History

Historian Column

Jim Liston
William Berry
Phone 978.774.1057
Email: jlisten@berry.com

The Roper Steam Velocipede

The Roper Steam Velocipede One of the very first self-powered two wheeled vehicles was seen on the streets of Boston in 1867 when Sylvester Howard Roper married a boiler, steam engine, and bicycle together to form what in those days was referred to as a “velocipede”. Today, these vehicles are more commonly known as motorcycles.

Roper was born on November 24, 1823, in Francestown, New Hampshire, the son of a cabinetmaker. Early in his career he was a craftsman, an avid inventor and a machinist. He eventually settled in Boston in 1854.

Roper's vehicle had two 34-inch-diameter wooden-spoke wheels with wooden rims and iron-band tires. The front wheel was supported in a forged wrought-iron fork having a straight handlebar with wooden grips, with footrests located at the bottom of the fork. The vehicle had a wheelbase of 49 inches.

A vertical, fire-tube boiler was suspended between the wheels, and a chimney angled back from the top of the boiler housing. The lower half of the housing served as the firebox. Charcoal was fed through a small circular door on the left side of the firebox. The housing was suspended from the center of the frame by means of a spring-loaded hanger (intended to absorb some of the road shock) and was braced at the bottom by two stay rods connected to the rear of the frame. The boiler’s water supply was ingeniously incorporated into the seat, and the water was manually pumped between the two by a hand-operated pump on the forward side of the boiler. Three water-level cocks were located in close proximity to the rider, and a drain valve was located at the left rear of the boiler's base.

The low pressure steam from the boiler was fed to two small oscillating cylinders, located on either side of the boiler. Each cylinder was approximately 2-1/4" bore by 2-1/2" stroke, and they were individually connected by rods to driving cranks on the rear wheel axle. Piston valves for the cylinders were operated by eccentrics adjacent to their cranks. The exhaust steam from the cylinders was carried by tubing into the base of a short chimney providing forced draft. The chimney was terminated behind the seat.

The throttle and brake were controlled by means similar to the design on modern motorcycles. A cable attached to a handgrip on the handlebars operated the throttle valve as well as the brakes. Tightening the cable activated the steam throttle valve (located at the top front of the boiler housing), while rotating the handgrip in the opposite direction applied the spoon-type friction brake on the rim of the front wheel.

By 1896, Roper felt he had his new machine perfected. On June 1 of that year, he took it to the Charles River bicycle racetrack in Boston to test its viability as a pace-making machine for bicycle races. Roper made a few exhibition laps around the track and several bicycle racers attempted to keep up with him but were unable to do so. Initially, Roper covered a mile in two minutes and 12 seconds. Having easily accomplished that feat, he decided to try for an even better time. He was moving with great speed around the 1/3-mile wooden track, but he went into a big wobble on the back straight and was thrown off the track and into the sand surrounding it. When spectators came to his aide, they discovered that he had died. It was later determined that he had died of heart failure, not as a result of the accident itself.

In his lifetime, Roper designed and built a wide range of products including sewing machines, guns, machine tools, furnaces, automatic fire escapes and eventually steampowered carriages and bicycles. Perhaps his best known invention is the cartridge repeater shotgun invented in 1866.

Information contained in this article was collected from several sources, including “The Smithsonian National Museum of American History Website”, “The Stanley Motor Carriage Website”, “The Museum of RetroTechnology Website”, “The Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum Website”, and “The SteamTraction Website”.