White steam touring car (1909)Stanley Steamer (1912)
A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE), whereas the gasoline and diesel engines that eventually became standard are internal combustion engines (ICE). ECEs have a lower thermal efficiency, but carbon monoxide production is more readily regulated.
The first experimental steam-powered cars were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it was not until after Richard Trevithick had developed the use of high-pressure steam around 1800 that mobile steam engines became a practical proposition. By the 1850s there was a flurry of new steam car manufacturers.
Development was hampered by adverse legislation (the UK Locomotive Acts from the 1860s[1] as well as the rapid development of internal combustion engine technology in the 1900s) leading to the commercial demise of steam-powered vehicles. Relatively few remained in use after the Second World War. Many of these vehicles were acquired by enthusiasts for preservation.
The search for renewable energy sources has led to an occasional resurgence of interest in using steam technology to power road vehicles.
A steamcar is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE), whereas the gasoline and diesel engines...
The Doble steamcar was an American steamcar maker from 1909 to 1931. Its latter models of steamcar, with fast-firing boiler and electric start, were...
The American SteamCar was a product of the American Steam Automobile Co, West Newton, Massachusetts, from 1924 to 1948. It was built by Thomas S. Derr...
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steamcars that operated from 1902 to 1924, going defunct after it failed to adapt to...
The steamcar manufacturers listed here were mostly active during the first period of volume production, roughly 1860–1930, with a peak around 1900. From...
independent of rails, whether for conventional road use, such as the steamcar and steam waggon, or for agricultural or heavy haulage work, such as the traction...
The Bryan SteamCar was an American steamcar manufactured from 1918 until 1923. The car was produced by Bryan Steam Motors of Peru, Indiana, a company...
The Empire SteamCar was a United States steamcar manufactured between about 1925 and 1927. Built with a three-cylinder compound engine, it was designed...
Bozek, built an oil-fired steamcar.: 27 Walter Hancock, builder and operator of London steam buses, in 1838 built a two-seated car phaeton.: 27 In 1867...
A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages...
during the first part of the 19th century, including steamcars, steam buses, phaetons, and steam rollers. In the United Kingdom, sentiment against them...
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure...
Steam power developed slowly over a period of several hundred years, progressing through expensive and fairly limited devices in the early 17th century...
American Steam Automobile Co. (1924–1931) Based in Massachusetts American Steam Truck Co. (1922–1924) Based in Illinois American Voiturette (1913–1914) Car-Nation...
The moving cable pulled the car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track...
The Coats SteamCar Company was an American steam automobile manufacturer based in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. It was founded by George A. Coats...
The Hidley SteamCar was an American steamcar manufactured only in 1901. One was certainly built, and as many as four may have been produced at the factory...
The Standard SteamCar was an American steamcar manufactured by the Standard Engineering Company of St Louis, Missouri from 1920 until 1921. L. L. Scott...
August 25, 2009, Team Inspiration of the British SteamCar Challenge broke the long-standing record for a steam vehicle set by a Stanley Steamer in 1906, setting...
Brooks Steam Motors, Ltd. was a Canadian manufacturer of steamcars established in March 1923. Its cars more closely resembled the Stanley Steamers in...
Reading and Meteor were American steamcars developed by Irvin D. Lengel in 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Built by the Steam Vehicle Company of America, their...
American steamcar manufactured by the American Steam Truck Co. of Elgin, Illinois, from 1922 to 1924. The American Steamer was typical of the steamcars which...
which were previously unworkable.[citation needed] In 1864 he built a steam-powered car, some 27 years before that built in Paris by Léon Serpollet. He also...
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