a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
A Penny Popular item from 1916 , this fictional story about the adventures of tthree comrades Jack, Sam, and Pete. Pete has a Steam Man. He appears with his own axe in both cover illustrations. Maybe he chops his own firewood?
Originally published in the Electrical Experimenter (issue unknown but probably late 1916). This version from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette 24th Dec 1916 p12 It is probably more a ‘electric dog’ than a creature built to exhibit phototropic behaviour and the like. Although it has a selenium cell, it is for selector circuit activation purposes, not …