Skene American Automobile Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Skene American Automobile Company was an American company.

description

James W. Skene headed the JW Skene Cycle Company in Lewiston, Maine , around 1900 . He made bicycles .

At the beginning of 1900, he announced the completion of a steam car of his own design and announced the construction of two more. In December 1900 he partnered with RHB Warburton of Springfield, Massachusetts . He invested 500,000 US dollars in the project and thus founded the separate company Skene American Automobile Company . The seat was in Springfield, Massachusetts and the plant in Lewiston. The production of the vehicles remained in Lewiston, whereby Skene took pride in manufacturing all components itself.

The Skene steam car

The Skene steam car was one of the simplest in the United States. A two-cylinder double-action steam engine with 5 hp (according to the calculation method used at the time) was used as the drive . The boiler was designed for a working pressure of 160 pounds / in² (approx. 11 bar). The burner was designed for gasoline, the tank for it held 5 gallons (18.9 liters). One water filling lasted up to 25 miles (approx. 40 km). The promised top speed was 30 mph (approx. 50 km / h). The Skene Steamer was available with four different, open structures.

Skene body Price (US $)
Model 1 Steam Stanhope   750
Model 2 Steam Victoria   850
Model 3 Steam Surrey 1200
Model 4 Canopy Steam Surrey  1300

The end

In January 1901, 20 copies were under construction in Lewiston. At the same time Warburton exhibited the Skene steamer at the Philadelphia Motor Show. Five vehicles were to be exhibited on the stand - a respectable parade for such a young company. Things went completely wrong, however, most of the exhibits got stuck somewhere between Springfield and Philadelphia during rail transport, so that the stand, which was large enough to adequately display half a dozen cars, looked pretty empty with only one. Warburton showed a second prospect on the premises. Despite this glitch, Warburton reported a great success at the fair. However, it could no longer be used because the company ran out of funds. Outstanding claims over US $ 5,000 eventually led to production being discontinued.

While the trail of Warburton is lost afterwards, JW Skene later reappeared as an authorized dealer for Rambler automobiles . In 1936 he died in an accident in his workshop in Augusta, Maine .

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.), Henry Austin Clark, Jr.: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 , pp. 1309-1310.
  • 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 1-258-42699-4 . (English)
  • John H. Bacon: American Steam-Car Pioneers: A Scrapbook. 1st edition. Newcomen Society in North, 1984, OCLC 11091064 . (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Kimes (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars. 1985, pp. 1309-1310.