Steam car
Once working pressure was attained, early steam cars could be instantly driven off with high acceleration, but they typically take several minutes to start from cold, plus time to get the burner to operating temperature.
To overcome this, development has been directed toward flash boilers, which heat a much smaller quantity of water to get the vehicle started, and in the case of Doble cars, spark ignition kerosene burners.
It is also better-suited to the speed and torque characteristics of the axle, thus avoiding the need for the heavy and complex transmission required for an internal combustion engine.
There is an unsubstantiated story that a pair of Yorkshiremen, engineer Robert Fourness and his cousin, physician James Ashworth had a steam car running in 1788, after being granted a British patent No.1674 of December 1788.
[4] Over thirty years passed before there was a flurry of steam cars from 1850s onwards with Dudgeon, Roper and Spencer from the United States, Leonard[5] and Taylor from Canada, Rickett, Austin, Catley and Ayres from England, Bordino and Manzetti from Italy, others followed with Bollée and Lejeune[6][7] from France, Thury from Switzerland and Kemna from Germany.
As well as England and France, other countries also made attempts to manufacture steam cars: Cederholm of Sweden (1892), Malevez of Belgium (1898–1905), Schöche of Germany (1895), and Herbert Thomson of Australia (1896–1901).
[11] Assembly line mass production by Henry Ford dramatically 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.
Steam cars remain the domain of enthusiasts, occasional experimentation by manufacturers, and those wishing to establish steam-powered land speed records.
The idea for having patrol cars fitted with steam engines stemmed from an informal meeting in March 1968 of members of the California Assembly Transportation Committee.
In the discussion, Karsten Vieg, a lawyer attached to the committee, suggested that six cars be fitted with steam engines for testing by California District Police Chiefs.
At the time, the California State Legislature was introducing strict pollution control regulations for automobiles and the Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, John Francis Foran, was supportive of the idea.
[26][27][28][29] In 1969, the National Air Pollution Control Administration announced a competition for a contract to design a practical passenger-car steam engine.
University of California, San Diego's modified AMC Javelin and Worcester Polytechnic Institute's converted 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle called the tea kettle.
[40][41] As a result of the 1973 oil crisis, SAAB started a project in 1974[42] codenamed ULF (short for utan luftföroreningar, Swedish for Without Air Pollution)[43] headed by Dr. Ove Platell[44] which made a prototype steam-powered car.
[citation needed] The engine used an electronically controlled 28-pound multi-parallel-circuit steam generator with 1-millimeter-bore tubing and 16 gallons per hour (61 L/h) firing rate which was intended to produce 160 hp (119 kW) of continuous power,[45] and was about the same size as a standard car battery.
It had a fibreglass monocoque chassis (based on the internal combustion-engined Pelland Sports) and used a parallel twin cylinder double acting compound engine.
It had a three-cylinder double-acting engine in a 'broad-arrow' configuration, mounted in a tubular steel chassis with a Kevlar body, giving a gross weight of just 1,050 lb (476 kg).
Pellandine made several attempts to break the land speed record for steam power, but was thwarted by technical issues.
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.
What is considered by many to be the first marketable popular steam car appeared in 1899 from the Locomobile Company of America, located in Watertown, Massachusetts, and from 1900 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In 1906, the Land Speed Record was broken by a Stanley steam car, piloted by Fred Marriott, which achieved 127 mph (204 km/h) at Ormond Beach, Florida.
Ultimately, despite their undoubted qualities, Doble cars failed due to poor company organization and high initial cost.
On 4 January 1902, a specially built Toledo steam carriage was the first automobile to forge a trail from Flagstaff, Arizona to the South Rim of The Grand Canyon, a distance of 67 miles.
As a publicity exercise the trip was to assess the potential of starting a steam bus service but the anticipated afternoon journey took three days due to problems with supplies of the wrong fuel.
Though the Toledo towed a trailer filled with additional fuel and water supplies, the four participants omitted to take any food, one, the journalist Winfield Hoggaboon, wrote up an amusing article in the Los Angeles Herald two weeks later.
The company had its origins in the Coats Steam Car and began production on the East Coast before shifting operations to Los Angeles in 1924.
As fate would have it, an unexpected rainstorm rendered the salt flats too soggy for racing, providing an unintentional but convenient excuse for the delay.
[56] In 1985, Barber-Nicholas Engineering from Denver set out to break the steam-powered land speed record using a steam turbine they had developed for Lear and the Los Angeles city bus program.
The following day, August 26, the same vehicle, driven by Don Wales-grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell-averaged 148.308 mph(238.679 km/h) over two consecutive runs over a kilometer.
[60] On September 6, 2014, Chuk Williams of Steam Speed America made an attempt to break the world record with their steam-powered streamliner.
