Zadoc Dederick

Zadoc Pratt Dederick, named after inventor Zadock Pratt, was an American machinist, inventor, and patent attorney. In 1868, at the age of 22, Dederick, along with a machinist Isaac Grass, who was possibly 15–16 years old, created a steam-powered humanlike robot designed to pull a cart after six years of work. Nicknamed Daniel after Daniel Lambert by workmen hired by Dederick, the invention was patented on March 24, 1868, as patent 75874, and operated through a system of levers and cranks, attached to steam-powered pistons and a boiler. The original prototype cost $2,000 ($47,245 in 2024) and was built in Newark, New Jersey. Plans to produce it for $300 ($7,087 in 2024) never went through, making this an example of an early development in steam power that was abandoned. Nonetheless, inventions such as this one spurred interest in steam power, as exemplified by novels such as The Steam Man of the Prairies, and by many imitations and hoaxes that appeared as a result.

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