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The Stanley Rocket
The Stanley Brothers built their first steam-powered car
in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1897. Within a decade, they
created the 'Fastest Car in the World,' the Stanley Rocket.
F.E. Stanley fathered the project, completing the design,
build and test work in 1905. The Rocket made its public debut
on Ormond Beach in January 1906.
Early Stanley/Locomobile cars had light wooden bodies mounted
on unsprung tubular steel frames by means of full-elliptic
springs. Steam was generated in a vertical fire-tube boiler,
mounted beneath the seat, with a vaporizing petroleum (later,
kerosene) burner underneath. The boiler was reinforced by
winding several layers of piano-wire around it, which gave
it a tremendously strong, yet relatively light-weight, shell.
In early models, the vertical fire-tubes were made of copper,
and were expanded into holes in the upper and lower crown
sheets. In later models, the fitment of condensers caused
oil-fouling of the expansion joints, and welded steel fire-tubes
were used instead.
The boilers were safer than one might expect - they were
fitted with safety valves, and even if these failed, a dangerous
overpressure would rupture one of the many joints long before
the boiler shell was in danger of bursting, and the resulting
leak would relieve the boiler pressure and douse the burner
with little risk to the occupants of the car. There has never
been a documented case of a Stanley boiler exploding in use.
The engine had two double-acting cylinders side-by-side,
equipped with slide-valves, and was of the simple-expansion
type. Drive was transmitted directly from the engine crankshaft
to a rear-mounted differential by means of a chain. Locomobiles
were often modified by their owners, who added third-party
accessories, e.g., improved lubricators, condensers, and devices
which mitigated the laborious starting procedure, etc.
Later, the Stanley brothers, to overcome patent difficulties,
developed a new automobile model with twin cylinder engines
geared directly to the back axle. Later models had aluminium
coachwork, but retained many antiquated features, for example
the unspring tubular steel frame.
The brothers became convinced that a demonstration of their
cars speed and durability would put them at the top of the
fledgling auto industry. In 1905, they built the Stanley Rocket,
the most aerodynamic racer of the day. In January of 1906,
the Rocket was brought to Ormond Beach Florida to participate
in the annual speed tournament. Against a field of the most
powerful European cars ever assembled in the U.S., the Stanley
was unbeatable.
On Jan. 26 Fred Marriott and the Rocket burned the beach
for a speed of 127.6 mph! The first vehicle of any kind to
attain the unthinkable speed of two miles a minute. The following
year, after making many refinements to the record setting
machine, the brothers returned to the beach with Marriott
once again at the wheel. They believed that two hundred miles
per hour was not out of the question, but the attempt resulted
in a wreck so severe, the Stanley's never raced again.
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company operated between 1902
and 1917. The cars made by the company were referred to as
Stanley Steamers. When they shifted the steam boiler to the
front of the vehicle, the resulting feature was called by
owners the "coffin bonnet." In order to improve
range, condensers were used, beginning in 1915.
During the mid to late 1910s, as the fuel efficiency and
power delivery of internal combustion engines improved dramatically,
the Stanley Steamer company produced a series of advertising
campaigns trying to woo the car-buying public away from the
"internal explosion engine," to little effect. An
advertising slogan for these campaigns was, "Power -
Correctly Generated, Correctly Controlled, Correctly Applied
to the Rear Axle." These campaigns are early examples
of a fear, uncertainty and doubt type advertising campaign
(for a more modern example, see Johnny Turbo), as their purpose
was not so much to convince the audience of the benefits of
the Stanley Steamer car as to plant the notion in the reader's
head that an internal combustion automobile could explode.
In 1917, the brothers sold their interests to Prescott Warren.
The last Stanley Steamer was produced before 1927. The company
endured a long period of decline and technological stagnation.
As the production specifications show, no models with a power
output higher than 20 hp were produced after 1918. Far better
cars were available at much lower cost - for example, a 1924
Stanley 740D sedan cost $3950, compared to a few hundred dollars
for a Ford Model T of the same period. The widespread use
of electric starters in internal combustion cars, pioneered
on production cars by Cadillac in 1912, eroded away the greatest
of the few remaining technological advantages of the steam
car.
Efficiencies of scale, a lack of effective advertising and
general public desire for higher speeds and less fussy starting
than were possible with the stagnant Stanley technology were
the primary causes of the company's demise.
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