Oshkosh Steam Wagon

The Oshkosh Steam Wagon, also called the Oshkosh Steam Buggy or the Oshkosh Steamer, was a steam-powered road vehicle built by five residents of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to compete in a 200-mile endurance race in 1878. In June 1878 the state of Wisconsin offered a prize of $10,000 to any citizen who invented a steam-powered replacement for horses and other animals on the highway and farm. The Oshkosh team was made up of boiler maker M. G. Battis, engineer John F. Morse, fire chief A. W. Farrand, and Frank A. Shomer and Alexander Gallinger, who made their living selling wood for the wood-fuelled locomotives of the Chicago and North Western Railway. Their solid and massive car weighed about 4.5 tons, could reverse, and had a two-piston steam engine. It could cover about 10 miles before fuel and water needed to be replenished, so a supply of both was towed behind it. It was slower than its competitor, the even heavier Green Bay Steamer of E. P. Cowles, but it won the race on July 15 because Cowles had lost too much time making repairs after an accident. The government then argued that the Oshkosh Steamer was neither cheap nor practical, and an agreement was reached out of court to pay half the prize money.