Box 14, Veyo, Utah
The writer positively knows that a steam automobile can be built
that will go fifty miles per gallon of cheap fuel oil or coal tars
or the like and have thrilling acceleration and the other
advantages of steam. The boilers, engines, burners and gadgets have
been developed. They only need application to give steam fans the
The photographs of old traction engines powered by steam are
very interesting. I am familiar with some of them, having sawed
sacks in the Palouse and Umatilla County, Oregon. They bring back
memories. They were remarkable pieces of mechanical ingenuity, but
they all had one common defect in that they were woefully
inefficient thermally. Now, many people associate this defect with
steam and consider it a characteristic of steam, but this need not
be the case. Steam can be made even more efficient than explosion
engines because of the low exhaust temperatures and the
correspondingly high mean-effective-pressures. Steam was so good
people tolerated the low thermal efficiently and the manufactures
sold so many of them they were under no pressure to make them
better.
Engineers with mistaken educational training persuaded the
tractor manufacturers to convert to internal combustion, and we
also think the gasoline manufacturers had some thing to do with it.
But manufacturers have a way of keenly following the demand trend,
and if you people who buy tractors demand better steam tractors you
will likely get them.
There are many reasons why the world will continue to use steam.
It will surprise many to learn that much more than 50% of the power
of the world is generated by steam. Steam has not been supplanted,
as many believe. The explosion engine has only made inroads in the
matter of automobiles and trucks and there are sound reasons why
these vehicles must return to steam. The world can not supply
sufficient petroleum to keep up the mad pace of the explosion
engine automobiles. The world CAN supply steam automobiles burning
coal, coal tars, wood, sawdust, alcohol, nut hulls or what-have
you.
With better burners, more efficient engines and boilers, the
steam car and truck will VASTLY surpass the best Detroit can offer,
and they have about reached the zenith of the explosion engined
Car. Gas turbines are just TALK. They haven’t a chance to
compete with steam with an IN-FORMED public, and with sufficient
support of steam to bring the new steam cars off the drawing
boards.
If you can have the old steam car PERFORMANCE, and even better,
with none of the old defects of steam, where can you find any thing
to closely compete with it? And such amazing simplicity, endurance
and reliability!!