Combat walking machines appeared on the pages of fantastic works relatively late - in the middle of the 19th century, when steam and electric mechanisms became firmly established in life and were no longer associated with something incredible.
However, Jules Verne could not pass by the walking giants, in 1880 he embodied huge steam elephants on the pages of the "Steam House", and in 1897 he put evil Martians on tripods.
Prairie Mechanisms
At the end of the 19th century, on the pages of literary magazines, one could very often find the most real steamy people - a kind of revived Tin Woodmen. The first such character appeared in good old England, which at that time was the leader in the commercial and industrial sphere. Therefore, the appearance of the steam man organically intertwined with the life of literary heroes.
In 1868, the writer Edward Ellis, in his novel "The Prairie Steam Man", told readers about the inventor Johnny Brainerd, who managed to design the world's first robot (however, then no one knew this word yet).
To this invention Johnny was led by twists and turns of fate: the boy, who received a hump as a result of a birth injury, grew up very withdrawn. His father, a brilliant designer and author of many patents, died early, but Johnny inherited his talent and spent hours making self-propelled toy carriages, ships and steam locomotives.
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When inventor 11232s081 came out of adolescence and toys, albeit self-propelled, he was bored, his mother suddenly suggested Johnny create a full-fledged … man, driven by the power of steam. Brainerd got down to business with enthusiasm, and after many years, the iron man was finally ready.
Here is how the invention is described in the novel: “This mighty giant was about three meters in height, no horse could compare with him: the giant easily pulled a van with five passengers. Where ordinary people wear a hat, the Steam Man had a chimney, from where thick black smoke poured.
In a mechanical man everything, even his face, was made of iron, and his body was painted black. The extraordinary mechanism had a pair of frightened eyes and a huge grinning mouth. In the nose he had a device, like the whistle of a steam locomotive, through which steam was emitted. Where the man's chest is, he had a steam boiler with a door for throwing in logs.
His two hands held the pistons, and the soles of massive long legs covered with sharp spikes to prevent slipping. In a knapsack on his back he had valves, and on his neck there were reins, with the help of which the driver controlled the Steam Man, while on the left there was a cord to control the whistle in the nose. Under favorable circumstances, the Steam man was able to develop very high speed."
Our locomotive, run forward
However, this highest speed (30 miles, that is, about 48 kilometers per hour) was nowhere to be developed: on country roads, a cart driven by Steam Man would quickly be left without wheels. Even the paved roads posed a serious threat to her.
The very device of the steam boiler dictated the need to constantly feed it with fuel - wood, which, of course, had to be carried with you or somehow found along the way. The problem with water was less acute, but nevertheless in 1875 the inventor cooled down to his brainchild and sold a patent for the mechanism to Frank Reed Sr., who began to improve it.
Having successfully applied all the developments of his predecessor, Frank built a car in just a year, which he called the Steam Man Mark II. The man and, so to speak, the steam locomotive became taller (3.65 meters), got headlights instead of eyes, a reinforced piston system and lighter alloys in the design, which made it possible to reach speeds of up to 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) per hour.
Also, the “driver” no longer had to poke around with a poker and clean the firebox of ash - it itself fell out through special channels at the feet of the car. the elder, who threw all his strength into the construction of electrical creatures.
Frank had to get the Steam Man Mark II out of the closet only once: according to rumors, in February 1876, with a large crowd of people, he arranged a race between his iron runner and another, Steam Man Mark III (apparently, the design of his own son). However, which model won the competition was not specified.
World War I robot
November 27, 1862 was another turning point in the fate of the "steam people" existing only on the pages of novels. On this day, a very real person was born in Chicago - the future inventor of such a machine, Archie Campion. As follows from his life story, the death of his sister's husband in the war (apparently, Civil) traumatized the boy so much that he decided to invent a means that would stop any armed conflicts in the world. And soon the opportunity presented itself to him.
In 1878, Archie got a job with the Chicago Telephone Company and began to absorb scientific and technical knowledge like a sponge. Five years later, he already had many patents for various technical devices: from flap pipelines to multistage electrical systems.
Some of them were used at the giant Westinghouse Electric, and soon the young man, thanks to regular contributions, became a millionaire. This finally gave Archie the opportunity to begin work on the notorious means of preventing war - in 1888 he built a laboratory near Chicago. In the end, the means turned out to be a steampunk-style terminator - a humanoid Boilerplate (from the English boiler plate - "boiler plate", "heavy iron").
Campion created it for the Columbus World Exhibition in 1893, but for some reason the mechanism did not enjoy success at it, and a year later, with unclear goals, went on a sailing ship to … Antarctica. However, the ship did not reach the penguins, covered with ice, so the robot returned to the continent and finally waited for what it was created for - the Spanish-American war of 1898. The inventor personally approached President Theodore Roosevelt with a request to enlist the mechanical man in the army as a volunteer, which he did.
True, Boilerplate could not stop the war by participating in it, but he emerged from it unharmed and in 1916 took part in the capture of the Mexican rebel Pancho Villa, during which he was … captured. Here is how eyewitness Modesto Navarez describes this episode: “Suddenly someone shouted that an American soldier had been captured north of the city. He was led to the hotel where Pancho Villa was located.
I had the opportunity to see for myself that I have never seen a stranger soldier in my life. This American was not a human at all, since he was completely made of metal, and was a whole head larger than all the soldiers. He had a blanket over his shoulders so that from a distance he looked just like an ordinary peasant.
I later learned that the sentries tried to stop the metal figure with rifle fire, but the bullets were like mosquitoes for this giant. Instead of retaliating against the attackers, this soldier simply asked to be taken to the leader. Boilerplate disappeared, as befits a hero: in 1918 he went to the German rear with a secret mission and never returned. Since then, no one has seen the mechanical giant …
Yuri Danilov, Secrets of the 20th century