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PLATFORM OF G. STEVENSON
Advocating the Restoration in the Automobile Industry
of Steam, the True Automotive
Power
The basic and final superiority of the steam automobile over the
internal combustion car has always been recognized by those acquainted with it. There are, still running, a few steamers built before
1920 that will outperform any gas wagon made today. The old fashioned steamers, however, were hard, and took a long time1 to start, often
burned out or froze up, were difficult and expensive of upkeep, and
altogether so complicated and troublesome that public favor turned to
the more immediate and superficial advantages of the gasoline plant;
which were, self-contained compactness, ready starting, ease of upkeep, and comparative simplicity. And, as gas wagons are easier and
cheaper to make than steamers, car makers found it decidedly more
profitable to follow this trend than to try to overcome the many and
great difficulties then in the way of a practical steam car. Many gas
wagon manufacturers once made steamers; of them, the Whites have always conceded the basic superiority of the steam plant.
Because of the above-listed features, the gas engine, of course,
had and still has, many sincere adherents, whose misled belief it has
been that its disadvantages can be eliminated through divers superficial improvements hung onto a principle that is fundamentally impractical and always will be. The disadvantages of the old steam
cars, however, can be eliminated; they are superficial and not basic.
The old timers had to be fired by a match, in the way that a blowtorch is lit; a modern steamer gets up steam in 20 seconds at the
turn of a switch. Electric starting and electric controls, only
recently made possible, make simple, positive, reliable operation a
feature of the modern steamer. Burning out of the boiler is eliminated by the use of modern alloy steel. Freezing can easily be taken
care of. In ease of upkeep and simplicity a modern steamor can compete with any gas wagon. Self-contained compactness is not a requisite of the automobil0 plant.
One out of every four strokes in a gas engine is a power stroke.
During the other throo the engine has to ride around on its momentum.
If that momentum bo killed by slowing the ongino down so it cannot
reach the next power stroke, the machine stalls. Gas wagon ads sometimes contend that the power impulse consists of a rapid, steady expansion of the burning gases against the piston, and is not an explosion at al l; a notion easily dispelled by a few minutes• listening to
a gas engine without a muffler. Besides, if this were so, an eight
cylinder gas engine would have the absolute flexibility of steam,
which it obviously does not . The operation cycle of a gas engine
consists of a series of terrific explosions better suited to hammering
the machine to pieces than to the accomplishment of useful work. They
are effective for so short a part of the stroke that complication,
weight, and sluggishness are about all that can be gained by multiplicity of cylinders and "overlapping" of strokes; a 16-cylinder car
has to have a gear shift, as well as a four.
�'
-2This is the way a gas engine works. It is the fundamental system
of it, and no amount of inspired tinkering with it can make it work
any other way than just that. Except for synchro-mesh and "free
wheeling" (the latter being great sport, but of little practical use;
both are said to have "revolutionized" the automobile industry), the
gas wagon transmission is the same as it was 30 years ago--which can
hardly be called progress. Such things as electric drives and other
flexibilizing substitutes for it have been too heavy, complicated,
costly, and inefficient, and generally accredited a failure; such
around-the-corner procedure is hardly logical as compared with having
a flexible power plant in the first place.
For any one purpose, and where a smooth, quiet machine is not required, such as climbing Pike's Peak, breaking a world's speed record,
or driving a sawmill, the gas engine is about as good as the steam
engine, and often handier; one given power plant and transmission
ratio can meet all requirements. Speed record drivers use the gas
engine, as more development has been given it, and with it they have
a better knowledge of where they are at. In the ordinary automobile,
however, the load is constantly varying; and each major fluctuation
in the load on the gas engine has to be met with a corresponding
change in the transmission ratio, that the machine may not stall or
race unnecessarily; constant gear-shifting and pampering of the power
plant make even the most luxurious modern gas wagon a far from pleasant thing to drive. The steam engine is universally adaptable and
flexible, and operates with full efficiency and effectiveness at any
speed; the identical same steam-powered chassis, without a single
change, is equally good at delicately maneuvering a ton of bricks
through the traffic of New York, and at speeding a luxurious limousine
100 miles an hour over the Lincoln Highway.
In a double-acting steam engine, every stroke is a power stroke.
Steam admitted to the cylinder gives a steady, smooth push, not a
terrific shock, to the piston for its entire travel, and back again.
The entire valve mechanism is a single sliding piece moved by an eccentric over two ports. The steam engine can turn over either way,
and reverse is effected simply by adjusting the valve travel so that
steam admitted will tend to drive the engine in the opposite direction to that in which it has been going. Save for dead centers, a
single steam cylinder is unstallable. Two such cylinders, with their
cranks at right angles so that one is at the full of its stroke when
the other is on dead center, compose an absolutely flexible machine.
It can start from any position of rest simply by admitting steam to
it. Its speed and power are unlimited by the structural difficulties
of the gas engine. The equipment for supplying steam to the automobile engine can, as described before, now be made perfectly reliable
and practical.
Sunnnary of the Advantages That
Can be Built into a Modern
Steam Automobile:
NO GEARS TO SHIFT: No clutch to trouble with, no noise, no "free
wheeling" to run away from you; from Oto as fast as you care to let
it out, and back again, your only controls are the throttle and the
�-3-
brake. Reverse at the touch of a pedal; can be used to brake the
car on hills.
PICKUP TWICE AS FAST AS A GAS WAGON: Independent of momentum, every
stroke a power stroke, the steam engine responds instantly to control.
SMOOTHNESS UNKNOWN WITH A GAS WAGON: Because of its absolute flexibility, smoothness is inherent in the operation of steam power,
and not the result of smothering a noisy, shaky machine with artificial counterweights~ mufflers, "vibration dampeners", "rubber
mounting", "silencers, 11 it floats" devices, and the like.
BURNS ANYTHING from bootleg hooch to fuel oil, without even special
adjustment. As far on a gallon as a gas wagon of comparable weight
and power.
NO STINK: Does not have to be pampered with special gas; combustion
clean and complete, and does not take place where the cylinders are
lubricated.
MORE POWER for its weight than any automobile ever made.
SIMPLE a91..a gas wagon, with a rugged straightforwardness in its construction as opposed to the delicate adjustments and fickle beha vior
of a gas engine. Modern electrical ignition and controls do away
with the complication and troublesomeness that caused the failure of
the old fashioned steamer, and make practical the modern steam car.
SAFE: Easy, positive control and pickup, combined with the nonstallable reliability of steam power, get and keep you out of jams
as no gas wagon can do. Automatic controls, safety valve, and
ample reserve strength i n sure against the boiler's blowing up (something which hardly ever happened even to the earliest and most
primitive steam cars).
W
ATER does not have to be renewed any more often than in a gas wagon,
because all exhaust steam is condensed. Ample provision made against
freezing up in winter.
STARTING:
1) Turn on a switch.
2) Drive it.
No spark, no start pedal, no choke, no "carburetor heat control", no
fumbling with the hand throttle, no stalling and second tries. Gets
up steam from cold to operating pressure in 20 seconds.
A GOOD-LOOKING CAR, yet built so you can see where you're going in
it. There is no reason why this should be exclusive to ste a m, but
no present-day gas wagon has this feature.
�
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Title
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Stevenson, Gilbert: Advocating the Restoration of Steam in the Automotive Industry
Description
An account of the resource
A three page document by Gilbert Wright Stevenson (1914-1998) advocating the restoration of the steam engine for powering automobiles. Published on August 6, 1932 as an attachment to the Granville Center News. Multiple copies found in the library archives. <br /><br />Gilbert Stevenson was the "Chief Editor" of the Granville Center News, informally published in the 1930's as stated in the paper, "on nine more or less consecutive Saturdays during the summer."<br /><br />Stevenson appears to have summered in Granville during his late teens and came up with the idea of publishing the Granville Center News (GCN). He was "Chief Editor" with staff consisting of Assistant Editor J.D. Wright, Jr., Feature Editor Holland Newton Stevenson, Jr. (Gilbert's brother), and Foreign Corespondent J. Laughlin IIII. Together they created a publication that was both informative and humorous, with occasional editorials espousing the virtues of anarchy, among other things.<br /><br />Issues 12 thru 35 of the Granville Center News have been found and digitized. They can be viewed here: <a href="https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/admin/items/show/737">https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/items/show/737 </a><br /><br />Gilbert Stevenson's passion for steam led him to own a steam car around 1933. The brief period of ownership was commented on in the Granville Center News occasionally, including the car's final trip to Newton, MA. when Stevenson and the car fell short by about 5 miles so the car was towed and abandoned. <br /><br />Stevenson was not easily discouraged. He seems to have been a natural engineer, entrepreneur, dreamer, promoter, and all-around character. A Yale engineering graduate (1936), he helped build at least two companies in an attempt to mass produce a steam car in the late 1930's. He unveiled a prototype in 1938: <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1938/4/20/steam-car-modeled-after-stanley-steamer/">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1938/4/20/steam-car-modeled-after-stanley-steamer/<br /><br /></a>Granville's summer newspaperman died in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming. <br /><br />Steam on, Stevenson!
Date
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1930's
Rights
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Granville Public Library Historical Room
Contributor
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Photo of Gilbert Stevenson in car courtesy of John Stevenson, March 4, 2020.
automobile
Gilbert Wright Stevenson
Granville Center News
Holland Newton Stevenson Jr.
J. Laughlin
J.D. Wright Jr.
Massachusetts
steam