__1849: __Twin brothers Francis and Freelan Stanley are born. Their name will live on in the legendary Stanley Steamer automobile.
If the two were alive today, they'd be called green-tech pioneers. But when they built the cars that bore their name, steam was the known quantity, and gasoline was the alternative fuel.
The two men built Stanley Steamer automobiles, vehicles so fast they set a speed record that stood for a century.
Francis Edgar and Freelan O. Stanley were born 160 years ago today and came of age at a time when great inventors were almost commonplace. They shared the world stage with the likes of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and the Wright Brothers.
Before they got hooked on speed, the brothers were into photography. Francis Stanley invented a photographic dry-plate process in 1883, and the brothers founded Stanley Dry Plate to manufacture them.
They built their first steam-powered car in 1897 and sold more than 200 by 1899, making them the most successful U.S. automaker at the time. They sold the design to Locomobile in 1899 and, three years later, founded the Stanley Motor Carriage Co.
The earliest models had wood bodies on steel frames with a kerosene (later, gasoline) boiler mounted under the seat. The boiler provided steam that ran a steam engine, somewhat like a mini-locomotive on tires.
The cars were quick. A Stanley Rocket driven by Fred Marriott achieved 127.7 mph in 1906 to set the land speed record for a steam-powered car.
The Stanleys refined their design over the years, and their cars rivaled the performance of gasoline-powered cars like the Stutz Bearcat and Marmon Wasp. Stanleys outsold every gasoline model until 1917, and the company enjoyed sales that were second only to Columbia Electric -- further proving there are no truly new technologies in the auto industry.
The company slogan was "Power — Correctly Generated, Correctly Controlled, Correctly Applied to the Rear Axle." It was wonderfully Edwardian and snooty.
That pretentiousness was reflected in the cost of the cars as well. A 1924 Stanley model 740D sedan cost a whopping $3,950 (about $49,000 in today's money). The Ford Model T, on the other hand, cost less than $500 (equivalent to $6,200 now).
With marketing like that, prices only a railroad baron could afford, and advancements in internal combustion technology, the Stanleys couldn't keep up. They sold their interest in the company to Prescott Warren in 1917. He kept the company going for another 10 years, and the Stanley Motor Carriage Co. folded in 1927.
Source: Various
*Photo: A Stanley Steamer chugs away on a rugged road near Sheep's Head Rock in Big Thompson Canyon, between Estes Park and Loveland, Colorado.
Photographer: Louis Charles McClure/Courtesy Library of Congress
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See Also:
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- Aug. 27, 1859: America Enters the Oil Bidness
- May 22, 1859: It's Elementary, My Dear Reader
- May 15, 1859: Pierre Curie, Radium's Co-Discoverer, Is Born
- April 25, 1859: Big Dig Starts for Suez Canal
- Team Steam Chugs Toward 170 mph
