Steam-Man of the Prairies

in Bill Brown's essay in Cultures of United States Imperialism, he describes a scifi book from 1868 in which a disabled child constructs a steam-powered man to do all of the things he can't do: Ellis, Steam-Man of the Prairies.

Children and Technology: Bibliographic Notes

Downey, Gregory - Telegraph Messenger Boys: Labor, Communication, and Technology, 1850-1950 (2002)
Law, John - A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology, and Domination (1991)
Pursell, "Tots, Technology, and Sex Roles in America, 1920-1940," in Dynamos and Virgins Revisited (1979)