Retrotechtacular: Robots, Robots Everywhere, With Kitschy Pronunciation

One of the great things about the human intellect is that we have the ability to build machines of varying complexity to do our bidding. As a major proponent of technology, the Chevrolet automobile corporation once dreamed of a future where the American housewife’s most mundane tasks are handled with the push of a button—one that sets a robot butler into action.

Chevy shows us what this future might look like in this short film, which they presented at the 1940 World’s Fair. A housewife’s faithful ‘robot’, pronounced throughout the picture as ‘robe-it’, has gone on the fritz. Naturally, she calls for a repairman. We see from the console controller that Roll-Oh the Robe-it can take care of all kinds of housewifely duties: he can answer the door and the phone, wash dishes, clean house, make beds, fetch hats, get dinner, and fix the furnace (and only the furnace). And that SCRAM! function? That’s never explained. We like to think it has to do with getting kids off the lawn, or could be used in conjunction with ‘get door’ to chase away would-be burglars. We get a glimpse of this when Roll-Oh answers the door and scares the daylights out of a young [Gary Sinise*] delivering flowers in a cop uniform.

Roll-Oh’s upper limbs have several Swiss Army knife-like implements in them. He uses a sharp one to cut the ribbon off of the flower box. Upon seeing the flowers, he gives them a gentle misting with his sprayer attachment. Dropped petals are no problem for Roll-Oh. He promptly vacuums them up from the thin industrial sound stage carpet with his big metal feet. Roll-Oh is then tasked with getting dinner. This amounts to him painstakingly opening a couple of cans and lighting candles with the torch hidden in his face.

While Roll-Oh the large ductwork butler is only a dream, Chevy wants you to know that smaller robe-its are all around us already. They’re regulating the heat in our stoves, browning our bread without burning it, and brewing our coffee in cool double-globe glass percolators. These tiny servants are capable of performing other tasks, like shutting off machinery when humans are too close, or sensing heat and engaging fire suppression systems. There is brief mention of something called the Petomat, an automatic dog feeding system which is essentially a bowl of food hidden in a latched box. The latch opens rather violently when the alarm clock connected to it goes off.

Robe-its are also performing more serious tasks, like keeping airplanes level and headed in the right direction. Of course, they’re also abundant in Chevrolet automobiles. A small one in the carburetor administers the proper mix of “gasoline calories and fresh air vitamins” to the engine. It’s rare to get to this level of technical detail, you know. Others watch over the spark, the intake manifold, and the voltage regulation. Up in the cab, friendly robe-its will happily traverse the AM dial at the push of a pre-set.

*Probably not actually [Gary Sinise].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSnJBNijsVU

 

Retrotechtacular is a weekly column featuring hacks, technology, and kitsch from ages of yore. Help keep it fresh by sending in your ideas for future installments.

17 thoughts on “Retrotechtacular: Robots, Robots Everywhere, With Kitschy Pronunciation

  1. Wow, that was funny. Apparently, every sensor and mechanical control of any kind is a “robutt”. I wonder how the makers of this film would feel about the level of technology in today’s cars, given that they think a simple carburetor is a “robutt”.
    I also got a real kick out of the robot’s hands. I know that the one-finger-salute was probably not in the public conscience at that time, but it’s still hilarious to see a household device that flips off everyone in its presence.

    1. yea funny short film, and i also had the thought of what will the engeneers think of todays cars for that matter what would they think of todays world with all of its to them probely space age tech. It was also interesting to see how they say the future back then.

    2. Well except for the push button radio & vacuum assisted shift (although one can argue they are robots as well) everything mentioned meets the definition of robot. adjusting the fuel mixture & adjusting the spark advance is something the driver had to do. Being simple and uncomplicated doesn’t mean it’s not a robot. Humans had to make sure the toaster didn’t burn the toast. No putting the bread in the toaster & running to the toilet to take your morning shit before you shit your pants.

  2. A guy in a cop uniform delivering flowers, I can only think someone turned 2 pages over at once in the porno script.

    I wonder if Roll-Oh has some implements we didn’t see?

    1. LOL cop delivering flowers; are you being sarcastic or testing us? This as back in a time where very one had to dress a certain way so others could judge them. Look through the old Popular Mechanics magazines on line. From the ads you see this was the uniform of the lowly delivery man or truck driver. Even the robutt tech’s coat places him at a higher station than the delivery man.

  3. I remember cleaning contacts in one of those voltage regulators with the 3 relays. Delco Remy.
    She seems to forget it’s not Siri or echo yet. You have to push the button!

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