New steam car book.
Posted by frustrated
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New steam car book. July 31, 2020 01:02PM |
Coats to Endurance are the names of steam car designs made in the 1921 to 1924 era by a sequence of designers. We think there were five different designs. Because this time period was during the final declining years of Stanley, and long after White had stopped making steam vehicles, reference and comparisons are continuously made to these pioneer steam vehicle manufacturers and how much these new designs improved upon the weaknesses and inconveniences of the pioneering makes. Stanley had made no major design changes—or what we would call improvements—from 1895 on. Much was happening during that nearly thirty year period in internal combustion engine development and vehicle improvements. This left a lot of room for a steam vehicle to, likewise, improve, which is exactly what happened here with Coats.
This book was researched and written by two of the better current steam people: Karl Petersen and Ken Helmick. In fact they did independent and parallel research which shows up in some duplication of effort. The editor decided that it was easier to leave everything in than it was to sort things out. By the time the reader is finished with the book they will have a very good grasp of the subject, because it will have been covered twice and from two slightly different viewpoints.
There is a presumption that the reader will have a good basic understanding of steam power and specifically of the engineering that went into the Stanley and White automobiles. This “Real Steam Power Series” will later on have books on the early steam car pioneers, from Roper to White and also on thermodynamics and the basic rules for steam power plant efficiency. These are both long stories and so everything cannot be told at once.
The editor was a history major and this shows in the amount of history that has been researched so the story can be told. The editor thinks that this book is the only opportunity to publish and tell this little known story. The editor has a fine appreciation for good steam design and thus that story is told also in this book. We end up with some of the best modern steam power plant design ever, relevant to this day.
Unfortunately, no hardware still exists from this effort. And we learn far more than we ever wanted to know about early automobile promotion. Please enjoy.
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