The Copeland steam bicycle was a

steam powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

, two-wheeled

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on Track (rail transport), rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of pe ...

made by

Lucius Copeland Lucius Day Copeland was a pioneering 19th-century engineer and inventor from Phoenix, Arizona who demonstrated one of the first motorcycles, the Copeland steam bicycle, a steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs me ...

in 1881 and is sometimes classed as an early

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

. In 1881 Copeland designed an efficient small steam boiler which could drive the large rear wheel of a Columbia

penny-farthing The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds (owing to its travelling a large distance for every r ...

to a speed of . Unlike typical penny-farthing bicycles, the Copeland had a small wheel at the front, which was turned by the handlebar for steering, and large wheel at the back. In 1884 Copeland used an American Star bicycle, smaller steering wheel in front, to construct a new demonstration vehicle for the

Maricopa County Fair The Maricopa County Fair is annually held in Phoenix, Arizona at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. It began in the 1950s as a county fair and citrus festival. Every year the fair holds a different theme. Exhibits hundreds of livestock exhibits from ...

that year. The "Star" was able to cover a mile in four minutes and to carry enough water to operate for an hour. Copeland set up the Northrop Manufacturing Co. in 1887 in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

, to produce the a three-wheeled version, the "Phaeton Moto-Cycle", which he demonstrated at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C in 1888. The steam-powered engine produced 4 horsepower at 2600 rpm with a boiler around the steering column with the water heated by kerosene. A simple leather belt drove the large rear wheel, yielding a top speed of around . Steam Tricycle in Front of North Entrance to Smithsonian Institution Building 1888

Steam Tricycle in Front of North Entrance to Smithsonian Institution Building 1888

Surviving replicas

Peter Gagan, a former president of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, was able to trace an 1884 "Star" bicycle with an original Copeland steam engine to the Phoenix Museum of History. Gagan took sufficiently detailed measurements to create a full-scale, working replica, which was hurriedly assembled to feature at the The Art of the Motorcycle, Guggenheim's 'The Art of the Motorcycle' Exhibition when it opened on The Las Vegas Strip in October 2001. This finished replica of the original Copeland "Star" is now the oldest motorcycle design in operable condition in the world. This has inspired the Phoenix Museum of History to build a second Copeland replica, though it is not intended to be a working model.

References

External links

Picture of Lucius Copeland and his steam bicycle in 1884

Copeland's 'Steam Tricycle Patent 1887

Advert for the Phaeton Moto-Cycle 1890
{{Early motorcycles 19th-century motorcycles Steam motorcycles