Twin brothers Francis Stanley and Freelan Stanley started manufacturing steam-driven automobiles in 1897 and formed the Stanley Motor Carriage Company in 1902. Their vehicles were popularly known as "Stanley Steamers" or "The Flying Teapot." The engine had only 15 moving parts, and the car had no clutch, transmission, or gearshift lever. It was not picky about fuel, and the driver could heat the water into steam using either kerosene or gasoline (and probably many other flammable substances) with equal aplomb. The brakes were not always the greatest, but the operator could also slow down by throwing the car into reverse.
Despite the common perception that a steam car would look like a huge boiler being hauled around at snail-like speeds, the Stanley Steamers resembled other autos of the era, except that there was no exposed radiator. At a time when many cars could not exceed 40 mph (60 kph), a standard Stanley Steamer could hit 75 mph (121 kph) in both forward or reverse. The Stanley brothers eagerly participated in racing, and their vehicles racked up spectacular wins, with one of its cars achieving the world land speed record in 1906 of 127.6 mph (205.4 kph). The following year, another Steamer reached an estimated and unofficial 150 mph (240 kph) before it crashed at Daytona.
The Stanley brothers intentionally kept production low, to a peak of about 1,000 units a year. They personally interviewed potential customers and would not sell a car to anyone they believed was not worthy. They had an admirable warranty, which simply consisted of fixing anything broken on the car free for the life of the vehicle.
The brothers maintained a policy that they would personally attend the funeral of anyone killed in or by one of their vehicles. This philosophy lapsed after they sold their company in 1917, but lamentably, they followed it one more time in 1918, in differing roles, at the funeral of Francis Stanley, who was killed in a Steamer.
The company produced its last car in 1924. Although its products were superior to gasoline-driven cars in many ways, the high cost of a Steamer ($3,500 vs. $500 for a Model T Ford), the introduction of electric starters on previously hand-cranked gasoline cars, a loss of performance due to increased body weight with the later models, and the fact that a driver had to warm the Steamer up for 20 minutes before using it all proved to be fatal to sales. Not even the fact that it had a cool steam-powered horn which sounded like a railroad locomotive whistle was able to save it.
The surviving brother went on to establish the Stanley hotel in Colorado, where he remained until his death at the age of 91 in 1940. A stay at this hotel in 1974 by Stephen King was the inspiration for the haunted Overlook Hotel in his novel The Shining.
If you want the easy-to-use instructions on how to start, drive, and maintain The Flying Teacup, look at the owner's manual here. To see one of several videos of Jay Leno operating one of his Steamers, click here.
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| By Stephen Foskett (Wikipedia User: sfoskett) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) , via Wikimedia Commons |
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