Locomobile

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Lettering on the front of the vehicle
Steam powered locomobile, from an advertising leaflet in January 1901
Locomobile from 1901
Locomobile from 1901
Locomobile from 1902
Locomobile model E Touring from 1907

The Locomobile Company of America was an automobile manufacturer that produced automobiles under the Locomobile brand in the United States from 1899 to 1929 .

history

The Locomobile Company of America was founded in Watertown , Massachusetts in 1899 , the name being a combination of locomotive and automobile . John B. Walker bought the plans of an early of Francis and Freelan Stanley made early vehicle for US $ 250,000, - (Only one car was already built, but 199 more ordered), where he half immediately to the road contractor Amzi L. Barber resold . The partnership lasted only 14 days; Walker founded the Mobile Company of America on the Stanley site in Tarrytown, New York , while Barber moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut , as the Stanley brothers were appointed directors of Locomobile.

Locomobile started manufacturing steam cars . The steam locomobiles were unreliable, difficult to operate, easily flammable, had water tanks that were too small (which only lasted about 32 km) and had to be heated for a long time. Rudyard Kipling described such a vehicle as a "nickel-plated fraud". Still, they were interesting and the American middle class was crying out for the latest technology. Agents, doctors, and other people needing to get from one place to another quickly found this vehicle useful. From 1899 to 1902 over 4000 copies were built. Most had simple two-cylinder machines with 927 cc displacement and a wire-wound high-pressure boiler that was heated with naphtha . Typical of Locomobile products was the 1904 runabout with two seats, which cost US $ 850. The two-cylinder steam engine was installed in the middle of the wooden frame vehicle.

During the Boer War , Locomobile vehicles were the first cars to be used in a war, namely as generator, lighting and kitchen vehicles, the latter with the advantage (invaluable for British tastes) that you could immediately make a cup of tea from the boiler water.

Unfortunately, this was not a sure route to economic success, not even in the UK, and Locomobile began experimenting with gasoline engines in 1902, starting with a steel-framed four-cylinder model designed by Andrew L. Riker . The trials were so convincing that Locomobile stopped producing steam cars the following year and sold the rights back to the Stanley brothers for US $ 20,000.

The Locomobile touring car from 1904 offered space for 5 passengers and cost US $ 4,500. The water-cooled inline four-cylinder engine installed in the front of the car developed 16 bhp (11.8 kW). A three-speed spur gear as in the competitors was also installed. The car with an angled iron frame weighed 998 kg.

Locomobile model 48 touring car 7 seats from an advertising leaflet (1920)

Like other early automobile manufacturers, Locomobile participated in car races, e.g. B. at the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1905 with a 17.7 liter racing car. With the gearbox damaged and without spare parts, racing driver Joe Tracy only managed two laps on the Auvergne ring before the gearbox completely fell apart. Tracy fared better at the Vanderbilt Cup that same year, where he finished third. At the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup, Tracy's Locomobile with a side-steered 16.2 liter engine was eliminated due to tire damage, but in 1908 George Robertson won the event in this car in third place, ahead of his fellow brand colleague Joe Florida . This made the Locomobile the first American car to win an international race. This was a high target for Locomobile, which soon retired from the racing circuit, although Orin Davis won the 1913 Los Angeles - Phoenix race.

Due to the racing success, Locomobile soon gained a good reputation for reliable and fast luxury cars. The Locomobile 40 Runabout was a two-seater with 60 bhp (44 kW) power and cost US $ 4,750 (today the equivalent of around € 85,000).

During the First World War , trucks were built .

In 1922, Locomobile was bought by Durant Motors , who used the Locomobile brand name for their top products until 1929.

Locomobile in literature

In the novella The Power of the Dog , written by Thomas Savage in the 1920s , the locomobile by protagonist Peter Johnson is rated higher than the Pierce Arrow : “... These were the vehicles of the rich and powerful, and he knew that only the Locomobile (preferred by General Pershing, among others) could stand up to Pierce. "

In Clive Cussler's 2007 novella, The Chase , there is a locomobile from 1905.

In Dashiell Hammett's 1925 mystery story , Scorched Face , the rich girls the Continental Op was looking for were driving a Locomobile “with a special cabriolet body” when they disappeared.

Models

model Construction period cylinder power wheelbase
Steam runabout 1899-1904 2 row (steam)
Steam buggy 1901-1902 2 row (steam)
Steam Locosurrey 1901-1904 2 row (steam) 1905-2363 mm
Steam Locotrap 1902 2 row (steam)
Steam Locodilivery 1902 2 row (steam)
A. 1902-1904 2 row (steam) 2159 mm
B. 1902-1904 2 row (steam) 2007 mm
C. 1903-1904 2 row 9-12 bhp (6.6-8.8 kW) 1930 mm
D. 1903-1905 4 row 16-25 bhp (11.8-18.4 kW) 2184-2438 mm
Dos-a-Dos 1903-1904 2 row (steam) 2007 mm
E. 1905-1908 4 row 20 bhp (14.7 kW) 2337-2946 mm
H 1905-1907 4 row 35 bhp (26 kW) 2692-3048 mm
F. 1905 4 row 45 bhp (33 kW) 2794 mm
Special 1906-1907 4 row 90 bhp (66 kW) 2794 mm
I. 1908 4 row 40 bhp (29 kW) 3124 mm
30 (L) 1909-1913 4 row 30–32 bhp (22–23.5 kW) 3048 mm
40 (I) 1909-1910 4 row 40 bhp (29 kW) 3124 mm
48 (M) 1910-1929 6 row 48-103 bhp (35-76 kW) 3175-3607 mm
38 (R) 1913-1918 6 row 43 bhp (32 kW) 3048-3556 mm
Junior 8 1925-1927 8 row 66 bhp (48.5 kW) 3150 mm
90 1926-1929 6 row 86 bhp (63 kW) 3505 mm
8-80 1927-1928 8 row 90 bhp (66 kW) 3302 mm
88 1929 8 row 115 bhp (84.6 kW) 3302 mm

literature

Web links

Commons : Locomobile  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Wise, David B., British Steam-Car Pioneers , in Northey, Tom, World of Automobiles , Issue 11, Orbis Publishing, London (1974)