page_title: Stanley Motor Carriage Company
section_title: Specifications and design
hierarchical_section_title: Stanley Motor Carriage Company / Specifications and design
caption_attribution_description: Fig. 132 Gasoline burner for a Stanley steam car boiler Scans from 'The Book of the Motor Car', Rankin Kennedy C.E., 1912 See other images from this source in Scans from 'The Book of the Motor Car'
context_page_description: The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924. The cars made by the company were colloquially called Stanley Steamers, although several different models were produced.
context_section_description: Early Stanley cars had light wooden bodies mounted on tubular steel frames by means of full-elliptic springs. Steam was generated in a vertical fire-tube boiler, mounted beneath the seat, with a vaporizing gasoline (later, kerosene) burner underneath. The boiler was reinforced by several layers of piano wire wound around it, which gave it a strong but relatively light-weight shell. In early models, the vertical fire-tubes were made of copper, and were expanded into holes in the upper and lower crown sheets. In later models, the installation of a condenser caused oil-fouling in the expansion joints, and welded steel fire-tubes had to be used. The boilers were reasonably safe, since they were fitted with safety valves. Even if these failed, any dangerous over pressure would rupture one of the joints long before the boiler shell itself could burst. The resulting leakage would relieve the boiler pressure and douse the burner, with very little risk to the passenger. There is not a single documented incident of a Stanley boiler exploding.
  The engine had two double-acting cylinders, side-by-side and equipped with slide-valves, and it was  a simple-expansion type. Drive was transmitted directly by the crankshaft to a rear-mounted differential through using a chain. Owners often modified their Locomobiles by adding third-party accessories, including improved lubricators, condensers, and devices which eased the laborious starting procedure.
  To overcome patent difficulties with the design they had sold to Locomobile, the Stanley brothers developed a new model with twin-cylinder engines geared directly to the rear axle. Later models had aluminium coachwork that resembled the internal combustion cars of the time, but they retained steam-car features by having no transmission, clutch, or driveshaft. They also had a fully sprung tubular steel frame.
  When they later moved the steam boiler to the front of the vehicle, the owners dubbed it the "coffin nose." The compact engine ran at considerable steam pressure, with the 10-horsepower (7.5 kW) boiler described in 1912 at having the safety valve set at 650 pounds per square inch (4.5 MPa), with the burner set to automatically cut back when pressure reached 500 pounds per square inch (3.4 MPa). The twin-cylinder steam engines were at that time 10 horsepower, with 3 ¹⁄₄-inch (83 mm) bore and 4 ¹⁄₄-inch (108 mm) stroke, and 20 horsepower (15 kW) with 4-inch (102 mm) bore and 5-inch (127 mm) stroke, and made extensive use of ball bearings. In order to improve range, condensers were added from 1915.
  A Stanley Steamer set the world record for the fastest mile in an automobile (28.2 seconds) in 1906. This record (127 mph or 204 km/h) was not broken by any automobile until 1911, although Glen Curtiss beat the record in 1907 with a V-8-powered motorcycle at 136 mph (219 km/h). The record for steam-powered automobiles was not broken until 2009.
  Production rose to 500 cars in 1917.
  The Stanley Steamer was sometimes nicknamed "The Flying Teapot". At least one Stanley Steamer found its way to Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia where it was driven in the late 1920s.
caption: Gasoline burner for a Stanley steam car boiler
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