Steam Car

Steam-powered and electric cars outsold gasoline-powered ones in many U.S. states prior to the invention of the electric starter, since internal combustion cars relied on a hand crank, which was difficult and occasionally dangerous to use, as improper cranking could cause a backfire capable of breaking the arm of the operator. Electric cars were popular to some extent, but had a short range, and could not be charged on the road if the batteries ran low.

Early steam cars could take over a minute to start from cold, but once fully fired up and working pressure was attained, could be instantly driven off. To overcome this, development has been directed towards flash boilers, which heat a much smaller quantity of water to get the vehicle started.

The steamer has other drawbacks, also. The absence of a gearbox is more than counterbalanced by the weight of cooling and forced draft fans, fans, and boiler feed, fuel feed, and air pumps; the battery and fan to feed even a flash boiler will more than overcome the weight of a gearbox, and need to run even at idle.^[1]

Furthermore, the radiator must be larger, since all heat engines depend on the temperature differences in the working fluid; in steam cars, this heat exchange must be larger and more rapid, and so, too, must the radiator.^[2]

Early pioneers

Early research on the steam engine before 1700 was closely linked to the quest for self-propelled vehicles and ships; the first practical applications from 1712 were stationary plant working at very low pressure which entailed engines of very large dimensions. The size reduction necessary for road transport meant an increase in steam pressure with all the attendant dangers, due to the inadequate boiler technology of the period. A strong opponent of high pressure steam was James Watt who, along with Matthew Boulton did all he could to dissuade William Murdoch from developing and patenting his steam carriage, built in model form in 1784.

Ferdinand Verbiest is suggested to have built what may have been the first steam powered car in about 1672,^[3]^[4] but very little concrete information on this is known to exist.

During the latter part of the 18th century, there were numerous attempts to produce self-propelled steerable vehicles. Many remained in the form of models. Progress was dogged by many problems inherent to road vehicles in general, such as suitable power-plant giving steady rotative motion, suspension, braking, steering, adequate road surfaces, tyres, and vibration-resistant bodywork, among other issues. The extreme complexity of these issues can be said to have hampered progress over more than a hundred years, as much as hostile legislation.

Cugnot's steam tricycle

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's "machine à feu pour le transport de wagons et surtout de l'artillerie" ("fire engine for transporting wagons and especially artillery") was built from 1769 in two versions for use by the French Army. Cugnot's fardier, a term usually applied to a massive two-wheeled cart for exceptionally heavy loads, was intended to be capable of transporting 4 tonnes (3.9 tons), and of travelling at up to 4 km/h (2.5 mph). The vehicle was of tricycle layout, with two rear wheels and a steerable front wheel controlled by a tiller. There is considerable evidence from the period this vehicle actually ran, making it probably the first to do so; however it remained a short-lived experiment due to inherent instability and the vehicle's failure to meet the Army's specified performance level.

Trevithick's steam carriage

In 1801, Richard Trevithick constructed an experimental steam-driven vehicle which was equipped with a firebox enclosed within the boiler, with one vertical cylinder, the motion of the single piston being transmitted directly to the driving wheels by means of connecting rods. It was reported as weighing 1520 kg fully loaded, with a speed of 14.5 km/h (9 mph) on the flat. During its first trip it was left unattended and "self-destructed". Trevithick soon built a steam carriage that ran successfully in London in 1803, but the venture failed to attract interest and soon folded up.

Steam-powered amphibious craft

In 1804 Oliver Evans built what may be considered the first amphibious vehicle, the 'Oruktor Amphibolis'. This was essentially a steam driven, flat-bottomed dredger able to proceed under its own power to the Schuychill River near its confluence with the Delaware.

Early steam carriage services

More commercially successful for a time than Trevithick's carriage were the steam carriage services operated in England in the 1830s, principally by Walter Hancock and associates of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, among others. However, the heavy road tolls imposed by the Turnpike Acts discouraged steam road vehicles and for a short time allowed the continued monopoly of horse traction until railway trunk routes became established in the 1840s and '50s. Gurney's technology was particularly advanced for its time with use of a rapid water-tube steam generator, a forerunner of the sort that later became general in small steam cars.

Victorian Age of Steam

Although engineers developed ingenious steam-powered road vehicles, they did not enjoy the same level of acceptance and expansion as steam power at sea and on the railways in the middle and late 19th century of the 'Age of Steam'.

Harsh legislation virtually eliminated mechanically propelled vehicles from the roads of Great Britain for 30 years, the Locomotive Act of 1861 imposing restrictive speed limits on "road locomotives" of 5 mph (8 km/h) in towns and cities, and 10 mph (16 km/h) in the country. In 1865 the Locomotives Act of that year (the famous Red Flag Act) further reduced the speed limits to 4 mph (6.4 km/h) in the country and just 2 mph (3.2 km/h) in towns and cities, additionally requiring a man bearing a red flag to precede every vehicle. At the same time, the act gave local authorities the power to specify the hours during which any such vehicle might use the roads. The sole exceptions were street trams which from 1879 onwards were authorised under licence from the Board of Trade.

In France the situation was radically different to the extent of the 1861 ministerial ruling formally authorising the circulation of steam vehicles on ordinary roads. Whilst this led to considerable technological advances throughout the 1870s and '80s, steam vehicles nevertheless remained a rarity.

To an extent competition from the successful railway network reduced the need for steam vehicles. From the 1860s onwards, attention was turned more to the development of various forms of traction engine which could either be used for stationary work such as sawing wood and threshing, or for transporting outsize loads too voluminous to go by rail. Steam trucks were also developed but their use was generally confined to the local distribution of heavy materials such as coal and building materials from railway stations and ports.

Thomas Rickett of Buckingham

Hence, in 1858, Thomas Rickett of Buckingham built the first of several steam carriages. Instead of looking like a carriage, it resembled a small locomotive. It consisted of a steam-engine mounted on three wheels: two large driven rear wheels and one smaller front wheel by which the vehicle was steered. The whole was driven by a chain drive and a maximum speed of twelve miles per hour was reached. The weight of the machine was 1.5 tonnes and somewhat lighter than Rickett's steam carriage.

Two years later, in 1860, Rickett built a similar but heavier vehicle. This model incorporated spur-gear drive instead of chain. In his final design, resembling a railway locomotive, the cylinders were coupled directly outside the cranks of the driving-axle.

H.P. Holt

H.P. Holt constructed a small road-steamer in 1866. Able to reach a speed of twenty miles per hour on level roads, it had a vertical boiler at the rear and two separate twin cylinder engines, each of which drove one rear wheel by means of a chain and sprocket wheels.

Catley and Ayres of York

In 1869, a small three wheeled vehicle propelled by a horizontal twin cylinder engine which drove the rear axle by spur-gearing; only one rear wheel was driven, the other turning freely on the axle. A vertical fire-tube boiler was mounted at the rear with a polished copper casing over the fire box and chimney; the boiler was enclosed in a mahogany casing. The front wheel was used for steering and the weight was only 19 cwt.

J.H. Knight of Farnham

R.W. Thomson of Aberdeen

1871, The road-steamer of R.W. Thomson of Aberdeen became famous because of wheels were shod with heavy solid rubber tyres.

Charles Randolph of Glasgow

1872, a steam-coach by Charles Randolph of Glasgow was 15 feet (5 m) in length, weighed four and a half tons, but had a maximum speed of only 6 miles per hour. Two vertical twin-cylinder engines where independent of one another and each drove one of the rear wheels by spur-gearing. The entire vehicle was enclosed and fitted with windows all around, carried six people, and even had two driving mirrors for observing traffic approaching from behind, the earliest recorded instance of such a device.

R. Neville Grenville of Glastonbury

In 1875, R. Neville Grenville of Glastonbury constructed a 3 wheeled steam vehicle and is still in existence. It traveled a maximum of 15 miles per hour. This vehicle is preserved in the Bristol city museum.

Amédée Bollée

From 1873 to 1883 Amédée Bollée of Le Mans built a series of steam-powered passenger vehicles able to carry 6 to 12 people at speeds up to 60 km/h (38 mph), with such names as Rapide and L'Obeissante. In his vehicles the boiler was mounted behind the passenger compartment with the engine at the front of the vehicle, driving the differential through a shaft with chain drive to the rear wheels. The driver sat behind the engine and steered by means of a wheel mounted on a vertical shaft. The lay-out more closely resembled much later motor cars than other steam vehicles.

Cederholm brothers

In 1892, painter Joens Cederholm and his brother, André, a blacksmith, designed their first car, a two-seater, introducing a condensor in 1894. It was not a success.^[5]

De Dion & Bouton steam vehicles

The development by Serpollet of the flash steam boiler ^[6] brought about the appearance of various diminutive steam tricycles and quadricycles during the late 80s and early 90s, notably by de Dion & Bouton; these successfully competed in long distance races but soon met with stiff competition for public favour from the internal combustion engine cars being developed, notably by Peugeot, that quickly cornered most of the popular market. In the face of the flood of IC cars, proponents of the steam car had to fight a long rear-guard battle that was to last into modern times.

Early 20th century steam cars

Steam cars outnumbered others. In the U.S. in 1902, 485 of 909 new car registrations were steamers.^[5] From 1899 Mobile had ten branches and 58 dealers across the U.S. The center of U.S. steamer production was New England, where 38 of the 84 manufacturers were located. They included White (Cleveland), Eclipse (Boston), Cotta (Lanark, IL), Crouch (New Brighton, PA), Hood (Danvers, MA; lasted just one month), Kidder (New Haven, CT), Century (Syracuse, NY), and J. W. Skene Cycle and Automobile Company (Lewiston, ME, which built everything but the tires). By 1903, 43 of them were gone. In 1923, Brooks (Canadian) opened for business, lasting until 1926.^[5]

Locomobile Runabout

What is considered the first marketable popular steam car appeared in 1899 from the Locomobile Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which manufactured several thousand of its Runabout model in the period 1899-1905, designed around a motor design leased from the Stanley Steamer Company. The company ceased producing steam cars in 1903, and was acquired by Durant Motors in 1922.

White Steamer

Stanley Steamer

Perhaps the best-known and best-selling steam car was the Stanley Steamer, produced from 1896 to 1924. Between 1899 and 1905, Stanley outsold all gasoline-powered cars, and was second only to Columbia Electric in the U.S.^[5] It used a compact fire tube boiler to power a simple double-acting two-piston engine. Because of the phenomenal torque available at all engine speeds, the steam car's engine was typically geared directly to the rear axle, with no clutch or variable speed transmission required. Until 1914, Stanley steam cars vented their exhaust steam directly to the atmosphere, necessitating frequent refilling of the water tank; after 1914, all Stanleys were fitted with a condenser, which considerably reduced their water consumption.

In 1906 the Land Speed Record was broken by a Stanley steam car, piloted by Fred Marriot, which achieved 127 mph (203 km/h) at Ormond Beach, Florida. This annual week-long "Speed Week" was the forerunner of today's Daytona 500. This record was not exceeded until 1910, and has not been broken by a steam car since.

Doble Steam Car

Attempts were made to bring more advanced steam cars on the market such as the Doble Steam Car^[7] which shortened the starting time very noticeably by incorporating a flash steam generator to heat a much smaller quantity of water. By 1923, Abner Doble had developed an automatic boiler and burner which allowed his steam cars to be started with the turn of a key and driven off in 40 seconds or less. In addition, the Doble managed to achieve 15 miles per gallon (18.8 litres/100 km) of kerosene despite weighing in excess of 5,000 lb (2.27 tonnes). Ultimately they failed due to high first cost (in the case of the Doble) and a perceived lengthy starting process, despite their economy and power.

Paxton Phoenix

Abner Doble developed the Doble Ultimax engine for the Paxton Phoenix steam car, built by the Paxton Engineering Division of McCulloch Motors Corporation, Los Angeles. Its sustained maximum power was 120 bhp (89 kW). The project was eventually dropped in 1954.^[8]

Decline of steam car development

Steam cars dropped-off in popularity following the adoption of the electric starter, which eliminated the need for risky hand cranks to start gasoline-powered cars. The introduction of assembly-line mass production by Henry Ford, which hugely reduced the cost of owning a conventional automobile, was also a strong factor in the steam car's demise as the Model T was both cheap and reliable.

Modern steam cars

Today most of these problems have been satisfactorily solved, but currently the re-introduction of any modern steam car project would run up against the problem of a general loss of steam engine culture which would make it difficult to set up an infrastructure of spares and qualified mechanics. It would also be necessary to meet more stringent safety standards and legislation than existed in the heyday of steam-powered road vehicles. The biggest arguments in favour of such a movement would be: greatly reduced pollution by particulates and noxious gases without recourse to filters, silence in operation, and direct drive without a gearbox. However the competition which development of a modern steam-powered vehicle has to consider is not so much from gasoline-powered cars as from electric, hydrogen-powered and hybrid vehicles.

Saab steam car

As a result of the 1973 oil crisis, SAAB started a project in 1974 headed by Dr. Ove Platell which made a prototype steam-powered car. It used an electronically-controlled 28 pound multi-parallel-circuit steam generator with 1 millimetre bore tubing and 16 gallon per hour firing rate which was intended to produce 160 horsepower (119 kW), and was about the same size as a standard car battery. Lengthy start-up times were circumvented by a system using compressed air that was stored when the car was running and which powered the car upon starting until adequate steam pressure was built up. The engine used a conical rotary valve made from pure boron nitride. To conserve water, a hermetically sealed water system was used.

Enginion Steamcell

From 1996, a R&D subsidiary of the Volkswagen group called Enginion AG was developing a system called ZEE (Zero Emissions Engine). It produced steam almost instantly without an open flame, and took 30 seconds to reach maximum power from a cold start. Their third prototype, EZEE03, was a three-cylinder unit meant to fit in a Skoda Fabia automobile. The EZEE03 was described as having a "two-stroke" (i.e. single-acting) engine of 1000 cc (164 cubic inch) displacement, producing up to 220 hp (500 N·m or 369 ft·lbf)^[9]. Exhaust emissions were said to be far below the SULEV standard. It had an "oilless" engine with ceramic cylinder linings using steam instead of oil as a lubricant. However, Enginion found that the market was not ready for steam cars, so they opted instead to develop the "Steamcell" power generator/heating system based on similar technology.^[10]^[11]

Notes

^ Setright, L.J.K. "Steam: The Romantic Illusion", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 19, p.2170.
^ Setright, p.2170-1.
^ SA MOTORING HISTORY - TIMELINE. Government of South Australia.
^ Setright, L. J. K. (2004). Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car. Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-698-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Georgano, G.N. Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985).
^ Combe Jean-Marc & Escudier Bernard (1986, L'Aventure scientifique et technique de la vapeur; editions du CNRS, Paris, France; ISBN 2-222-03794-8
^ Walton J.N. (1965-74) Doble Steam Cars, Buses, Lorries, and Railcars . "Light Steam Power" Isle of Man, UK.
^ "The True Story of the Paxton Phoenix." Road and Track, April 1957. pp. 13 - 18
^ Feature Article - Clean & "Ezee" - 07/01
^ Ghost in the machine - motoring-tech - 15 December 2001 - New Scientist Tech
^ Company website, now dead.

Contents

Technology