Help Find Sparko, the Lost Robot Dog

Posted 25 Dec 2005 at 16:06 UTC by steve

We covered the story of Jack Weeks and his quest to restore Elektro the Moto Man last year. Elektro was a 300 pound robot created by Westinghouse for the 1939 World's Fair. The restored Elektro now rests in the Mansfield Memorial Museum in Ohio but one thing is still missing. Elektro had robot dog named Sparko who is still missing. An Ohio Free Times article updates the story. Elektro may be moving to the Henry Ford Museum or even the Smithsonian. The biggest challenge remaining to Weeks is finding one of the three robot dogs, all named Sparko, that were built as pets for Elektro. The last confirmed sighting of Sparko was in California in 1957. The dogs were light-followers and legend has it that one of the three dogs was hit by a car and destroyed when it wandered out of an open door at the Westingouse lab. There are several unconfirmed sightings of the third Sparko at a garage sale in the same Mansfield, Ohio area where Elektro was found. If you've seen Sparko or have any information about the robot dog's current location, please contact Jack Weeks.