Boilerplate

History's Mechanical Marvel

,

• Publisher: Abrams Image
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780810989504
• eBook ISBN: 9781613120316
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

Meet Boilerplate, the world's first robot soldier—not in a present-day military lab or a science-fiction movie, but in the past, during one of the most fascinating periods of U.S. history. Designed by Professor Archibald Campion in 1893 as a prototype, for the self-proclaimed purpose of "preventing the deaths of men in the conflicts of nations, " Boilerplate charged into combat alongside such notables as Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia. Campion and his robot also circled the planet with the U.S. Navy, trekked to the South Pole, made silent movies, and hobnobbed with the likes of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. You say you've never heard of Boilerplate before? That's because this book is the fanciful creation of a husbandand-wife team who have richly imagined these characters and inserted them into accurate retellings of history. This full-color chronicle is profusely illustrated with graphics mimicking period style, including photos, paintings, posters, cartoons, maps, and even stereoscope cards. Part Jules Verne and part Zelig, it's a great volume for a broad range of fans of science fiction, history, and robots.

CHAPTER

1

Professor

Archibald Campion:

An Inventor’s Life

or

THE BIRTH OF BOILERPLATE

Boilerplate’s inventor, Archibald Campion, was the youngest child of Robert and Jane Campion, who married in Washington, D.C., before the Civil War. Archie’s older sister, Lily, was born there in 1852. The family’s lives changed course at the first Battle of Bull Run in 1861, the famous engagement in which Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson got his nickname.

Professor Archibald Balthazar
Campion (1862–1938) and his
greatest invention: Boilerplate.
Chicago, November 1893.

PICNIC AT BULL RUN

The Campions were among a crowd of genteel civilians who turned out to picnic while watching the battle, expecting Jackson to be trounced. In those days, war was still occasionally a spectator sport, with a circumscribed field of battle. Jane, who had just learned that she was pregnant again, looked forward to sharing the news with her husband during their pleasant outing.

Archie and Lily’s parents, Robert
and Jane Campion, circa 1870.

9

PROFESSOR ARCHIBALD CAMPION: ANINVENTOR’S LIFE

Archie’s parents were among
the many civilians who came from
nearby Washington, D.C., to picnic
and observe this historic engage-
ment between North and South.
They soon learned that war was no
longer a formal affair.

When Archie was a boy, he read
some of the earliest science fiction
dime novels. Pulp magazines such
as this one helped inspire him to
create Boilerplate.

Artillery shot destroys a carriage
directly in front of Robert and Jane
Campion during the first Battle
of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. They
and other spectators fled toward
Washington, D.C. as the Union army
was unexpectedly driven back by
Confederate forces.

___It didn’t work out that way. Instead, Union forces were beaten back by the rebels. Onlookers panicked and fled, their carriages clogging the roads back to D.C. Surrounded by explosions and gunfire, the Campions narrowly missed being hit by an artillery shot. Jane watched in horror as it blew apart one of her best friends nearby. As a result of the shock, she suffered a miscarriage.

___Grieving and shaken by their close encounter with the gruesome reality of war, Robert and Jane decided to start over in a new town out west.

“ALL IS ASTIR HERE”

The Campions relocated to a city that teemed with possibilities: Chicago. They arrived during the most rapid urban expansion in human history. Between 1837 and 1871, Chicago exploded from a swampy outpost of 5,000 settlers to a bustling metropolis of 330,000 urbanites.

___“Now, upon my return to Chicago after a mere three years abroad, I find myself absolutely astounded by its marvellous growth and improvement in that span. Foot by foot, inch by inch, Chicagoans have overtaken and transmuted swampland, clay-banks, and shifting sands. The city grows by day, by night, all days, unceasingly. In short, all is astir here.”

___—Patience Boyden, “New City on the Prairie,” The New York World (March 25, 1871)

___Born in Chicago on November 27, 1862, Archie Campion was an exceptionally curious child with a voracious appetite for knowledge. He learned to read at an early age, devouring dime novels called Edisonades that featured the adventures of inventors such as Johnny Brainerd and his steam-powered mechanical man.

___As a young boy, Archie emulated his dime-novel hero, drawing diagrams and building clockwork toys. Later in life Archie would read about, and ultimately befriend, famous real-life inventors such as Frank Reade Jr. and Nikola Tesla.

10

CHAPTER 1

A SLIGHT MISCALCULATION

Robert Campion tried to capitalize on the burgeoning business scene by founding the first company in Chicago to produce differential calculating machines. It was, however, an idea slightly ahead of its time, and Robert struggled to make a living from his business. Jane helped support their family by teaching history and writing adventure fiction under a pseudonym. She educated their children at home and often acted out her tall tales as bedtime stories, no doubt contributing to the dashing spirit Lily and Archie displayed throughout their lives.

___Lily blossomed into a beautiful, whipsmart young lady with uncommon ideas—such as the notion that women should be allowed to vote and attend college. She met her match in an open-minded naval officer named Hugh W. McKee. The two wed in 1870, after a courtship during which Lily a...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Appendix
• Timeline
• Boilerplate Today
• Back Cover