FB Stearns Company

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Stearns from 1911
Stearns-Knight from 1928

FB Stearns Company , previously FB Stearns & Company , was an automobile manufacturer from the United States .

description

The company was based in Cleveland , Ohio . The brand name was Stearns until 1911 and Stearns-Knight from 1912 .

Frank Ballou Stearns was an automotive pioneer who built his first car as a student in 1896 and made his first production model in his Cleveland factory in 1898. This was a gasoline-powered buggy with a single-cylinder engine (lying down, underfloor), wire-spoke wheels, planetary gear and chain drive. In 1901 there was already a single-cylinder engine with a displacement of 4083 cm³. In 1902 Stearns offered various models, including a touring car. This had a water-cooled 2-cylinder boxer engine with 24 bhp (17.9 kW) installed at the front, a tonneau structure and a three-speed gearbox. It is noteworthy that all controls were attached to the steering column. The car with a sturdy wooden frame weighed 1270 kg, offered space for 6 people and cost US $ 3000.

In 1904 Stearns offered a very European-looking car with a four-cylinder engine (36 bhp / 26.5 kW), a wheelbase of 2819 mm and a four-speed gearbox, but with a more American battery ignition instead of the magneto ignition common in Europe. This changed in 1905 when magneto ignition became standard with the 32/40 hp and the wheelbase grew to 2997 mm.

In 1906 Stearns introduced a 40/45 hp four-cylinder with aluminum sheets on the tonneau structure, windshield and no less than 17 (!) Coats of paint at a price of US $ 5200.

In what was probably the fastest rally car of its time, a Stearns Six (a 45/90 hp with 12,913 cm³ displacement), Barney Oldfield won the hill climb on Mount Wilson. In 1910, Al Poole and Cyrus Patschke won a 24-hour race at Brighton Beach , covering 2016 km at an average speed of 84 km / h.

Soon, however, Stearns turned away from the high-performance cars. From 1911 onwards, the company built slide motors into its vehicles and sold them under the name Stearns-Knight . In 1914 there was a four-cylinder with a displacement of 5.1 liters and a six-cylinder with a displacement of 6.8 liters, electric lighting and an electric starter. In 1917 they were one of the first manufacturers to introduce a V8 engine.

Stearns retired from the business in 1919 and sold his company to John North Willys in 1925 . Willys ran the company as a non-integrated subsidiary of Willys-Overland until it was liquidated in 1929.

literature

  • David Burgess Wise: Stearns: A Quality Car from Cleveland. , In: Tom Northey (Ed.): World of Automobiles. Volume 19, Orbis, London 1974, pp. 2174-2176.
  • Beverly R. Kimes (Ed.), Henry A. Clark: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 .
  • Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. January 1904.

Web links

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