American Waltham Manufacturing Company

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The American Waltham Manufacturing Company is a former American manufacturer of bicycles and, for a short time, a steam automobile . There are no known connections to the Waltham Automobile Company (steam cars from the Waltham Steam and American Steam brands ) or to the Waltham Watch Company (watches from the Waltham Watch brand ).

American Waltham Manufacturing Company's bicycles were sold under the Comet brand. Steam power was provided for the planned automobile . That was by no means unusual; Around 1900, 1,600 of 4,200 automobiles sold were powered by steam.

In May 1899, the New England Motor Carriage Company moved from Boston to Waltham. The companies seem to have been linked; both produced Comet bicycles. Probably both merged. The New England Motor Carriage Co. had also put a steam car on the market; interest in automobiles waned in both factories. The New England Steamer continued to be built together with the bicycles on behalf of the Stanton Manufacturing Company until 1901 at the same location in Waltham - probably in the facilities of American Waltham Manufacturing . The American Waltham Steam was discontinued in 1899.

American Waltham Steam

The American Waltham was a four-wheeled, two-seat buggy whose lightweight construction was inspired by bicycle construction. It had wire-spoke wheels 30 inches (762 mm) in diameter and 2 inch (50.8 mm) thick pneumatic tires . It was steered with a lever. It was driven by a two-piston steam engine which could generate 100 lbs (45.36 kg) of steam within 5 minutes. There was a lever for starting and changing gears. The boiler was tubular. With a weight of just under 230 kg, the vehicle was very light, which also limited the possible range because only 12 gallons (approx. 45.5 liters) of water and 5 gallons (18.9 liters) of gasoline could be carried to operate the burner.

Weighing only about 500 lbs (227 kg), the entire vehicle was significantly lighter than that of its local competitor, Waltham Steam .

Only a small number of these steam cars were built between 1898 and 1899.

The company closed in 1902 and New England acquired its facilities . Comet bikes continued to be built for some time.

annotation

In Waltham at the turn of the 20th century no fewer than four manufacturers were busy building steam cars. One of them was the American Waltham Manufacturing Company described here , as well as the New England Motor Carriage Company , the Stanton Manufacturing Company, and the Waltham Automobile Company . The latter's products are occasionally confused with the American Waltham because they were manufactured in the same place and around the same time, and were also temporarily sold as Waltham Steam and American Steam . In the work by GN Georgano (ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present , mentioned below, such a mix-up apparently occurred.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (eds.) And Henry Austin Clark, jr .: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 2nd edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 . (English)
  • George Nick Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)
  • Richard J. Evans: Steam Cars (Shire Album). Shire Publications, 1985, ISBN 0-85263-774-8 . (English)
  • Anthony Bird, Edward Douglas-Scott Montagu of Beaulieu: Steam Cars, 1770-1970. Littlehampton Book Services, 1971, ISBN 0-304-93707-X . (English)
  • Floyd Clymer, Harry W. Gahagan: Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook. Literary Licensing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-258-42699-6 . (English)
  • John Heafield Bacon: American Steam-Car Pioneers: A Scrapbook. 1st edition. Newcomen Society of the United States, 1984, ISBN 99940-65-90-4 . (English). Beginnings; Sylvester A. Roper; George A. Long; George E. Whitney
  • H. Walter Staner: The early days of motors and motor-driving - steam cars. Lightning Source UK. Milton Keynes UK, ISBN 978-1-4455-2487-0 . (undated reprint of instructions for operating steam cars from the publisher of the specialist newspaper Autocar , approx. 1900, English)
  • Anthony Bird: De Dion Bouton - First automobile Giant. (Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Car marque book No 6). Ballantine Books, New York 1971. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 45.
  2. ↑ a b c Kimes (1996), p. 47.
  3. ↑ Kimes (1996), p. 1040.
  4. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 1463.
  5. ^ Waltham Museum: Timeline