MAN OF IRON.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

MAN OF IRON.

WALKS AND TALKS.

WONDER DEEDS OF "HUMAN BEING."

ROBOT'S WEIRD POWERS,

With a sweeping wave of the right arm, "Eric," the Mechanical Man, rose to make his speech at the opening of the Model Engineer Exhibition. Over six feet in height, proportionately broad, and with copper veins and porcelain bones, the Eobot bowed politely at the audience and began. "Ladies and gentlemen," boomed his deep voice, while a high-voltage smile played dangerously around his mouth, "the subject of model engineering needs no introduction by me—" Someone in the audience muttered "Hear, hear!" and Eric's steely blue electric eyes' flickered charmingly. Then on he went, expounding in the tones of an Oxford don the principles behind engineering experiments, concluding with a really magnificent gesture, both arms raised dramatically about the head. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure in declaring this exhibition open." Thunderous applause followed, and Eric retired to his seat, beaming and sparkling. The audience wanted more, though, and he had to rise twice to acknowledge their plaudits, and after the second time a slight creaking of his joints gave the impression that he should be put into training for a while. This was the great Robot, already doing useful public service in America, and, if the scientists can be believed, a man of iron will play a great part in the world's future. True, Eric is not much to look at. Even a Robotess would look at least twice before she fell in love with him. He is a cross between the mediaeval knight in full armour and a symbol of the tinned goods industry. It would take a man with a tin-opener to pick his pockets. The Man of Iron's voice is refined, but a reporter was reminded by it of a loudspeaker which hadn't been tuned in properly. Hia facial expressions are quite remarkable, however, when he is speaking. Mr. A. H. Ruffel, of Gomshall, near Dorking, is the inventor. He is very reticent about his miracle man, but inside Eric's inside are miles and miles of wire. His eyes are two torch bulbs, which are lighted from batteries. His teeth are of iron, and when annoyed, he simply foams blue foam at the mouth. The interior of the Robot is, of course, largely electrical. Probably the inventor has hit upon the same principles which governed the making of the American Robots. Robot's Chief Duty. In the U.S.A., a Mechanical Man, or "Televox," was invented over a year ago, and his commercial exploitation is being tried with a capital of £5,000,000. This Televox answers the phone—in any language desired, operates carpetsweepers, electric fans, pokes and stokes furnaces, reports the depth of water in reservoirs, regulates the sluics and states the rise and fall of temperature. The chief duty of the Robot, so far, however, is in answering the telephone and getting numbers. The device responds to sounds, and people addressing it must use the right key, for if the tone is too high or too low the Mechanical Man pays no attention, but assumes that a wrong number has been given. American exchanges are quite used to "Televox speaking at Central 50000," and give the code sound reply. If there is no reply from exchange, the Televox keeps on repeating the number and depressing the hook. Immediately the number replies, Robot raises an arm, whistles or blows a horn, and then the human element enters. The Robot has been tried out in departmental stores. He receives money, gives change, delivers goods, and says politely, "Thank you," as well as other stock phrases. More machines are to be placed in stores and at railway, steamship and bus stations throughout America. More than three "men" are employed by the Government to replace human watchmen for guarding Washington's water supply. They are known as Adam, Cain and Abel, and have, up to the present, a perfect service record. The height of the water in the reservoirs regulates instruments so that a telephonic request for information brings for the answers a series of notes, repeated seven, eight or nine times, to signify the depths in feet and inches. One of these laboratory-made men is on duty in the strong room of a Chicago bank. He will open the door only on hearing the voice of the cashier saying "Open, Sesame." Other Robots are addressed by means of tuning forks, specially pitched, for the whole secret of tehir action depends on sound vibration. Can Write Stories. Most of the Robots obey commands addressed to them on a sound wave of three different frequencies. What the future of these superlabourers will be cannot be hazarded. It is certain, though, that the Robot has come to stay, and Mr. Richardson's experiment at the opening of the exhibition is only the forerunner of many others. / The last word in Robots—which has just reached London from New York — appears to be able to reduce literature to an exact science. The Robot romancer, which has been christened Plotto by its inventor, is described as an engine for the scientific production of fiction without lost motion or false starts. The invention combines and recom- [ bines automatically no fewer than 1800 formulae of dramatic incident, beginning ' ! with the Bible and Herodotus, and work- ' ing right down the ages to Irish drama, cat burglary and the bobbed-hair folklore of the present day. ] The plots, sub-plots and counter- - plots of 4000 years necessary for the ] assembly of the Robot novelist were collected by William Wallace Cook, whose ! prodigious production of fiction in America for forty years almost rivals that of Edgar Wallace. ; Mr. Cook is so confident of the practi- \ cal value of his modern Frankenstein i monster that he has actually opened a school on Broadway called the Plotto Studio of Authorship. ' It is possible, he claims, by grouping < the 1800 formulae or units in groups of < three or four, in conformity with the < laws of chance, to develop several million original novels. The plots are virtually all inter- { changeable, and if one incident does not < fit in a novel, short story, or even a 1 play or film scenario, 1799 spare parts ] are immediately available. ( Mr. Cook, in building up his auto- < matic novelist, found great difficulty in < making the sub-plots which -work up to i ♦

leading back from the climax. He finally hit on the idea of resolving all fiction into three clauses, A, B, and C, arranged in the form of charts. Clause A refers to the leading charactor or protagonist. B represents the earlier half of the action of the plot, and C the latter half. The "A" clauses include, among a host of others, such characters as "a person in love," "a married person," "a lawless person," "a subtle person," "a benevolent person," or "a person influenced by the occult and the mysterious." Myriads of generalities cluster under such headings as "mystery," adventure," "love," "danger," and so on. All are classified, indexed, and crossindexed to enable the youthful genius, at a loss for an incident, to discover what he wants without wading through many hundred of skeleton plots. An ingenious system of numbers, letters, dots and dashes has been developed as part of the invention, so that the plot, when plotted by Plotto, looks like a futurist algebraic equation. A typical formula, produced by the Robot and partly developed, but open for further sub-plots, is as follows: — 1342. Mystery (a) (1357—x) ((1374 —x) (1389). It is declared that the material for million* of plots lie sleeping in the Robot Plotto, awaiting only the touch of genius to render them alive and immortal. The invention ie described as a heaven-sent gift to thousands of harassed potential Shakespeares. Perhaps the most intelligent though least human-looking Robot on show at the Model Engineering Exhibition in London at the week-end was the model ! automatic telephone exchange. With its covers off and its works revealed the automaton seemed extraordinarily uncanny. As numbers were dialled one saw metal amis mysteriously spring into action and search for correct contacts. As soon as three letters were dialled for the desired exchange an arm inside a semi-cylindrical array of contacts sought the correct exchange connection. This sent a message to another series of contacts, where another arm found the thousand figure of the telephone number. As soon as this arm was in position the message was passed on to another group of contacts, where another arm found the hundred figure. Then the machine spoke decisively. The well-known intermittent buzz told the caller he was through, a high note buzz said the number was engaged, or a continuous burr announced tnat the desired number was out of order.