Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-05-11
PART PLAYED BY STEAM CAR
Had Much TO Do With Development Of Industry-Took Part
In All Races and Endurance Runs-Years Before Gas
Machine Had Equal Chance.
BY BARNEY OLDFTELD

n S look back on my early racing
= and driving days, / realize how
big part the steam car played in the
early Developments of the automobile
industry. There was not a race, not
an endurance run, not tour In which
the steamer did not take a prominent
part and, believe me, the whistling bill
lies We're always up with the leaders.
The Stanley steamer made a mile rec
ord OH Ormond Beach that stood for
TWO or three years and it was not until
Demogeot in the Darracq made two
miles in less than a minute, that the
gas car was believed to have an equal
chance with the steamer. However,
from that time on, the gasoline ear
pulled out in front and the steamer
never caught up again. In fact, the
steamer came near to passing alto
gether. except for the firm faith of one
firm, the Stanleys, who had stuck to
this medium through thick and thin.
What brought all this back to me
was question recently asked in re-
gard to the present-day steamer and
whether it had overcome some of the
obvious drawbacks that gave the gas
car the lead. To this / would answer
yes, in the main. The modern steamer
possesses all the traditional character
istics of smoothness of operation,
speed of getaway, hill-climbing abil-
ity, simplicity Of control, etc. There
are fewer working parts in the steam
err than there are in the gas car.
On the other hand the man who knows
the mechanism of the gas car will find
many parts, pipes, tubes, etc, in the
steamer, whose use he does not know
WATER FOR 100 MILES
In the old days the steamer carried
just enough water to drive it perhaps
100 miles, at the end of which the wa
ter tank had to be filled up again. II
the driver forgot to do this, his engine
would burn out and he would have the
dickens of a job to get it going again.
In the present day steamers all this
has been practically eliminated The
driver has no more trouble with his
steamer than he would have with
gas car. Water enough for anywhere
from go to 1000 miles of running may
be put in the tank. AS Il matter of
fact, l would say that the modern
steamer is pretty nearly foolproof
When we come to examine the mech
anism of the modern steam car, we
find a boiler and heater for turning
the water into steam and a condensing
apparatus for turning the steam back
into water for further use. The control
consists simply of single piece of
mechanism for turning the steam into
the engine or shutting it off. In other
words simplicity itself
The boiler used on the steamer of
today is of what is known as the fire
tube type, water level design. Water is
supplied to the boiler from q tank To-
Gated under the drivers seat The
water is kept at a constant level by
means of pumps and automatic con-
trolls. II the water in the boiler falls
below Il certain level, automatic valves
open to admit more water, up to the
proper Level, when the valve a gain au-
tomatically closes and shuts off the
water tank pipe. Thus one Of the bug
bears of the old steamer is eliminated
without further considera ton.
In the same way the fuel supply is
automa tically controlled. When the
pressure in the boiler falls below a Ger
tain predetermined point, the fuel line
is automatically opened and nuro fIel
is supplied. obviously this incrca seS
the heat and brings the steam pressure
up to the proper point. In the same
way when the pressure i'll the tank
reaches a certain point, the fuel line is
automatically closed.
All this is simple enough. The driver