Doble steam car

The Doble steam car was an American steam car maker from 1909 to 1931. Its latter models of steam car, with fast-firing boiler and electric start, were considered the pinnacle of steam car development. The term "Doble steam car" comprises any of several makes of steam-powered automobile in the early 20th century, including Doble Detroit, Doble Steam Car, and Doble Automobile, severally called a Doble because of their founding by Abner Doble.[1][2]

History

Detroit

The Doble Detroit incorporated key ignition, doing away with the need for manual ignition of the boiler system. John Doble also constructed a flash boiler with rectangular casing in which atomized kerosene fuel was ignited with a spark plug, in a carburetor-type venturi and used forced draft provided by an electrically driven fan. This rapidly heated the feedwater contained in vertical grids of tubes welded to horizontal headers. The steam-raising part of the boiler was partitioned off by a wall of heat-resisting material jacketed with planished steel from a smaller compartment in which were similar grids of tubes for feedwater heating. There seem to have been at least two versions of this boiler, the first with the burner and combustion chamber at the bottom, the other with them at the top of the casing; this led to the subsequent counterflow monotube boiler arrangement. Boiler operation was fully electro-mechanically automated: the bottom of the boiler housed a metal tray with a row of quartz rods. As heat increased, the tray expanded, pushing the rods forward and shutting off the burner. As the system cooled, the quartz rods receded, engaging the burner.[3]

A two-cylinder double-acting uniflow engine was mounted under the floor driving the back axle; double slide valves were driven by a Joy valve gear. The car had only four controls: a steering wheel, a brake pedal, a trip pedal for variable cut-off and reversing, and a foot-operated throttle.

Doble Steam Motors Company

The first model E was sold in 1924, and Doble Steam Motors continued to manufacture steam-powered cars for the next seven years.[18]

For all their innovations, Doble cars were hindered by two significant problems. Doble cars were expensive to the point of being a luxury item, and Abner Doble routinely tinkered with designs.

Doble made two further steam engines, designated models G and H. These were larger units and used experimentally in several buses. The first were tested in 1926 by International Harvester, using a Doble Model G engine, and the Detroit Motorbus Co, in a double-decker, with a Doble Model H engine. A second Detroit bus had a Doble steam engine added in 1927, and at least one of them covered some 32,000 miles. In 1929 a Doble Model H was installed in a Yellow Coach for General Motors.[19] This was followed by another Model F in a Fageol bus.[20]

Successors

Besler Brothers

George and William Besler of Davenport, Iowa, the sons of William George Besler, acquired much of Doble Steam Motors plant and patents. William also acquired a Doble E series Phaeton, engine number 14, from a Dr Mudd.[21] This car was still in existence in 2010.

They undertook further development work with Abner Doble and created an interurban car, a railcar, and a steam aircraft.[22] The brothers modified a Travel Air 2000 bi-plane by replacing its petrol engine with a steam engine. The plane was successfully test flown on 12 April 1933 at Oakland Municipal Airport, California.[23][24]

External links

The Steam Car Club of Great Britain
Guide to the Abner Doble Papers, 1885–1963 at UC Berkeley Bancroft Library
Doble patents
Doble patent for "Method of and Means for Burning Liquid Fuel"
Doble patent for Steam Generator, 1919
Doble patent for Liquid Fuel Burner, 1921
Jay Leno
Jay Leno, discussing and driving his working 1925 Series E Doble steam car at jaylenosgarage.com
Doble E20 at Pebble Beach

References

J. N. Walton. Doble Steam Cars, Buses, Lorries, and Railcars Light Steam Power, 1975^
Stephen Fox. The Strange Triumph of Abner Doble American Heritage of Invention & Technology Magazine, Summer 1998^
The 100-Year-Old Electric Car Popular Mechanics, 2007-05-01, retrieved 2011-11-20^

Model E

The Model E had been developed by 1922; this could be said to be the "classic" Doble, of which the most examples have survived. The initial monotube boiler design was perfected into the "American" type. This produced steam at a pressure of 750 psi and a temperature of 750 F. The tubing was formed from seamless cold-drawn steel 575 ft in total length, measuring 22 in in diameter by 33 in in height when coiled and assembled. The boiler was cold water tested to a pressure of 7000 psi.[6] Two 2-cylinder compound cylinder blocks were in effect placed back to back as the basis for a 4-cylinder[7] Woolf compound unit with high-pressure cylinders placed on the outside. A piston valve incorporating transfer ports was fitted between each high-pressure and low-pressure cylinder in an arrangement similar to Vauclain's balanced compound system used on a number of railway locomotives around 1900. Stephenson's valve gear replaced the previous Joy motion. Like all steam vehicles it could burn a variety of liquid fuels with a minimum of modification and was a noticeably clean-running vehicle, its fuel being burned at high temperatures and low pressures, which produced very low pollution. Price ranged from $8,800 ($134,000 in 2020) to $11,200 ($170,000 in 2020) in 1923.[7] The Model E ran on a 142 in wheelbase.[7] Twenty-four E's were made between 1922 and 1925 with a variety of body types from roadsters to limousines. Owners included Howard Hughes and the Maharajah of Bharatpur. One of the Hughes cars, a roadster engine number 20, is currently owned by Jay Leno.[8] Abner Doble owned the last one—number 24,[9] which McCulloch later acquired in the course of developing the Paxton steam car.[10]

The E cars known still to exist are 9 (at the Ford museum), 10 (in the UK), 11 (in Australia), 13 (in New Zealand), 14, 17, 18 (Jay Leno's Garage),[11] 19, 20 (Jay Leno's Garage),[11] 22 (in the UK), 23, and 24 (in New Zealand during a visit 1931).[12] Those known to have been scrapped are 4, 5, 7, 15, and 16.[13]

History

Detroit

Doble Steam Motors Company

Successors

Besler Brothers

External links

References

Steam powered tanks

Model D

Model E

Model F

Engine numbers

Typical performance

Consultancy

Ultimax Engine