1939 saw the trial of two robots: first, Adam Link and then Robot A-1. It was a strange time for jurisprudence. Mechanical men were filling courtrooms all over Science Fiction. Or as one story blurb put it: “The Metal Man Was on Trial for His Life–But the State Claimed He Didn’t Have One!”
1939, The Year of the Robot
The January 1939 issue of Ray A. Palmer’s Amazing Stories reported on the creation of a robot narrator in “I, Robot”. The story was by brothers Earl and Otto Binder who wrote as Eando Binder. The July issue had “The Trial of Adam Link” where the robot stands trial for killing his creator. Link didn’t do it. The death was accidental. The jury saw things differently. The story ends with Link accepting his fate of deactivation, wondering how he will be remembered, as monster or man? In the beginning of the third story, Link is saved from death row and goes on to other stories where he is a detective, an athlete , a war hero and finally saves the entire world.
But wait, July 1939 wasn’t done there. The July 1939 issue of Startling Stories gave us “Robot A-1” by Oscar J. Friend. The story even got the cover! The author of this legal drama was one of the magazines sub-editors. By 1941, Friend would replace then editor Mort Weisinger (who was off to DC Comics to edit Superman before being drafted into the army). Friend edited several magazines, supplying these with occasional stories under his own name as well as Oscar Friend, Owen Fox Jerome, Frank Johnson and Ford Smith. He wrote Mystery and Westerns as well as Science Fiction.
Later, after the death of Otis Adelbert Kline, Friend, who had become a big writer in his own right, would inherit the Otis Kline agency and become one of the foremost agents in Science Fiction. He would represent big authors like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon and Frank Herbert.
Friend of the Robot
But back in 1939, he also wrote a story about a robot that goes to court. Coincidence? I doubt it. The original tale, “I, Robot” implies that Adam Link is writing his memoir from captivity. Friend may have been inspired by that. Or he may have been a pal of Otto Binder’s and heard all about it. Either way, July 1939 saw two robots on trial to defend their existences.
Here’s how Friend told it:
The trial of Robot A-1 begins with the court asking for the defense to present itself. The lawyer turns out to be the robot himself. The prosecutor objects. Robot A-1, in a clear, robust voice, points out that if he can’t represent himself, then the question of whether he is a legal entity has already been decided before they argue it. The judge allows it. Robot A-1 will be his own counsel.
The charges are read: that Robot A-1 knowingly build the robot known as the Tri-octopus and set it to kill seven people in the subway. Robot A-1 admits to working on the killer device but in no way used it for the heinous crime. The defense calls no witnesses, merely rebuts the prosecution’s witnesses.
The first of these witnesses is Robot A-1 himself. The facts are drawn out: that he was created by Dr. David Forsythe only months earlier. That he earned his freedom from the doctor by working on the Tri-octopus machine. As part of his deal, Forsythe got Robot A-1 a Social Security number and papers. Robot A-1 left the doctor and has had nothing to do with him since.
The next witness is Robert Chadlow, a mechanical engineer. Chadlow tells how he put the micro-dynamic controls in Robot A-1. He also mentions Professor John Maynard, who worked on the robot but has since gone on a special trip to the Orient.
Following Chadlow is Miss Marie Lemar, who described what happened on the subway. The Tri-octopus, a robot with eight metal tentacles, and three iron-shod feet, was covered and sitting in the subway tunnel. It activated and began attacking passengers. “One man’s head had been squeezed completely off.” (This is the scene Alex Schomberg illustrates above, minus the head popping. Unfortunately we never get to see what A-1 looks like, being more human in form.) The killer robot is then attacked by Robot A-1, who seems to be talking with it in machine language. When the Tri-octopus would not stop attacking people, Robot A-1 pulls off some of its arms. Finally, he throws the killer machine in front of a train, destroying it. Robot A-1 finally gets to the villain of the piece, declaring that David Forsythe is a madman and he set the Tri-octopus on the subway passengers.
Enter the Villain!
This bombshell has to wait. Court adjourns for lunch and during the break something incredible happens. As depicted on the cover, a gigantic version of the Tri-octopus lumbers into the city, destroying buildings and killing people. “Another tentacle gathered up a handful of the frantic crowd and dashed them to the ground in disdain.” The police shoot their guns but to no avail. Who can stop this giant killer robot?
Robot A-1 can. He goes to Forsythe’s laboratory, returning with a weird flashlight object. Robot A-1 shoots a green ray from the weapon at the giant robot’s leg. A green fire sweeps up the body, turning metal into dust. Robot A-1 keeps firing until the giant killer falls apart. We see part of the upper body dissolve and a human fall and die. It is Dr. Forsythe, who has been riding inside his gigantic creation. A segment falls on Robot A-1, flattening him. He has died a hero.
A closer examination gives a final revel: “The top of the circular head came free, and the two men found themselves staring at a broken container of some colorless serum with hundreds of tiny filaments running from it down through the neck. But the queerest, most revolting thing of it all was the mashed remnants of a human brain that had been housed in the container.” One of the newspaper men, the final witnesses, explains: “It means Professor John Maynard will never come back from that special trip to the Orient.”
The Jury Is Out
Friend cheats at the end, making his robot not a mechanical man finding sentience, but a cyborg. The story reads like the Binders wrote the first half and Edmond Hamilton the second. Friend is working in a tradition that is actually much older than 1939. Hamilton created killer cyborgs in January 1928 in Amazing Stories‘ “The Comet Doom” and giant killer robots even earlier in Weird Tales, December 1926 with “The Metal Giants”.
By 1939, these ideas were firmly part of the SF catalogue. Startling Stories and its sister magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories, were targeted to younger readers than Astounding Science Fiction, with a more adventure-oriented feel. Friend certainly stays within that fence, not making his tale a nuts-and-bolts examination of robot mental structures, but an actiony robot fight-fest. That his tale of the robot who went to court appeared in the same month as the more famous Adam Link seems to have been forgotten. I think it makes an intriguing counter-note to a moment in Science Fiction history.
