After Boston Dynamics released their amazing running robots, it's hard to surprise anyone with anything like this. However, one old photo, sometimes flashing on the Internet, says - and these robots are not so new!
Here is this photo, published in the April 1933 issue of Popular Science magazine, along with a short note, "A Steel Horse Runs Through the Fields." And here is the text of this article:
The cover of that issue of the magazine.
Interestingly, apart from this material on the Internet there is very little information about the iron Dobbin. It is possible to find scant notes that the Italian military considered putting it into limited production to teach the children of the Gioventù Italiana Littorio (Italian fascist youth movement) to ride horses, but, after testing, found it impractical.
But who was the designer of this mechanical miracle, and was he even there? Unfortunately there is no answer.
Just one photo, but very unusual for those years.
But about the "those" running robots from Boston Dynamics:
Promotional video:
