COPELAND
Charles A Copeland of Rocklane, Indiana, USA patented a means of power steering traction engines in 1888. It involved a chain linking the front turntable with a cog on the engine though how it was regulated to avoid continuous rotation was not made clear.
W W Austin of Winthrop, Massachusetts had made a steam-assisted bicycle in 1868 and, learning from it, Lucius D Copeland of Phoenix, Arizona fitted a steam engine to a Columbia high wheeler bicycle in 1881 and found it to be “very inefficient and dangerous”. NexthetriedaStarbicycle with a small front steering wheel. He fitted a boiler and engine weighing 18lbs on the downtube and found that it could maintain 12mph. In 1884 he exhibited it at the Mechanics Pavilion, San Francisco and demonstrated it in country fairs all over California. He finally struck lucky at Madison Square Gardens, New York when Sanford Northrop of Northrop Mfg, Camden, New Jersey adopted it and created the Moto-Cycle Mfg Co to produce it in quantity.
