Steam Car Modeled After Stanley Steamer Makes Auspicious Debut

Something new in transportation, a steam car modelled after the old Stanley Steamer, made its debut here Wednesday night with a Yale man at the wheel.

Gilbert Stevenson, Yale '36, of Polham, New York, one of the associate engineers in the steam automobile enterprise, which has its headquarters in Newton, guided the new experimental, two-cylinder model through thick Cambridge traffic with four Harvard men hanging on as ballast.

No Explosions

It didn't blow up. It didn't backfire. It didn't stop dead in the middle of the street. But it did beat a 1938 Ford on a traffic light; it sped backward up a hill at 35 miles an hour; and it hit 25 in five seconds from a dead start half-way up the same hill.

The design of the new car follows closely the fundamental principles of the old Stanley Steamer, but years of improvement have gone into the new design. Eric Dolling, chief engineer for Stanley, is in charge of the new steam car company.

In Low-Priced Field

Maximum speed of 55 miles an hour was developed by the two-cylinder test car Wednesday night, but the car which eventually reaches the market will be eight cylindered, have four of these two cylinder units. It will be priced to sell with the lowest three gas cars on the market.

The new steam car eliminates one of the principle objections to the old Stanley car, namely that it took from 10 to 15 minutes to get steam up. The new car requires only a few seconds longer than it takes to start a modern gas car to get up enough steam to start. It has no gear shift, being governed entirely by the throttle and the brake.

Out in Front

At traffic lights it leaves everything else behind because the operator merely steps on the throttle while the other cars are shifting gears. So fast is the pickup that the car will move from a dead stop as fast os the wheels will turn without skidding.

The Newton company, headed by Delling and Stevenson, hopes to have some cars on the market in a little less than a year. Their present headquarters is in the rear of Fred Marriot's garage midway between Newton Corner and Watertown. Marriot achieved lasting fame a generation ago when, as Stanley's chief test driver, he took off from a sandy stretch of beach in a steamer at 190 miles an hour and lived to tell the tale.