Q: Why Were Cars Never Powered by Steam?
Published March 13, 2007
A: Steam actually was used to power cars once upon a time, and for that French engineer Nicolas Joseph Cugnot certainly doesn't get the credit he deserves. Constantly booted out of the limelight by Henry Ford and his motor car, Cugnot was actually the first person to invent a self-propelled road vehicle ... despite it's being a steam-powered one. His creation, developed circa 1769, used a steam engine and boiler to generate power. A tiny, tiny bit of power.
Unfortunately, the contraption had to stop every 10 to 15 minutes in order to build up enough steam to resume its speedy 25 mph traveling velocity. And while the French Army used it for a bit to haul artillery, other than that, it didn't have many practical uses. On the up side, Cugnot did nab one claim to fame that Ford could never take away from him. After driving one of his road vehicles into a stone wall in 1771, Cugnot became the first person in history to have a motor vehicle accident.
- Q: Why Were Cars Never Powered by Steam?
- Published: March 13, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Sci/Tech: Energy/Environment
- Part of a feature: mental_floss Question of the Day
- Writer: Mental_Floss
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Bet the oil companies loved Mr Pritchard. However, given the parlous state of water supplies in much of Australia after six years of drought, fuel might soon cost as much as petrol if it were to be resurrected.
And I bet Sydney Water would put the price up by 20c a litre every Thursday, just in time for the weekend.
Was the Stanley Steamer the product of my fevered imagination?
"Was the Stanley Steamer the product of my fevered imagination?"
Lol. No fever there Ruve ...
Solid rocket propulsion is the answer. Last week I bought 100 solid D rocket motors made by Estes. Attached them to my wife's car. Fired them puppies up and she drove right through a chain link fence and into the retention pond. What a ride.
I haven't researched this, but since it's the only volume-produced steam-powered car I'm aware of the Stanley Steamer was probably the most successful. A little research should unearth why its not still with us today.
I don't suspect big oil killed it. More likely the fact that steam power isn't instantly ready to go and in general is much more complicated to operate.
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Actually there was a very good attempt (technically speaking) at commercialising a steam powered car in Australia in the 1970s.
A two cylinder uniflow V-twin engine was designed and built that fitted into a 1963 Ford and drove thousands of kilometres. In emissions tests by Ford Motors at Geelong in Victoria Australia in 1973 the engine was shown to produce ZERO unburnt hydrocarbons in the exhaust and have very low measures of all other common tail pipe pollutants.
It also achieved 32mpg running on kerosene (about 7 litres pre 100k) and it would burn anything that you could pour and would burn.
Some of the story is visible at www.pritchardpower.com . The inventor was no backyarder, having been a lecturer in thermodynamics and an award winning automotive engineer in his day. But the market was not ready for cars that could run on straight olive oil if thats what you wanted to burn that day.
A new company has been formed to revive the technology and find modern applications, but at the time Mr Pritchard was simply 25 years ahead of his.