In the words of inventor (and father of science fiction) Hugo Gernsback, the Radio Automaton had “no superior for fighting mobs or for war purposes.” Powered by a gasoline engine and radio controlled at a distance by a police car, it glided along on caterpillar treads, shooting tear gas and using its rotating discs (equipped with “lead balls on flexible leads”) to cut a swath through mobs of angry anarchists. For night attacks, the bulletproof Automaton was equipped with “eye-lights and the loud speaker is used to shout orders to the mob,” which presumably took one look at the giant’s whirling lead balls of death and obeyed. Despite Gernsback’s assurances that the Radio Automaton was “not a wild dream” but easily “constructed by any one with means available today,” it didn’t make it out of the pages of his Science and Invention magazine. [Dirty Pirate Whores]
Hugo Gernsback’s RoboCops of 1924
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