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COVER STORY
10
of noise and smell, of
which the competing
gasoline-driven cars
were notably guilty.
The Stanley brothers quickly received hundreds of offers
to buy the car. So they decided to make a hundred cars —
the first quantity production of automobiles in the world!
Before production was really underway, an offer was
made to buy the whole business, including the building
and patents, which had not yet been applied for. So the
first Stanley-designed cars sold to the public were built by
a firm jointly owned by John Brisben Walker, publisher of
Cosmopolitan, and Amzi Lorenzo Barber, a paving
machine manufacturer. These two people soon had a
parting of ways. Two companies resulted, Locomobile and
Mobile, and together made nearly 10,000 of these simple
runabouts in four years.
When a Locomobile, driven by F.O. Stanley, became the
first car to climb Mount Washington, New Hampshire, in
August 1899, it made headlines around the world. Of
course, as soon as the popularity of these cars was
noticed, everybody tried for a bit of the action. More than
a hundred companies tried making steamers in the first
decade of the twentieth century.
BULLETIN: What does steam car technology involve?
Mr. Nergaard: Like a steam power plant, a steam car can
be divided into four major sections: the burner, the steam
generator, the engine, and the auxiliaries. The burner
releases the fuel’s energy in the form of heat. The steam
generator conveys that heat to the working fluid for the
engine. The engine converts some of the heat in the fluid
to mechanical energy, which propels the car. And the
NATIONAL BOARD BULLETIN/FALL 2003
■ A standard Style No. 2
Locomobile circa 1900,
this two-passenger
steam car was equipped
with a rubber bucket,
side lamps, gong,
cyclometer, and a full set
of tools for $750.
auxiliaries handle all
the details needed to
run the car, like
pumping the working
fluid and fuel into the generator and burner, respectively,
and controlling various functions in the car.
BULLETIN: Did steam technology improve along with
steam car design?
Mr. Nergaard: Yes, but not nearly as rapidly as it should
have.
The petroleum industry provided the most important
improvements needed for early cars. Mineral oil-based
lubricants, like superheated cylinder oil, and volatile fuels,
like gasoline, both by-products of the kerosene industry,
made small, efficient steam plants, as well as gasoline
engines, possible.
The development of the gasoline vaporizing burner
produced a compact, powerful, easily controlled, and clean
source of heat. This, in turn, allowed the building of very
compact, efficient boilers. Coupled with a small version of
an engine, one obtained a power plant quite suited to the
needs of a small motor carriage. The early Locomobile
only weighed 500 pounds, with full tanks, water, and fuel
for about 30 miles.
■ The “Standard Gasoline Burner” (left) was used with the majority of
Locomobiles, while the “Reverse Burner Complete” had an asbestoslined
casing, pilot light, generator, and regulator.