The Library of Congress has recovered a long-lost 1897 silent film by Georges Méliès that may be the first cinematic depiction of a robot. The 45-second short Gugusse et l'Automate was found among 10 rusty nitrate reels donated by a Michigan family whose ancestor had collected early films.

Bill McFarland delivered the deteriorating reels to the Library's conservation center, where experts identified the Méliès work by its distinctive star logo. The film shows a clown-sized robot that grows to adult size and attacks a human clown before being destroyed with a hammer. Film curator Jason Evans Groth called it "probably the first instance of a robot ever captured in a moving image."

The discovery included other early cinema treasures, including a Thomas Edison film. Nitrate film stock had crumbled on some reels while others were stuck together, requiring careful restoration. The find proves that significant discoveries remain possible even in well-studied early cinema history, as the film had been presumed lost for over a century.