Thanks to late docudrama and news narrative , many Americans have waken up to the fact that galvanising carsaren’t such a new idea . What ’s gotten less attention is that steam - power cars were actually quite popular at the bend of the 20th century as well .
FromPacific Standard :
The steam - power automobile may seem like a turn of a joke , but it was a serious contender for automobile - domination at the dawn of the automobile . Of the 4,192 fomite accounted for being bring about in the United States in the 1900 Census , just 936 of them run on gasoline , 1,575 were electrical , and 1,681 hunt on steam .
But the steam - power auto was quickly push out of the market …
Within less than two decade that statistical distribution radically changed . About 99 per centum of the 568,000 automobile produced in 1914 America contained an internal burning railway locomotive .
Why did n’t the steam - powered cable car take off ? For a number of inconvenient technical school reason , according to the BBC :
Substantial boilers and water tanks were needed with early steam cars losing up to a gal ( 4.5 litres ) of water every Swedish mile .
Stanley partially remedied this with the introduction of condensers in 1915 , which turn much of the steam back to liquid water before it could get off . But even then they were still only achieving eight miles per gallon of weewee .
Another drawback was how long it guide to build up steam pressing before a journeying could start .
AStanley steamer owner ’s manualpublished in 1918 suggested that this would take between 10 and 15 minute , but in insensate weather it was potential to take much longer .
Image : Buffalo Bill sit in his steam - power motorcar in 1908 , scan from the 1974 bookThe Car Solutionby Gary Levine
Carstransportation
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