A machine built to handle every chore begins to push past its limits, turning routine tasks into something far more dangerous. As the house slips out of control, the family faces a moment where stopping it may be harder than letting it run. Ely's Automatic Housemaid by Elizabeth W. Bellamy. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

How many people were writing about robots in 1899? Well nobody actually, because the word robot didn’t exist until 1920. Only a small number of authors in the 1800s wrote about something we would later call a robot. Automaton is the word they used.

When sharing biographical information about authors on the podcast how often have we mentioned the American Civil War? None that I can remember, that changes today!

Elizabeth Whitfield Croom Bellamy was born in 1837. She married Charles Edward Bellamy in 1858, and they had two children. In 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and died of typhoid fever the following year. Within a single year, Elizabeth lost both of her children and her husband.

Her brother Stephens encouraged her to write and even though she never achieved fame or fortune her novels and short stories were published for almost 30 years. And in that time she wrote one sci-fi short story, she died not long after it’s publication, four days before her 63rd birthday.

From The Black Cat in December 1899 on page 14, Ely's Automatic Housemaid by Elizabeth W. Bellamy…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Two exhausted strangers track a boy across miles of dark road, convinced he holds something that could wipe out an entire world. When they finally corner him, the question isn’t whether the weapon exists—it’s whether they dare let him use it. Joe Carson's Weapon by James R. Adams.

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