HISTORY
BIZARRE INVENTIONS
From passenger jets to the internet, humanity has changed the world with many ingenious technologies. But some creations have been a little unusual…
WORDS ALEX DALE
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ATELEPHONE-ANSWERING ROBOT
Robot butlers who would perform our household chores with a beep and a smile were a common fantasy in the 1950s and 1960s, but back then the technology seemed pretty far off. But a Viennese inventor named Claus Scholz attempted to prematurely kick-start the household robotics movement in 1964 with the MM7 – a towering humanoid who would answer your telephone calls for you.
Unfortunately, the MM7’s functions were restricted to simply picking up the phone and putting it down again – the robot was unable to speak to the person on the other end, or take a message for you. Considering that answering machine devices had already been commercially available for over a decade, this rendered MM7 as little more than a very expensive coat stand. That is a role MM7 could have performed ably alongside one of his sister robots, whose purpose was to gingerly put guests’ hats onto a hook.