About Locomobile
Locomobile was a company that produced automobiles in the United States of America from 1899 to 1929.
History
The Locomobile Company of America was founded in 1899, the name coined from locomotive and automobile. John B. Walker bought out Francis and Freelan Stanley's steam car company for US$250000 (with all of one car built, but 199 more ordered), promptly selling half to paving contractor Amzi L. Barber. Their partnership lasted just a fortnight; Walker went on to found Mobile Company of America at the Stanley works in Tarrytown, New York, while Walker moved house to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as Locomobile, the Stanley twins named General Managers.
Locomobile began by producing steam cars. The steam Locomobiles were unreliable, finicky to operate, prone to parafin fires, had small water tanks (getting only 20mi {32km} per tank), and took time to raise steam; Rudyard Kipling described one example as a "nickle-plated fraud". Nevertheless, they were a curiosity and middle class Americans clamoured for the latest technology. Salesmen, doctors and people needing quick mobility found them useful. Over four thousand were built between 1899 and 1902 alone. Most had simple twin-cylinder engines (3x4", 76.2x102mm; 57ci, 927cc) and wire wrapped 500 psi flash boiler burning naphtha. Typical of the product was the 1904 Runabout, which seated two passengers and sold for US$850. The compound two-cylinder steam engine was situated amidships of the armored wood-framed car.
During the Boer War, Locomobile did establish a new mark of sorts, becoming the first ever automobile to be used in war; it was a generator and searchlight tractor and catering vehicle, with the useful ability (in British eyes, at least) of being able to brew a cup of tea by tapping the boiler.
