Abner Doble’s steam car was better than gas car

The steam car seemed written off, but the sickly perfectionist inventor Abner Doble succeeded in developing a model that could beat the petrol engine in many respects.

The petrol, LPG or diesel car was not the first car on the road. Long before the inventors Benz and Diesel invented their famous engines, electric cars and steam cars were already on the road. You can read everything about the very first electric cars in this article, and of course also what is or is not true about the stories about electric cars.

But there was a third important type of car, which was in vogue in the 19th century and early 20th century. The steam car. Although it was not very user-friendly, the inventor Abner Doble succeeded in developing a model that still works well today, after more than a million driving kilometers, and is cleaner than a petrol car.

How exactly did steam cars work?

Just like a petrol car and a diesel car, a steam car works with gas pressure. In a petrol car and diesel car, this gas pressure is generated by an igniting mixture of petrol vapor and air. Because the gases CO2 and water vapor take up much more volume than gasoline vapor with air, and are also very hot, an enormous pressure is created, on which the car moves. In a steam car, the pressure is provided by steam. So water vapor. There is a small steam engine in a steam car, with all its advantages and disadvantages.

As in any steam engine, you have an incinerator where the coal goes in, above that is a kettle of boiling water. The steam provided by the boiling water expands and spins a turbine. This turbine powers the car. Here you immediately see an advantage of the steam car. After all, it doesn’t matter how you bring the water to the boil, so you can burn many different types of fuel here. Coal, but also wood chips or, if necessary, burning iron powder or a lump of red-hot plutonium-240. Another advantage is that the engine and the fuel do not come into contact with each other.

Why did the steam car fall out of favor?

Steam cars have some significant drawbacks. Their efficiency is lower than that of a gasoline car, about half, because heat losses occur. It also often takes a long time to start the engine. After all, the water must be brought to a boil. Often a minute or 20.

And, as every fan of western films knows, you have to refill the kettle with water regularly. You also have to take that water with you. And, last but not least, the combination of the steam boiler and turbine was heavier than that of a petrol engine. In short, a steam car is quite bulky and large, much like a locomotive.

The disadvantages of petrol cars were even greater before this, but when the automatic starter motor was invented it meant the beginning of the end of the steam car.

Abner Doble: genius mechanic, bad businessman

The Doble family was one of inventors. Father Doble had walked in with his improved Pelton wheel, a kind of paddle wheel. With this capital, the Doble family started a car company that built steam cars. It wasn’t always cake and egg between the brothers, but until the beginning of the 20th century they could work together reasonably well in business.

Accelerating almost as fast as a modern car

The Doble’s really caught the attention of the car world with their model B. With a number of smart improvements, Abner and his brothers managed to reach no less than 2400 km with a water tank. The smoke also no longer polluted the engine, making it last much longer.

But the real hit was the acceleration. Where the T-Ford took 40 seconds to reach its top speed of 61 km / h, the Doble B reached its top speed of almost 100 km / h in just 15 seconds. That’s only a few seconds more than a car of today, and you have to consider that this car weighed three and a half tons.

A lot of enthusiasm, but also a lot of flaws

There therefore seems to be a bright future for the Doble car factory. All the more so, because in the next version C, Abner adds a kind of kerosene starter boiler, which initially helps the car start until the steam is hot enough. This car could start up in “only” 1.5 minutes. The car world is wildly enthusiastic and orders are pouring in.

Unfortunately, the version appears to have quite a few defects, so that the delivery falters. After a family quarrel and the death of brother John, the remaining three brothers move to California, where they make a new start.

Doble Model E steam car

The ‘classic’ Doble E is the model of which the most units were built, 24 in total. Of these, 18 still exist. This was a two-cylinder engine that could handle various liquid fuels. All kinds of malfunction-sensitive parts that occur in petrol cars, such as a gearbox, transmission or clutch, were missing, so that these cars can almost all still drive just fine. This car could reach the dizzying speed (for that time) of 140 km/h. The cheapest model cost $130,000 today, leaving this car as a plaything only for the rich, like the Maharaja of Bharatpur. At the time when this car was built, it surpassed all gasoline cars in this.

Slow demise

Unfortunately, things did not go well for the Doble family, mainly due to brother Abner’s perfectionism, and some nasty personal traits. For example, he liked to take all the credit for himself, and to present things better than they were. And he turned out to be creative with the illegal issuance of shares. As a result, he got into a fight with the authorities, which led to the downfall of his factory.

It never came from mass production. From 1922 to the end of the factory in 1932, only 32 units were built in total. Each one was unique, as Abner was constantly tweaking and improving the engine and bodywork surrounding it. As a result, each copy had its own character and defects. This made the factory the longest surviving builder of steam cars.

Airplane on steam

After the demise of the factory, brothers Warren and Abner Doble made their living from steam engine consultancy. He was involved in such remarkable projects as the first steam-powered airplane. Until the end of his life, Abner Doble remained a firm believer in the concept of the steam car. He believed that if the scale of production was large enough and technology improved, the steam car could outrun the petrol car.

What if Abner Doble…

It’s always fun to fantasize about what would have happened if the Warren brothers and Abner Doble had more business talent, or a business-savvy partner. Could the steam car have survived, in a modern form?

It has made little difference a few times. During the oil crisis, manufacturers such as General Motors and Paxton, in collaboration with the Doble brothers, researched the possibilities of steam cars. With oil becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, there may be a return of interest in an engine that can run on many different fuels. Although the electric car is superior in almost every respect.

So who knows, the last word on the steam car is far from being said. There are still groups of hobbyists who break one speed record after another with their own steam car. Because let’s face it, a car that can drive around the clock 10 times, and into which you can throw different fuels, who wouldn’t want that?