Eric (robot)

{{Short description|Early British robot}}

File:Eric the Robot (32822317725).jpg

Eric was the first British robot, built in 1928 by First World War veteran Captain William Richards, and aircraft engineer Alan Reffell. He was constructed to open the Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers at London's Royal Horticultural Hall in 1928, after George VI (then the Duke of York) cancelled and an exasperated Richards, the exhibition's secretary, offered to "make a man of tin" to take the Duke's place.{{cite book|last1=Riskin|first1=Jessica|title=The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument Over What Makes Living Things Tick|date=10 March 2016|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226302928|page=301|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUmGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|language=en}} At the event's opening, Eric rose to his feet, bowed and gave a four-minute opening address.{{cite news|last1=Knapton|first1=Sarah|title=Britain's first robot 'Eric' to rise again after lost plans found|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/05/10/britains-first-robot-eric-to-rise-again-after-lost-plans-found/|access-date=7 March 2017|work=The Telegraph|date=10 May 2016}}

The robot was operated by two people,{{cite news|title=English Robot Adds Lecture To Repertoire|url=http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1928-eric-robot-capt-richards-english/|work=Chronicle Telegram|date=26 Nov 1928}}

and Eric's voice was received live by a radio signal, Richards claiming to be working under a license of the Marconi Company. Although able to sit and stand, Eric could not move his legs to walk.{{cite news|title=An Aluminium "Man" That Rises, Bows, And Makes A "Speech": A Knight-Like Robot|url=http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1928-eric-robot-capt-richards-english/|work=Illustrated London News|date=1928}} His chest bore the letters "R.U.R.", a reference to the robot manufacturer in Karel Čapek's 1920 play of the same name.{{cite book|last1=Wright|first1=Will|last2=Kaplan|first2=Steven|title=The Image of Technology in Literature, the Media, and Society: Selected Papers from the 1994 Conference [of The] Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery|year=1994|publisher=The Society|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFnRzHhbgCcC|language=en}}

Following his first appearance, Eric was taken on a US tour, introducing himself to an audience in New York in 1929{{cite book|last1=Schaut|first1=Scott|title=Robots of Westinghouse, 1924-today|year=2006|publisher=Scott Schautt, Mansfield Memorial Museum|isbn=9780978584412|page=61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QU9GAAAAYAAJ|language=en}} as "Eric the robot, the man without a soul".{{cite news|title="Robot" Is A Mystery|url=http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1928-eric-robot-capt-richards-english/|work=Evening Tribune|date=29 Jan 1929}} The New York Press described him as "the perfect man".{{cite web|last1=Jozuka|first1=Emiko|title=The Sad Story of Eric, the UK's First Robot Who Was Loved Then Forsaken |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-sad-story-of-eric-the-uks-first-robot-who-was-loved-then-forsaken/|website=Motherboard |date=May 19, 2016|access-date=7 March 2017|language=en-us}} Some time after this, Eric disappeared. Having researched Eric's story, Science Museum curator Ben Russell concluded that "no-one quite knows what happened to him, whether he was blown-up or taken to pieces for spare parts".

In 2016, the London Science Museum raised funds through a Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Eric, working from archive material including Illustrated London News photographs. Eric was added to the museum's permanent collection, and appeared as part of a 2017 robots exhibition.