Eric Minoff
Vice President, Head of Department - US
LOT 13 ¤
1899 Locomobile Style 1 Stanhope Chassis no. 350
Sold for US$61,600 inc. premiumLot to be sold without reserve
Lot 13¤
1899 Locomobile Style 1 Stanhope
1899 Locomobile Style 1 Stanhope
Chassis no. 350
Chassis no. 350
34.4ci Single Expansion Steam Twin
3½ bhp
Direct Drive
Live Axles with Elliptical Leaf Rear Springs and an Elliptical Lear Transverse Front Spring
Foot-operated mechanical differential brake
* Fabulously capable early steamcar
* Unbroken history from 1900
* Exciting and rewarding project
THE LOCOMOBILE
The Stanley brothers, F.E. and F.O, were approached by Cosmopolitan magazine publisher John Brisben Walker in 1899 to sell the rights to build a Stanley automobile. Walker was joined in the enterprise by Amzi Lorenzo Barber, the impresario of asphalt production for road surfaces. The Stanleys asked what they thought was (and in 1899 they were probably correct) an astronomical price of $250,000, which Walker accepted. He and Barber set up Locomobile to build Stanley steam automobiles. F.E. and F.O. Stanley took their money and set up another Stanley company.
Non-competes were less well established at the end of the 19th century.
The cars Walker and Barber built were, to put it mildly, elemental. They had two-cylinder single-acting steam engines with no steam condensers to capture steam exhaust and would with their fifteen-gallon water tanks go only about 40 miles before needing to find a pond, stream, river or watering trough to replenish. The three-gallon fuel tank lasted longer.
These Locomobiles had fire tube boilers operating at a design pressure of 150psi with pop-off valves set at an overpressure of 250psi and claimed to be tested to 1,000psi before failure. The two-cylinder engine provided four power strokes for each crankshaft revolution and, like all steam engines, generated its maximum torque at zero rpm. It needed no transmission nor, in the most basic Stanhope layout, much else. Steering was by a tiller from the right side. The body was a buggy on a flimsy tubing frame. Axles were located by fore and aft "perch rods" taken directly from horse drawn buggy layouts. Braking was foot operated on a contracting band drum on the rear axle.
It was basic, but also well-known and accepted technology. No transmission or gear shifting was needed, and the tiller steering was like handling the reins of a horse. Locomobile claimed its 3 ½ hp steam twin would climb a 14% grade at 15mph.
THE CAR OFFERED
The history of this 1899 Locomobile Style 1 Stanhope is well-established, at least in recounted history. It was bought from Locomobile in Bridgeport, Connecticut in February 1900 by James Woolson of Watertown, Connecticut. Woolson drove it for some time, then moved on to other automobiles but not before disassembling his Locomobile and saving the parts. His widow had it restored, then donated it to operatic and popular tenor James Melton for his antique auto museum in Connecticut. Melton displayed it there and in his Autorama in Hypoluxo, Florida until his death. The Locomobile found its way to Winthrop Rockefeller's Museum of Automobiles at Petit Jean Mountain Arkansas and then in 1989 to the Harrah's Collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
It has chrome spoke bicycle style wire wheels, 28x2½ white rubber tires, chain drive to the rear axle and a pair of Neverout kerosene sidelights. Finished in black with green side panels, it is upholstered in black leather with a black patent leather dasher, more appropriate for deflecting dirt from horses' hooves than for driving with steam power.
Although it has not run for years, nor been boiler pressure tested in recent memory, this Locomobile Style 1 Stanhope has immense importance not only as one of the earliest American automobiles but also as a potential early starter in signature events like the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Capable of up to 40mph (claimed by Locomobile) and despite having to stop one or two times on the 60-mile Brighton Run for water and a splash of fuel it should both leave and arrive early giving its riders time to see many other LBVCR entrants arrive at The Grand Brighton Hotel.
Additional information
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