in combat; it took part in Roosevelt's campaign at San Juan Hill, joined the hunt for Pancho Villa, and fought in and, ultimately, disappeared during World War I.

But in fact, Boilerplate never was. It is the creation of Paul Guinan, an illustrator and graphic novelist in Portland, Ore., who with his wife, Anina Bennett, is the author of "Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate," published in July by IDW Publishing.

 

[Danger]

It's a nice fantasy, harkening back to the days of 'The Wild Wild West' (the series, not the movie). Take a look at the thing, though. Since it would have to have been steam-powered in that era, with large metal gears, there just isn't enough room in it for an actuating system. Besides:

1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Doesn't this imply that anyone who buys the story is smoking something?