1. Ancient Chinese mechanical horse
The wooden horse was created by Zhuge Liang, Shu Han's servant in 480 BC. It was supposed to be a mechanical walking copy of a horse, the main purpose of which is to carry supplies (grain) to the army.
Wooden Horse Carriage - Lu Bang 480 BC
See also the book "Reconstruction of the Lost Ancient Chinese Equipment" by Hon-Sen Yan (search in Google books)
Think about the official date (480 BC). If in those distant years they could make such things, then it's scary to assume that it was 300 years ago !? And they tell us about bast shoes …
2. Wooden cow / bull Zhu-ge Liang 230 AD
Promotional video:
Sliding Horse Zhu-ge Liang 230 A. D.
3. Cart with legs - Francis Potter / Robert Hooke (British) 1663
Francis Potter (1594-1678) was an English painter, priest, biblical commentator and experimenter, and one of the earliest members of the Royal Society.
Robert Hooke is a 17th century microscopist, engineer and surveyor. English natural scientist and inventor. We can safely be called one of the fathers of physics, especially experimental. Member of the Royal Society of London.
Transfer:
h. - denotes a
CC horse. - trolley with 4 legs.
Ffff. - the legs of these legs are
KKKK. -
pp knees, - a pair of pulleys fixed at the ends of two springs: SS. on the run chains cccc, w ch legs forward movement.
R, rope or chain to pull straight on most legs
4. Walking platform Chebyshev - 1850
Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev - "the greatest Russian mathematician of the XIX century." He obtained fundamental results in number theory (distribution of primes) and probability theory (central limit theorem, the law of large numbers), constructed the general theory of orthogonal polynomials, the theory of uniform approximations, and many others. He founded the mathematical theory of synthesis of mechanisms and developed a number of practically important concepts of mechanisms.
In foreign sources, the walker was invented in 1850, and 28 years later it received universal approval at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878. Also, Chebyshev invented more than forty mechanisms and about eighty modifications for them. In the modern world, many of them are used in auto and motorcycle devices.
See all Chebyshev's inventions on the website: tcheb.ru
5. Mechanical horse (pat.) - V. Farr Goodwin (American) - 1867
William Farr Goodwin is a versatile American inventor. The first two inventions were developed for toys, first for a mechanical horse and then for a walking doll.
DRAWING TO PATENT No. 61416 GOODWIN, JANUARY 22, 1867.
June 3, 1876, London, Middlesex.
The mechanical horse was made at the National Iron and Steel Works in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and then was exhibited at the exhibition. The model was worked out in detail, and this caused surprise to everyone who saw it. Every movement of the horse is as natural as it is in life. When walking, each joint of her leg is set in the correct motion, while her neck and head swing in the appropriate direction, and yet the simplest mechanism was used, which is no more than a few pulleys and one or two belts, the latter resembling the tendons of real animals.
William Farr Goodwin also patented a clock mechanism that allowed a doll to push a wheeled cart or chair, patented in 1868.
PATENT No. 81491 - GOODWIN AUGUST 25, 1868 AUTOMATIC TOY.
In the 1870s, J&E Stevens and George W. Brown and Co produced walking dolls using Goodwin's patented mechanism.
6. Steam Man - Dederick & Grass 1867-8
Mr. Sadok Deddrick, inventor of the steam man in 1867-1868, which was powered by a steam engine. The invention performed some of the most important functions of humanity; the steam man stood in an upright position and had a walk / run mode, moved in any direction and at almost any speed, while pulling a load, the weight of which would burden the strength of three horses.
Steam Man Height: Seven Feet Nine Inches, Remaining In Correct Proportions, Making Him The Second Daniel Lambert To Be Mentioned Among The Workers. Its weight is five hundred pounds. The steam is generated in the body or trunk, which is nothing more than a three horsepower engine like those used in steam fire engines.
The steps are very natural and fluid. When the body is thrown forward on the advanced leg, the other leg is lifted off the ground with the help of a spring and thrown forward by steam. Each step propels the steam-man's body two feet, and each revolution of the engine makes four steps. Since the engine is capable of over a thousand revolutions per minute, it is estimated that it can fly over the ground at just over one mile per minute. On uneven surfaces with rocks, it was recommended to run the engine at five hundred revolutions per minute, which is equal to half a mile per minute.
From the morning chronicle of January 27, 1868 - Nova Scotia.
The above article confirms that the Steam Man was in the Bolen & Crane factory
The text in the above ad indicates that another Steam Man was built along the same lines and exhibited in an exhibition in Paris, but no evidence of this has been found.
The aforementioned advertisement from Quincy, in Quincy, Illinois, on February 20, 1869, indicates that Steam Man has already exhibited in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans.
Agree, Steam Man is very similar to the Lumberjack from the Emerald City!
7. Automatic toy of the inventor E. R. Morrison - 1861 - 1870
Morrison's patent for "Autoperipatetikos" - (Walking doll). Patent No. 35886, Date of issue: 1862.
Inventor: Enoch Rice Morrison. Patent No. 33019, Date of issue: August 6, 1861
Please note that the drawing of the invention is very much reminiscent of the well-known Soviet toy:
Below is a video showing the "Autoperipatetikos" doll in motion.
8. Canadian inventor Adam Ironsides and his Steam Man - SS Rowe or Captain Rowe - 1874
Patent No. 4175.
Patent filing year: 1874-01-01.
Patent name: Steam locomotive or pleasure car.
Name / City: ROE, CYRENIUS C.: HAMILTON, Ontario, Canada.
Year granted: 1874-12-15.
Interestingly, the article above mentions Weston, the famous steam man of the time. Later, in 1893, an automated steam man appeared, strongly reminiscent of Weston. I wonder if these two inventions were related or not?
Author: Artem Yanovich