Well, to be pedantic, if it's 19th century it would have to be an automaton. The word robot wasn't coined until 1923.
From the article
> (The word "robot" didn't appear until 1921, when Czech dramatist Karel Čapek coined it in his science fiction play R.U.R..)
The actual title of the short uses the word "automate", French for "automaton"; I suspect NPR simply used the more familiar word in their headline for clarity.
You didn't read the link, did you? This is addressed in the article.
From the article
> (The word "robot" didn't appear until 1921, when Czech dramatist Karel Čapek coined it in his science fiction play R.U.R..)
The actual title of the short uses the word "automate", French for "automaton"; I suspect NPR simply used the more familiar word in their headline for clarity.
You didn't read the link, did you? This is addressed in the article.