Boilerplate (robot)

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Boilerplate is a fictional robot, purported to be a Victorian era technological marvel created by a Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s and supposedly being unveiled at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Campion's "creation" is featured on the BigRedHair.com website, which includes fake photographs and other references.

The Boilerplate website became a minor Internet phenomenon in 2002, and is still used by educators to highlight the dangers of doing online research.^{[citation needed]}

1 Fictional Setup
2 Other sightings
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Fictional Setup

In numerous photographs, the Forrest-Gump-like Boilerplate is featured as a soldier fighting in various conflicts, including:

The Spanish American War
The Russo-Japanese War
Serving under Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution
World War I

Boilerplate also accompanied an Antarctic expedition. During the treacherous expedition, Boilerplate saved the lives of the team members by singlehandedly moving ice floes, clearing a path for the ship to sail out.

During the First World War, Boilerplate mysteriously disappeared during the relief of Major Whittlesey's Lost Battalion. Despite the murky circumstances of his vanishing, some have theorized that he was taken prisoner by the Germans and studied. Supporters of this theory have pointed out that German military technology advanced tremendously in the twenty years between the two world wars, encompassing guided rockets, experimental jets, and sophisticated tanks. Even after his disappearance, Boilerplate has been sighted on numerous occasions, mostly in Chicago.

[edit] Other sightings

Boilerplate is a character in actor and comedian Chris Elliott's 2005 novel The Shroud of the Thwacker. Although the novel is a comedic spoof of historical novels, Elliott reportedly thought that Boilerplate was itself a spoof dating from the early part of the twentieth century, not the 21st.^{[citation needed]}

Anina Bennett and her husband Paul Guinan, the creators of BigRedHair.com, are not just releasing a Boilerplate book, Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel, but have produced a one-shot crossover with their Heartbreakers comic book, called "Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate." Published by IDW Publishing it shows Boilerplate being reassembled and getting involved in a romantic situation with a lady robot. ^[1] ^[2]