Green Bay steamer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Green Bay Steamer is a steam engine that took part in a 200 mile long distance journey in the United States on July 17, 1878 .

AJ Carhart from Racine (Wisconsin) had already successfully demonstrated a steam car in 1871 . This prompted the government of the state of Wisconsin to set a price of US $ 10,000 for every citizen of the state who invented a "cheap and practical substitute for horses and other animals on the highway (!) And the farm". The drive went down in automotive history as the Wisconsin reliability trial .

The machinist EP Cowles from Wequiock near Green Bay (Wisconsin) accepted the challenge. His steam car weighed a respectable 6,466 kg (14,255 lbs) - not including the trailer that was carried to carry the fuel supplies for the burner and water. It had a two-piston steam engine with three forward gears and one reverse gear. The vehicle could travel approximately 10 miles (18 km) before adding fuel for the burner and water; the supplies were carried on a trailer.

Cowles had previously built a steam car but sold it to fund a better car for the race. However, he missed the time required for this, so that the Green Bay Steamer looked unfinished and roughly constructed.

The Green Bay Steamer was the faster vehicle despite its significantly higher weight, but Cowles had the misfortune that his vehicle got into a sewer early. The repairs were taking too long , so the Oshkosh Steam Wagon was the first to arrive at the destination 201 miles (323 km) away.

Cowles then designed steam locomotives for the Austin & Pendleton Machine Shop in Warren (Ohio) and then moved to the Packard Electric Company, founded in 1890, as head of the drawing office . In 1896 he helped his superiors William and James Ward Packard and JH Howry, President of Packard Electric Company Ltd. of Canada, with the first drawings for an automobile, which however was never realized.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kimes (1985): Standard Catalog (1978), p. 631
  2. ↑ a b c Kimes (1985): Standard Catalog (1978), p. 1051
  3. ↑ Kimes (1985): Standard Catalog (1978), p. 242
  4. ^ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels (2005), p. 31
  5. ↑ Kimes: Packard (1978), pp. 21-22, 23.

literature

  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 (English)
  • Kimes, Beverly Rae (editor) and Clark, Henry Austin, jr .: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI 54990, USA (1985), ISBN 0-87341-111-0 (English)
  • Kimes, Beverly Rae: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America ; Editor SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA (2005), ISBN 0-7680-1431-X (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.): Packard, a history of the motor car and the company ; General edition, Automobile Quarterly (1978), ISBN 0-915038-11-0 (English)