1902 Locomobile Stanhope B

The early history of the Locomobile company is very convoluted with many twists and turns.  Essentially, the company began in 1899 and for the beginning years they built steam powered cars in a handful of locations.  This 1902 Stanhope was one of the first built in Bridgeport Connecticut, where Locomobile remained until 1929.   The overall concept of the car was laid out by the Stanley brothers of Stanley steamer fame.It has a small two-cylinder steam engine mounted vertically under the seat which was connected to the rear axle by a single chain slightly more robust than a bicycle chain of the time.  There is no transmission and with a direct connection the wheels, the engine ran equally well both forward and backward.  This technically means you can go as fast backward as you can go forward! (I never tried it) The braking system comprised of two drums on the rear axle with external bands which works poorly going forward and virtually not at all when going backward. The driver has a "throttle" which is a valve regulating the amount of steam leaving the boiler and going to the engine.   In the back of the vehicle is a small (about 20 gallon) steam boiler with a burner underneath.  The burner never completely shuts off but it does go into an idle state when the boiler has sufficient pressure to move the car.  This is adjustable but it is roughly about 150 lbs/sq in.  As steam is used, the burner resets to its maximum heating capacity until an automatic idles it back.  There is a sight glass low on the outside of the body by the driver’s ankle that shows the level of water in the boiler which can be viewed by the little mirror at about his right toe.  When the water level gets low, he can turn a lever which forces water into the boiler.Every thirty miles or so the driver would have to stop to fill the water tank and add some oil to the engine lubricator.  Fuel to heat the burner was a petroleum product similar to gasoline.  It was stored in a tank under the feet and was pressurized with air.  This was accomplished using a bicycle tire pump.One new feature with this car is the “side bar tiller” which works the steering and believe it or not, is a big improvement over a “front tiller” as the driver has much stronger control moving the tiller forward and back as opposed to left and right.The frame is basically brazed together steel tubing as used in the bicycle trade even today.  Top speed is roughly 30 MPH, which was every bit as scary as 200 MPH is in a modern car. One interesting feature of this car that might cause agita for any safety conscious person was that the front of the body can be opened up to provide seating for two more folks as long as they were small and of modest weight.  Imagine careening around town with the wife at your side and the kiddies taking the role of the front bumper…  Wonder what Ralph Nader would have said about that!