Coming to America: Alpha the Robot Hops the Pond (1934)
February, 1934 Practical Mechanics (image: http://www.davidbuckley.net/) In 1932 American newspapers started publishing wildly exaggerated stories about a British robot named Alpha that allegedly blinked to life, rose to his feet, and shot his inventor. Some of the stories quoted the inventor, Harry May, as saying that he knew Alpha would turn against him one day.…
