Manadatory Credit: Photo by Geoffrey Robinson / Rex Features (1251550f)
Tony Sale with George the robot
Pensioner unearths one of the UK's first humanoid robots from the 1950s, Bedford, Bedfordshire, Britain - 23 Nov 2010
A pensioner has unearthed one of the UK's first humanoid robots from a garage where it has been stored for the last 45 years. Former spy catcher and RAF officer Tony Sale, 79, built the incredible 6ft high robot called George in 1950 for just GBP 15 using scrap metal from a crashed Wellington bomber plane. At the time Tony was only 19 and his amazing man-sized model, which could walk and "talk", stunned the world as few people had ever seen a human-looking robot before. Sadly computers were too crude and big to give George memory and intelligence so he was packed away in Tony's garage in Bedford and left to gather dust. But now after nearly five decades Tony has got the radio-controlled robot working simply by putting in two new batteries and oiling his joints.