Some of the greatest joys in life happen when Motofortuna, the goddess in charge of guiding your path so that you encounter fascinating cars seemingly by happenstance, smiles upon you. That happened to me this past Saturday afternoon, as I was driving through a little town called Liberty and happened to see one of the most amazing things ever to be just taken out for a spin.
That amazing thing was a 1908 Stanley Steamer, and it was a model with a genuinely wonderful name: Model H5 Gentleman’s Speedy Roadster. Now, even in Los Angeles, the city I lived in that had the greatest amount of Motorfortuna attention, seeing anything like this just driving around was almost always because one person, Jay Leno, decided to drive it to the Autobooks store in Burbank.
But in Liberty, North Carolina? There’s far fewer Jay Lenos roaming around here, even feral ones. So seeing someone drive a lovingly-restored 1908 Stanley Steamer is an event with about the same probability of happening as meeting a raccoon that not only saw the one-man show you did about J.Edgar Hoover in college, but also liked it. It’s a beautiful improbability.
Let’s talk a bit about this Stanley, which was being filled with kerosene by the absolute hero driving it. It was idling there majestically, busily breathing steam out front as the owner attended to the fuel for the boiler. These cars take – at best – 20 minutes to get started, so I’m not surprised he left it idling as he filled it up.
The owner told me he hadn’t had it all that long, and I believe he said he bought it from a museum, which makes sense, because it was positively immaculate. I love that he’s just out driving it around now.
The Model H5 Gentleman’s Speedy Roadster was Stanley’s sports car. It made 20 hp, pretty damn good for the time, and could hit speeds of up to 65 or 70 mph. This thing could, by 1908 standards, move.
The process of getting it to move, though, was nontrivial. Steam cars were very competitive in the early years of motoring – they were the only option for essentially the first century of automobiles, starting with Cugnot’s steam drag from 1769 – and one of the features they touted were their comparatively simple engines.
And while this is true, the engines themselves weren’t as complex as a gasoline engine, everything else around those engines – boilers, water tanks, valves, so very many valves – all combined to make a much more complicated driving experience than a gas or electric car.
You can read the whole steaming up process here, from a 1918 Stanley manual, so these instructions represent a whole decade of refinement compared to the car I encountered. But even if you don’t want to sit and read it, let me give you some highlights:
There are at least four separate tanks to fill: the water tank, the boiler, the pilot fuel tank, and the main fuel tank, which is what I saw our friend filling with kerosene. Then there are pressure tanks that must be pumped with onboard pumps, with at least “25 strokes of air.”
This is what it takes to start the main burner; keep in mind, this section is just one of many:
START THE MAIN BURNER
The main burner starting valve stem goes through the dash at the extreme left above the steering post, and has a wheel handle.Do not confuse this with the main burner valve, which goes through the instrument board, and has a lever handle. On earlier cars the starting valve is in front of the dash attached to the steam automatic. This valve admits gasolene from the pilot tank into the main vaporizer.
Open the starting valve one half turn, for one second, close it for three seconds, repeating this until gas comes out of the main nozzles into the mixing tubes, passes up into the combustion chamber and ignited which it will do with a little puff.
Continue opening and closing the valve until the gas, which at first may be wet, becomes dry and almost invisible, then leave the valve open about 2 minutes.
Close the starting valve and open the main burner valve using the same method as with the starting valve until the gas is dry, then leave it open.
Notice the sound of the little puff the burner makes when it starts and the difference in the sound when the vapor is wet and after it becomes dry, so that when you are sitting in the car and turn on the burner, you will be able to tell by the sound when the burner starts, when the vapor is wet, and when it becomes dry.
When steam begins to blow out at the steam chest drip valve, partly close the throttle, so as to keep a small quantity only coming through.
When the pressure on the main fuel falls below 80 Lbs. lift the front toe boards and the air pump should be found attached to the air check valve, a sitting between the two hand air valves at the foot of the dash.
Open the main hand air valve (the one on the right) and pump 25 strokes of air into the main pressure tank and close the valve. If this has the effect of raising the pressure 50 Lbs. or more, wait until the pressure has fallen below 80 lbs. again then open the valve, pump another 25 strokes of air and close the valve again.
Operate the hand fuel pump if more pressure is needed.
When the steam pressure gauge registers 500 Lbs. close the main burner valve.
Close the throttle by pulling back the throttle lever and lock it with the locking screw.
Close the engine steam chest drip valve.
Close the door in the flue and the left side of hood.
See that the pilot light is burning properly and close the peek hole and door in left running board shield.
Replace the seat board, cushion, hand pump handle and carpet.
Before starting out on the road remember to see that the main fuel, pilot fuel, cylinder oil and water tanks are filled or at least contain sufficient quantity for the distance you are going.
Now keep in mind that a lot of these steps require the use of these small lovely hand-valves that sprout up all over the car, all unlabeled. Here’s two at the front, but I saw at least three more in the cockpit placed with what seems to be the same logic as as patches of crabgrass on a lawn:
Also note that this thing is still rocking acetylene headlamps! Holy crap!
People may complain about the complexity of car controls today with so many things buried in touchscreen menus, but I’m not sure anything comes close to steam car operation.
The interior is full of pedals and valves and levers, byzantine in their complexity. Look at all those gauges and check-glasses, and how many places you have to look to keep an eye on them.
They are lovely, though. And I especially like that oil lamp set up to illuminate the gauges at night. At least some of the gauges; I assume the ones you have to watch to make sure the whole thing doesn’t explode.
It’s such an amazing machine, and the complexity of it all, the way it burbles and steams and operates, just makes it all feel strangely alive. It’s like some mythical, majestic beast, decked out in scarlet and gold finery and ready to parade around town.
That coffin-shaped nose is a Stanley Steamer trademark, and I think that profile is what most people thing of when they think of a steam car – at least the people that think of steam cars at all.
This thing tooling around a little Carolina town was an absolute event, and I salute the daring owner for tackling the substantial engineering required to get this road-locomotive moving at all. So here’s to you, North Carolina Stanley Steamer owner! Thank you so much for exercising your great beast were we can appreciate it!
All photos by author
Fun Fact: F.O Stanley built the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO which has 2 Stanley Steamers in the Lobby. The hotel was also the inspiration for Steven King’s The Shinning
Husband: I said the car will be ready to go in 20 minutes! I don’t want it to blow up and kill us.
Wife: Fine. I’ll just start walking to the store. If you get the car ready, you can catch up to me.
Husband: But honey…
Wife: Don’t “But honey” me! You’re the one who sold the horse for this thing!
You have to really want to drive.
As someone that spent years in the engine room of an aircraft carrier as a machinist mate (I did nuke but still had to study conventional boiler systems), this brings back some memories.
Where do you get kerosene? At a Shell station I guess, amazing there is enough demand for a whole pump of it. What else uses it?
I remember by dad using it for some Coleman lanterns while camping, but that was the last time I had even thought of the stuff
The Meijer gas station near my house has a pump, I have a heater I use in the garage sometimes. I got yelled at once for using a regular red jug instead of a blue one.
With these sort of instructions, it’s no wonder that the early electrics were serious competition for urban driving – assuming you had access to electricity, which was not a given.
To help with getting going, people who drove these everyday would often leave the pilot light lit all the time. Which did cause more than one garage to burn down overnight, but, what price convenience?
Or, you just had a chauffeur handle all that
Yes. Chauffeur! You triggered a memory. French for “stoker,” the coal-stained wretch managing your steam engine ! Perfect!