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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert

Rubber Soled Feet  
  Silent padding for clanky robots.  

There is nothing more jarringly unpleasant than the clanking of metal robot feet on hard floors!

They were terrified at what they saw. It was described as being “a huge iron mass that resembled a man.” Violet-colored blazes raced over the hideous giant. Brilliant red lights glowed where its eyes should have been. The thing had arms and legs. It stood erect, turned its head from side to side in a monotonous manner with a mechanical leer on its metallic features.

The salesmen were paralyzed with fear as it stalked down the aisle of the store. Its feet were shod with rubber, apparently; for when it moved there were no noises other than a slight grinding whirr.

According to the Daily Bulletin, it walked, or rather glided, to the vault, reached into the trays, and scooped up a handful of blue diamonds.

Technovelgy from The Robot Terror, by Melbourne Huff.
Published by Scientific Detective Monthly in 1930
Additional resources -

You'll also find this in Isaac Asimov's Reason:

"Cutie," he said, "I'm going to try to explain something to you. You're the first robot who's ever exhibited curiosity as to his own existence – and I think the first that's really intelligent enough to understand the world outside. Here, come with me."

The robot rose erect smoothly and his thickly sponge-rubber soled feet made no noise as he followed Powell.

Compare to the silencer-padding from Robot Unwanted (1952) by Daniel Keyes and the rubber hoof from The Warlock in Spite of Himself (1969) by Christopher Stasheff.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Robot Terror
  More Ideas and Technology by Melbourne Huff
  Tech news articles related to The Robot Terror
  Tech news articles related to works by Melbourne Huff

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