Steampunk was just steam technology in the late 1800’s. Many inventions are somewhat lost to us today. The authors HG Wells and Jules Verne were writing science fiction, which is now steampunk science fiction. The first rebirth of steampunk writing was a serial based on a boy who builds a steam powered man to pull a wagon to the west where they fight Indians and make their fortune, returning home in triumph. These stories were very popular in the 1920’s and 1930’s in America. This shows that as early as 1868, such an invention actually existed. If petroleum was not discovered as an energy source, who knows what cool technology we would have developed with steam and hydraulics?
Steam Robot
“Zadoc P. Dederick, along with Isaac Grass, was the creator of a steam-powered human-like robot designed to pull a cart.”
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 