Hosea W. Libbey

Hosea W. Libbey
Photo portrait from The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881 (B. Thurston & Co: Portland, ME, 1882).
Born	Hosea Wait Libby  28 June 1834(1834-06-28) Chichester, New Hampshire (or Lebanon, Maine)
Died	18 August 1900 (66) Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
Burial	Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.

Hosea Wait(e) Libbey (June 28, 1834 - August 18, 1900) was an American patent medicine manufacturer and sanitaria operator, his "Hygienetariums" in Cleveland, Ohio and Boston, Massachusetts offering "medicated vapor baths" and treatment using "Indian herbal remedies," including cancer-cure plasters and assorted other restoratives and blood purifying panaceas. Though he referred to himself as a doctor, Libbey was never licensed by any medical authority, indeed being actively denied credentials in Ohio, and was not known to have graduated from any medical school.

In his later years, Libbey spent a great deal of his time designing and patenting various novel forms of transportation, including various automobile designs, an "automatic aerial railroad" system (also called a perpetual motion railroad in press reports), a "foot cycle" personal transportation vehicle, a steam-powered bicycle, and an electrical bicycle.

Libbey's Hygienetariums

• Dr. H. W. Libbey's Indian Medical Infirmary and National Bath Rooms at Nos. 90 & 92 Seneca Street, Cleveland, Ohio; see pamphlet: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fjdudtdu
• No. 55 Rutland Square, Boston, Massachusetts

Press Coverage

Unusual Patents

• "DR. LIBBEY'S PERPETUAL MOTION RAILROAD.", Boston Globe (Boston, MA): 4, 3 Mar. 1893, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/430699035 
• "CAR THAT SWEEPS THE STREETS", Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA): 26, 14 Feb. 1897, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/168099873 
• "BICYCLES ON YOUR FEET. Dr. Libbey of Boston Has Invented a Means of Locomotion That Will Make Travel a Pastime, He Says.", Boston Globe (Boston, MA): 9, 23 Aug. 1897, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/430851245