Alternative means of automobile propulsion

Now, in 2012, the automobile is such a part of our lives, whether we drive or not, that it’s hard to imagine the days when the automobile was new.

When cars were first built, as "horseless carriages", gasoline was not the only way of making them move.  By the 1800’s Steam had come into its own as the prime mover of industry.  Why not use steam to make engines work that would make automobiles move?

The Stanley Motor Carriage Company built hundreds of steam cars.  The "Stanley Steamers" were legitimate, proven automobiles that, as part of their advertising, extolled themselves as far safer than "the explosive gasoline engine".  In the steam era, boilers exploded, sinking riverboats and derailing train engines, and there were honest fears of steam powered automobiles becoming exploding death traps, but no Stanley Steamer ever blew up, and the company was in business 22 years, building hundreds cars until 1924.

Western Areoplane And Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon, has several examples of steam powered automobiles:

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The "Coffin Nose" of the Stanley Steamer was the housing for the boiler of the car; with a steam drive, there was no transmission and the car had but two gears, forward and reverse.

In 1906, a Stanley Steamer set a speed record that was not broken by an automobile for another five years; it was the fastest mile driven in a car until 1911.  The speed record for steam powered automobiles was held by the Stanley Steamer until 2009.

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The boiler.

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Stanley was not the only steam-powered automobile maker:

White later went on to become a major heavy truck manufacturer.

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The "touring car" type was a popular build, but smaller steam powered "horseless carriages" were built too.

The 1889 Locomobile Style 2 steamcar.

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Very simple looking with clean lines, eh?

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Gasoline "won", becoming the fuel of choice for automobiles, and styles difted far away from the first "horseless carriages".  By the 1920’s electric starters for gas engines had become common, elimimating the risk of hand-cranked engines (people could really get hurt by those hand cranks).  The last Stanley Steamer cost the equivalent of $54,000 (2012’s dollars) in the 1920’s; a Ford automobile coud be had new off the dealer’s lot for $500.

Alternative means of propelling automobiles is not something new.

 

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