*A beautiful story, in its dieselpunk way. The crowdsourcing is a nice sentimental touch.
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On his debut Eric – with RUR emblazoned on his chest, after the 1920 science fiction play Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti that introduced 'robot' to the English language – weighed 45kg, was 6-foot tall, and had lightbulbs for eyes. Particularly terrifyingly, and realistically deadly, were the 35,000 volts of electricity causing sparks to fly from Eric's mouth. (This has been dropped from the rebuild).
"He's the first British robot in our modern understanding of the word (being this tall, broad-shoulder tin man type of thing) and is certainly among a handful of these types of robot anywhere in the world," Russell adds. "He's really important".
Russell says after Eric's unveiling, the robot travelled around Britain, North America and Europe to entertain crowds. This, according to the man responsible for the project, included stopping at piers, theatres, department stores, and even the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although, his success was short-lived. Eric was lost….
