Robinson

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Robson

1935), American poet, was born in Head
Tide, Me. In 1922,1925,1928, he received the
Pulitzer prize for poetry. His works include
The Children of the Night (1897); The Town
down the River (1910); Tristram (1927);
Nicodemus (1932); Amaranth (1934).

Robinson, Frederick B. (1883-1941),
college president, was born in Brooklyn, New
York. Since 1927 he has been president of
the College of the City of New York. In 1930
he was president of the Association of Col-
leges and Universities of the State of New
York, and in 1933, chairman of the American
League for Human Rights. In 1934-35, there
were student demonstrations at City College
in which Robinson was criticized, but the
faculty stood by him. His writings include
Effective Public Speaking (1914); Business
Costs (1921).

Robinson, James Harvey (1863-1936),
American historian, was born in Blooming-
ton, 111. He was professor of history in Co-
lumbia University from 1895 to 1919, when
he resigned to help organize the New School
for Social Reseach. His published works in-
clude Introduction to the History of Western
Europe (1903); Readings in European His-
tory (2 vols., 1904-5); The Mind in the Mak-
ing (1921); The Humanizing of Knowledge
(1923); The Ordeal of Civilization (1926).

Robinson, Joseph Taylor (1872-1937),
politician, served successively as Congress-
man, Governor of Arkansas and U. S. Sen-
ator (1913-37). As Democratic leader of the
Senate, Robinson challenged Huey Long's
Share-the-Wealth campaign in 1935 and led
the futile effort for ratification of the World
Court protocol.

Robinson, Lennox (1886- ), Irish
dramatist, director of Abbey Theatre, Dub-
lin. His plays include The Dreamers (1915);
The White-Headed Boy (1920); The Round
Table (1924) j Is Life Worth Living? (1933).

Robinson, Theodore (1852-96), Ameri-
ican landscape painter, was born in Irasburg,
Vt. He delighted in robust masses of color
and a glowing palette so far from academic
precedent that one of his best pictures, Hud-
son River Canal, was rejected when offered
to the New York Metropolitan Museum, an
act which aroused a storm of protest.

Robinson Crusoe. See Selkirk, Alexan-
der.

Robot.—A machine that makes it possible
to control vast energy sources obtained in
nature; an automaton that performs all hard
work; hence one who works mechanically.

The word is derived from robota (Russian,
work). Interest centers in the first definition.
In some robots photo-electric cells operate in
relays at any change of light intensity, thus
controlling powerful machinery. In others
the principles of the telephone, with the ther-
mionic vacuum tube, operate in response to
sound and perform various kinds of motion
at a distance. Robots do such work as chem-
ical testing, difficult mathematical calcula-
tions, the accurate steering of ships and air-
planes; tide prediction; traffic control. As
processing machines in factories they control
temperature, humidity, starting, stopping,
give danger signals, etc. on a time schedule.
Rob Roy (1671-1734), the sobriquet (de-
rived from his thick red hair) of Robert Mac-
gregor, Scottish outlaw, who, on the renewal

Eastman Building, Rochester, N. Y.

of the penal acts against the Clan Macgregor
in 1693, adopted Campbell as his surname.
His feats, adventures, and escapes from cus-
tody bordered on the marvellous.

Robson, Eleanor Elsie (1880), American!
actress, was born in England and made her
professional dtbut in San Francisco (1897).
In 1903-5 she starred in Merely Mary Ann*