The Gadgeteer, The Mousetrap Gun, and The Steam Man
And … The Fastest Robot in the West!
This is the eighth article in a series on the History of Science Fiction.
“Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like “steam-punks,” perhaps…”
So said the author K. J. Jeter in a letter printed in the April 1987 edition of the magazine Locus, concerning his own novel Morlock Nights. Morlock Nights is technically not really the first novel to fit the Steampunk label, but after its publication in 1979 the aesthetic was bubbling under the Eighties Cyberpunk sub-genre. When William Gibson and Bruce Sterling got involved with The Difference Engine in 1990, readers started to sit up and pay attention.
However, two decades before this, one TV show had introduced the tropes of Steampunk before the label was created, and popularized the American version before the more commonly known London-based version popularized by the above novels.
Wild Wild West was a popular American television series that aired from 1965 to 1969, blending elements of westerns, espionage, and science fiction. Created by Michael Garrison, the show followed the adventures of two Secret Service agents, James T. West and Artemus Gordon, as they traveled across the American West, protecting President Ulysses S. Grant and combating various threats to the nation.
James West, played by Robert Conrad, was a charismatic and skilled agent known for his sharp wit, athleticism, and proficiency with firearms. Artemus Gordon, portrayed by Ross Martin, was a master of disguise, inventor, and intellectual counterpart to West, often using his ingenuity to outsmart adversaries.
The series was set during the post-Civil War era, blending historical events and characters with imaginative storylines. Each episode featured the duo tackling a different mission, ranging from foiling criminal plots to thwarting foreign agents and investigating apparently supernatural phenomena.
One of the show’s distinguishing features was its incorporation of futuristic gadgets and advanced technology, giving it a distinctive steampunk aesthetic ahead of its time. These gadgets, often designed by Artemus Gordon, included everything from miniature cameras and communication devices to elaborate disguises and weapons concealed within everyday objects. The makers of the shows said they were responding to the craze for gadget-filled extrvaganzas sparked by the James Bond 007 film franchise and all its imitations, and put the genre in a historical setting.
Wild Wild West was praised for its innovative blend of genres, exciting action sequences, and the chemistry between its lead actors.
Despite its relatively short run, it left a lasting impact on popular culture, inspiring a 1999 film adaptation directed by starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline. It also influenced subsequent television shows and films that combined elements of westerns, espionage, and science fiction, such as The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
But before that, just how weird was the real Old West? What real-life robot creation inspired the early Science Fiction milestone that is the focus of today’s article — The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis?
Here, we take a close look at some of the more unusual American inventions from the Age of Steam.
Perhaps the most ‘Steampunk’ style invention is this era that actuallt worked was a prototype motorcycle. The Steam Velocipede was invented by Boston-born Sylvester Howard Roper (1823 –1896), who had developed a talent for tinkering with machinery at the age of 12. He began experimenting with the idea of putting an engine onto a bicycle in 1863 and first demonstrated his creation in public in 1869, in his hometown of Roxbury.
The first Velocipede’s frame was made of hickory, with a twin-cylinder steam engine. The engine had two pistons of 164cc capacity, each connected by a crank-arm and rod to the rear wheel. The total engine capacity was 328cc. One cylinder on each side of the frame was connected by rods to driving cranks on the rear wheel axle. A firebox and boiler were spring-mounted and suspended between the wheels, and a short chimney projected up from behind the saddle. A charcoal fire was located in the grate beneath the boiler, and the water tank was fixed inside the rider’s saddle, automatically fed from the seat to the boiler via a water pump actuated by engine rotation. The fire’s heat boiled the water in the boiler and produced steam to power the engine, while a pressure gauge mounted on the steering-head kept the rider apprised of power, and danger.
Not everyone appreciated Roper’s efforts; the newspapers reported his test-rides through the town as annoying the townsfolk, scaring horses, and “emitting an acrid odor”. Roper was once arrested on one of his rides, but quickly released when it was determined that he had broken no laws.
Roper also has the inventor’s dubious privilege of dying while testing one of his creations. On June 1st 1896, he fell from his Velocipede while testing its top speed on the Charles River Speedway race track at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was heart failure, but it was not determined whether he suffered a heart attack while riding and then collapsed, or fell from his mount and the cardiac arrest was brought on by his injuries.
Whatever happened, let it be said that he died while furthering the cause of Science, as a true Steampunk gadget genius would. His original Velocipede is still on display in the Smithsonian Institute.
If you prefer the more conventional kind of pedal-bushing “boneshaker”, the Hotchkiss Bicycle Railroad was an engineered monorail specifically designed for riding a compatible bicycle. Conceived by Arthur Hotchkiss, the inaugural line was established between Smithville and Mount Holly, New Jersey, in 1892. Its operations ceased by 1897. Arthur Hotchkiss secured a patent in 1892 for the bicycle railroad and engaged the H. B. Smith Machine Company for its construction. The initial 1.8-mile (2.9 km) track from Smithville, following an almost straight path, traversed the Rancocas Creek ten times before terminating at Pine Street, Mount Holly. Completion coincided with the Mount Holly Fair in September 1892, with the primary aim of facilitating swift commutes for employees from Mount Holly to the Smithville factory. With only a single track, passing another rider was impossible; encountering riders traveling in opposite directions necessitated pulling into a siding. By 1897, ridership dwindled, and maintenance lapsed.
Incidentally, Arthur Hotchkiss is unrelated to E.H. Hotchkiss, another inventor pivotal in the development of the modern stapler. For some strange reason, the Japanese still refer to staplers generically as “Hotchkiss.”
Another innovative transportation endeavor was the Beach Pneumatic Transit. Alfred Ely Beach, inventor and Scientific American editor, devised an air-driven system showcased at the 1867 American Institute Fair, envisioning its viability in underground tunnels. Despite a permit denial from Tammany Hall, Beach clandestinely constructed the line to prove the practicality of subterranean transit. The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company employed large fans to propel cars through a narrow tube and retract them by reversing.
Constructed in just 58 days beneath Warren Street and Broadway, opposite City Hall, the Beach tunnel’s station was situated under Warren Street’s southern sidewalk near Broadway. The single-track tunnel extended east into Broadway, curved southward, and spanned one block to Murray Street, covering approximately 300 feet. Publicly accessible from February 26, 1870, the subway functioned as a demonstration until 1873, featuring a sole station and train car. Although often noted as a significant early milestone in New York City’s transit history, it remained more of a novelty. The practicality of scaling such a system for widespread use remains uncertain, as smaller tube systems for mail delivery in buildings exist, but a railcar-sized pneumatic system has not materialized. The rapid advancement of electric multiple-unit traction and locomotives shortly after this experiment rendered further pneumatic expansion impractical.
Leaving aside modes of transport, the home of the what-could-have-been Steampunk Wild West had every labor-saving amenity you could imagine for daily life, and quite a few you couldn’t.
For example, if you were a heavy sleeper, you could use the Samuel Applegate alarm clock, (patented in 1882) to make sure you woke up on time for work. The invention was a light wooden frame with sixty tasselled corks attached to it, that could be hung directly over the sleeper’s head. The frame was attached to an automatic releasing device connected to a clock’s wind-up mechanism, that dropped the frame at a designated time so the corks could, in Applegate’s description on the patent, “strike a light blow, sufficient to awaken the sleeper”.
A light blow?
What could possibly go wrong?
Once you had woken up, you could brush your teeth with your own Steam-Powered Toothbrush. This invention by H. N. Wadsworth, patented in 1870, combined the functions of a toothbrush and a steam engine. It featured a small steam boiler attached to a toothbrush handle, which was designed to generate steam for cleaning teeth.
As for breakfast, if you were fairly wealthy, you could have a solar oven shipped from France! In 1861, the French math teacher and part-time inventor Augustin Mouchot patented a solar-powered oven that used an arrangement of mirrors to focus the light and heat. His solar-powered devices also included a boiler for heating baths, and an engine that could power a printing press and water pump.
After your green-energy breakfast, you would be ready to face the day and take a stroll outside.
If you lived in or near the desert, you could keep your scalp free of sweat on a scorching summer day with an air-conditioned top hat. This was apparently designed in 1879 by J. W. Dorrington with a small fan powered by a battery concealed within the hatband. (We have not been able to find out what powered the battery, or whether it was actually patented or manufactured).
Your stroll through town would take you to a few establishments where you could take care of your physical appearance, especially your facial hair — and you would be in good company! Invented in the 19th century, the “group shaving machine” (inventor and patent unknown) could shave a dozen men at once. However, you would have to sit very still because it could not alter its movements according to individual face shape. Thanks to this, it never really caught on.
After your strenuous day, you could return home and relax in your air-conditioned rocking chair. This was patented in 1869 by Charles Singer (not the man who invented the sewing machine — that was Isaac Singer). The rocking chair has a bellows underneath the seat so that when you rock back and forth, it blows air up a pipe that comes out above your head to cool you off. The nozzle at the end of that pipe was shaped like a large snake, which led to the contraption being nicknamed the ‘snake-breath’ chair.
If you slept a little deeper than you expected … there was no need to fear, if you had invested in a life-preserving coffin.
Patented in 1868 by Franz Vester, this coffin was equipped with a bell and a tube leading to the surface. Buried individuals could ring the bell or use the tube to signal for help in case they were mistakenly pronounced dead. A reporter for the New York Times actually attended a demonstration of the device, and told of how Vester himself was buried under four feet of dirt, and emerged an hour later “out of his living grave … to the applause and congratulations of the crowd.”
It’s a shame that Edgar Allan Poe didn’t live to see this …
If you wanted to tend your garden and were fairly well-off, you could import the latest steam-powered garden tool from England … the Leyland steam mower. This was patented in 1893 by James Sumner of the Lancashire Steam Motor Company in the town of Leyland, England (This company eventually became British Leyland). The mower was about six feet tall, with a vertical boiler mounted above the mower chassis. It was powered by a small single-cylinder steam engine with a sizable flywheel and spur gear transmission to the rear driving roller.
Finally, we have … the mousetrap gun, invented by James Alexander Williams of Texas.
Unfortunately, this is not a gun that fires mousetraps (although just think how awesome that would have been!) but a device that could be left outside the hole where mice or rats would enter and leave.
The contraption was basically a loaded revolver fixed to a wooden board. The trigger was attached to a rod and spring-loaded lever, and the idea was that the mouse would approach the board and try to pull off the bait fastened to it. Taking the bait would release the spring, pull the trigger, and … happy trails, Mousey.
Now we’ve whetted your appetite, this brings us to the real-life Steampunk sensation, the wonderfully-named Zadoc P. Dederick and the steam-powered android.
The invention was patented on March 24, 1868, by the American inventors Zadoc P. Dederick and Isaac Grass as patent 75874. It operated through a system of levers and cranks, attached to steam-powered pistons and a boiler, and was intended as a speedier, cheaper and more reliable way to pull a cart.
The original prototype cost $2,000 (equivalent to about $39,458 in 2020) and was built in Newark, New Jersey. Plans to produce it for $300 a unit never went through, making this an example of an early development in steam power that was abandoned.
We print here excerpts from the contemporary newspaper that announced its existence to the public:
Peninsular Courier and Family Visitant,
January 23, 1868
A Steam Man
From the Newark (N.J.) Advertiser
Mr. Zadock Deddrick1, a Newark machinist, has invented a man; one that, moved by steam, will perform some of the most important functions of humanity; that will, standing upright, walk or run as he is bid, in any direction, and at almost any rate of speed, drawing after him a load whose weight would tax the strength of three draught horses. The history of this curious invention is as follows: Six years ago Mr. Deddrick, the inventor, who is at present but twenty-two years of age, conceived the novel idea of constructing a man that should receive its vitality from a perpetual motion machine. The idea was based on the well-known mechanical principle that, if a heavy weight be placed at the top of an upright slightly inclined from vertical, gravitation will tend to produce a horizontal as well as vertical motion. The idea was unsuccessful. However, by observing carefully the cause of failure, persevering and perfecting the man-form, and by substituting steam in place of the perpetual motion machine, the present success was attained.
The man stands seven feet and nine inches high, the other dimensions of the body being correctly proportioned, making him a second Daniel Lambert2, by which name he is facetiously spoken of among the workmen. He weighs five hundred pounds. Steam is generated in the body or trunk, which is nothing but a three-horse power engine, like those used in our steam fire engines. The legs which support it are complicated and wonderful. The steps are taken very naturally and quite easily. As the body is thrown forward upon the advanced foot the other is lifted from the ground with a spring and thrown forward by the steam. Each step or pace advances the body two feet, and every revolution of the engine produces four paces. As the engine is capable of making more than a thousand evolutions a minute, it would get over the ground, on this calculation, at the rate of a little over a mile a minute. As this would be working the legs faster than would be safe on uneven ground or on broad street cobble stones, it is proposed to run the engine at the rate of five hundred revolutions per minute, which would walk the man at the modest speed of half a mile a minute.
The fellow is attached to a common rockaway carriage, the shafts of which support him in a vertical position. These shafts are two bars of iron, fastened in the usual manner to the front of the carriage, and are curved so as to be joined to a circular sustaining bar, which passes around the waist, like a girth, and in which the man moves so as to be faced in any direction. Besides these motions, machinery has been arranged by which the figure can be thrown backward or forward from a vertical nearly forty-five degrees. This is done in order to enable it to ascend or descend all grades. To the soles of the feet spikes or corks are fixed, which effectually prevent slipping. The whole affair is so firmly sustained by the shafts and has so excellent a foot-hold, that two men are unable to push it over, or in any way throw it down. In order to enable it to stop quickly it is provided with two appliances, one of which will, as before stated, throw it backward from the vertical, while the other bends the knees in a direction opposite to the natural position.
An upright post, which is arranged in front of the dash-board, and within easy reach of the front seats, sustains two miniature pilot wheels, by the turning of which these various motions and evolutions are directed. It is expected that a sufficiently large amount of coal can be stowed away under the back seat of the carriage to work the engine for a day, and enough water in the tank under the front seat to last half a day.
In order to prevent the “giant” from frightening horses by its wonderful appearance Mr. Deddrick intends to clothe it and give it as nearly as possible a likeness to the rest of humanity. The boiler, and such parts as are necessarily heated, will be encased in felt and woolen undergarments. Pantaloons, coat and vest, of the latest styles, are provided. Whenever the fire needs coaling, which is every two or three hours, the driver stops the machine, descends from his seat, unbuttons “Daniel’s” vest, opens a door, shovels in the fuel, buttons up the vest and drives on. On the back, between the shoulders the steam cocks and gauges are placed. As these would cause the coat to set awkwardly, a knapsack has been provided that completely covers them. A blanket, neatly rolled up and placed on top the knapsack, perfects the delusion. The face is molded into a cheerful countenance of white enamel, which contrasts well with the dark hair and mustache. A sheet iron hat with a gauge top acts as a smoke stack.
The cost of this “first man” is $2,000 3, thought the makers, Messrs. Deddrick & Grass, expect to manufacture succeeding ones, warranted to run a year without repair, for $300. The same parties expect to construct, on the same principle, horses which will do the duty of twelve ordinary animals of the same species. These, it is confidently believed, can be used alike before carriages, street cars and plows. The man now constructed can make his way without difficulty over any irregular surface whose ruts and stones are not more than nine inches below or above the level of the road.
- Dederick’s name is mispelt Deddrick in the newspaper and Drederick on the patent!
- Daniel Lambert (March 13, 1770 — June 21, 1809) was a man from Leicester in England, who became famous for his obesity. Wikipedia
- $2000 in 1868 equaled about $25,000 in 2003. Oregon State University
A few months after the unveiling of Mr. Dederick’s steam-powered automaton (Coincidence? I think not!), “The Steam Man of the Prairie” by Edward Sylvester Ellis was published in Beadle’s American Novel # 45, in August 1868. Ellis (April 11, 1840 — June 20, 1916) was an American teacher, school administrator, journalist, and a highly prolific author. He wrote a large number of ‘dime’ novels under an almost equally large number of pen-names. He authored the highly successful Deerfoot series — the adventures of Deerfoot of the Shawnee, a young Native American brave based on the historical character of the same name. He also created the Log Cabin series, featuring the characters Oskar Relstaub and Jack Carleton. After 1870, many of his stories included many of the cryptids, ghosts, and other strange phenomenon reported from the vast plains and deserts of the Old West. His outstanding contribution to the history of Science Fiction, however, was The Steam Man of the Prairies.
The Steam Man of the title is a mechanical servant built for labor and transport, invented by teenage genius Johnny Brainerd (putting the ‘nerd’ into science before anyone else) and his companions Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle.
After 1868, dime novel adventures featuring technological wonders set in the Old West became a thriving and profitable sub-genre of literature. This resulted in the establishment of the “Edisonades” (more of them later) and, almost exactly one hundred years later, the creation of the Wild Wild West TV show.
The first volume of “Age of Steam”, exploring the roots of the modern Science Fiction phenomenon and containing the full text of the landmark books, is now available here!
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