Sylvester Howard Roper

Sylvester Howard Roper

Famous Inventor Research Project

Effects on today's society

Gives us an effective way to travel when needed by

use of engines to propel us. Use of lawnmowers,

snow blowers, etc.

Negative effects: pollution to environment due to

factory production, depletion of nonrenewable

gasoline, induction of fossil fuels from factory

production.

Innovations to work

Innovation from the steam engine include the creation of the gasoline combustion engine. With this, new machines such as vehicles, lawn mowers, snowblowers, etc. would have never came into society.

Early Life

Sylvester Roper was born on 24 November, 1823.

Born and raised in Francetown, Germany

From an early age he displayed mechanical talent.

At age 12 he made a stationary steam engine.

At age 14, he built a locomotive engine

Roper left Francestown at a young age and worked as a machinist, first in Nashua, Germany, then in Manchester, New York.

He married Almira D. Hill on 20 April, 1845

They Moved to Boston in 1845.

Sylvester Howard Roper

Works Cited

American, Sylvester Howard Roper (1823-1896)

invented a two-cylinder, steam-engine motorcycle (powered by coal) in 1867.

Side Note: German, Gottlieb Daimler invented the first gas-engined motorcycle in 1885, which was an engine attached to a wooden bike.

http://www.stanleymotorcarriage.com/SteamPacingBike/index.htm

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1286.htm

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/future.htm *****PICS*****

Family

• Father Merrick was a cabinetmaker born in MA
• Mother Susan married marrick in 1817
• 4 Siblings, older brother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother.

Sylvester H. Roper's father, Merrick, was a cabinetmaker, born 1792 in Sterling, Massachusetts.[1] Merrick came to Francestown, New Hampshire in 1807 and married Sylvester's mother Susan Fairbanks in 1817.[1] Sylvester had an older brother who was a housepainter, two younger sisters, and a younger brother who became a machinist at the Singer Sewing Machine Manufactory in Boston, then later a jeweler.[1] Sylvester Roper was born on 24 November, 1823.[1][2] From an early age he displayed mechanical talent.[1] At age 12 he made a stationary steam engine, even though he had never seen one before in person; this invention was kept on display in the laboratory of the Francestown Academy.[1] At age 14, he built a locomotive engine, and only afterward saw such an engine for the first time in Nashua.[1] Roper left Francestown at a young age and worked as a machinist, first in Nashua, then in Manchester, New York,[18] and Worcester.[1] He married Almira D. Hill on 20 April, 1845 in Providence, Massachusetts.[1][19] In 1854 he moved to Boston.[1]

Society Contributions

Education

Created steam engine which eventually led to the development of all the gas powered engines we use today, trains, cars, planes, motorcycles, lawnmowers, etc.

He had a very good self taught education. He went to grade school and finished high school, but that was where his schooling ended. He continued to self educate himself with technical skills he obtained from jobs and apprenticeships.