THE GREATEST 



MECHANICAL 



EXHIBITION 



MTV THE UTOIILD. 



STEAM 



BUGGY! 



nderful 



in rt, InO 



Prooounced by scientific nwn to be the i 



of modem lime* It car. b«- dm«n wt 



mile* a day. upon common roady It is light and rtrong, and run 



be managed better than any hora*. and can be driven fabler than 



asj per»»n dare to rid* Will matrh it againM any btttltng horwe 



in the world 



THE ONLY 



TO BE BKEIST AT 



600 BROADWAY. 



ADMISSION 



25 Cent*. 



Figure 6. — Early handbill pub- 

 licizing Roper steam vehicles. 



Sylvester H. Roper 



At least one early inventor, Sylvester H. Roper, of Rox- 

 bury, Mass., constructed a steam-operated velocipede, and 

 for some years his machine (see p. 33) appeared at fairs and 

 circuses in New England, as a handbill of about 75 years 

 ago (fig. 6) reveals. Resembling a Hanlon-type velocipede, 

 with wooden wheels and iron-band tires, the machine was 

 propelled through the rear wheel, the axle of which was 

 fitted with cranks connected to two small steam cylinders, 

 one on each side of the rear section of the frame. This 

 velocipede, built in about 1869, is now in the collection of 

 the National Museum. 



Over a period of years, Roper also constructed several 

 large steam-propelled wagons, one of which (fig. 7) is for- 

 tunately preserved in the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, 

 Mich. This machine, as the handbill shows, was at one 

 time exhibited with the velocipede. It has been erroneously 

 referred to as an Austin steamer because of the fact that 



14 



