Although engineers developed ingenious steam-powered road vehicles, they did not enjoy the same level of acceptance and expansion as steam power at sea and on the railways in the middle and late 19th century of the "age of steam".
Ransomes built a portable steam engine, that is a farm steam engine on wheels, hauled from farm to farm by horses in 1841. The next year Ransomes automated it and had the engine drive itself to farms. Harsh legislation virtually eliminated mechanically propelled vehicles from the roads of Great Britain for 30 years, the
Locomotive Act 1861 imposing restrictive speed limits on "road locomotives" of in towns and cities, and in the country. The
Locomotives Act 1865 (the famous
Red Flag Act) further reduced the speed limits to in the country and just in towns and cities, additionally requiring a man bearing a red flag (red lantern during the hours of darkness) to precede every vehicle. At the same time, the act gave local authorities the power to specify the hours during which any such vehicle might use the roads. The sole exceptions were street
trams which from 1879 onwards were authorised under licence from the
Board of Trade. In France the situation was radically different from the extent of the 1861 ministerial ruling formally authorising the circulation of steam vehicles on ordinary roads. Whilst this led to considerable technological advances throughout the 1870s and 1880s, steam vehicles nevertheless remained a rarity. To an extent competition from the successful railway network reduced the need for steam vehicles. From the 1860s onwards, attention was turned more to the development of various forms of
traction engine which could either be used for stationary work such as sawing wood and threshing, or for transporting outsize loads too voluminous to go by rail. Steam trucks were also developed but their use was generally confined to the local distribution of heavy materials such as coal and building materials from railway stations and ports.
Rickett of Buckingham steam car In 1854 Thomas
Rickett of
Buckingham built the first of several steam cars and in 1858 he built the second. Instead of looking like a steam car it resembled a small locomotive. It consisted of a steam engine mounted on three wheels: two large driven rear wheels and one smaller front wheel by which the vehicle was steered. The weight of the machine was 1.5 tonnes and somewhat lighter than Rickett's steam car. The whole was driven by a
chain drive and a maximum speed of twelve miles per hour was reached. Two years later in 1860 Rickett built a similar but heavier vehicle. This model incorporated
spur-gear drive instead of chain. In his final design resembling a railway locomotive, the
cylinders were coupled directly outside the
cranks of the
driving-axle.
Roper steam car Sylvester H. Roper drove around
Boston, Massachusetts on a steam car he invented in 1863. One of his 1863 steam cars went to the
Henry Ford Museum, where in 1972 it was the oldest car in the collection. Around 1867–1869 he built a
steam velocipede, which may have been the first
motorcycle.
Manzetti steam car In 1864 Italian inventor
Innocenzo Manzetti built a road steamer. It had the boiler at the front and a single cylinder engine.
Holt Road steamer H.P. Holt constructed a small road steamer in 1866. Able to reach a speed of twenty miles per hour on level roads, it had a vertical boiler at the rear and two separate twin cylinder engines, each of which drove one rear wheel by means of a
chain and sprocket wheels.
Taylor Steam buggy In 1867 Canadian jeweller Henry Seth Taylor demonstrated his
four-wheeled steam buggy at the Stanstead Fair in
Stanstead, Quebec, and again the following year. The basis of the buggy which he began building in 1865 was a high wheeled carriage with bracing to support a two-cylinder steam engine mounted on the floor.
Michaux-Perreaux Steam velocipede exhibition at the
Guggenheim in New York in 1998 Around 1867–1869 in France a
Louis-Guillaume Perreaux commercial steam engine was attached to a
Pierre Michaux metal framed
velocipede, creating the
Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede. Along with the
Roper steam velocipede, it might have been the first motorcycle. The only Michaux-Perreaux Steam velocipede made is in the Musée de l'Île-de-France,
Sceaux, and was included in
The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition in New York in 1998.
Knight of Farnham steam carriage In 1868–1870
John Henry Knight of
Farnham built a four-wheeled steam carriage which originally only had a
single-cylinder engine.
Catley and Ayres of York steam car In 1869 a small three-wheeled vehicle propelled by a horizontal twin cylinder engine which drove the rear axle by spur gearing, only one rear wheel was driven, the other turning freely on the axle. A vertical
fire-tube boiler was mounted at the rear with a polished copper casing over the fire box and chimney, the boiler was enclosed in a mahogany casing. The weight was only 19
cwt and the front wheel was used for steering.
Thomson of Edinburgh Road steamer In 1869 the road steamer built by
Robert William Thomson of
Edinburgh became famous because its wheels were shod with heavy solid rubber tyres. Thomson's first road steamers, manufactured in his own small workshop in Leith, were fitted with three wheels, the small single wheel at the front being directly below the steering wheel. The tyres, which were thick, were corrugated internally and adhered to the wheel by friction. He then turned to T. M. Tennant and Co of Bowershall Iron and Engine Works, Leith for their manufacture, but as they could not keep up with demand in 1870 some of the production was moved to
Robey & Co of Lincoln. Over the next two years Robeys built 32 of these vehicles, which were either versions. A large proportion were exported. These included one to Italy (for an experiment of public transport in Bergamo), three to Austria (Vienna) and others to Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, India, Ireland, Chile, Russia (Moscow) and Greece. A further Thomson steam vehicle was built in 1877, but apart from traction engines, Robeys appear to have discontinued making road steam vehicles until 1904, when they started manufacturing
steam road lorries.
Kemna of East-Prussia Road steamer Steam ploughing engine In 1871
Julius Kemna, a German industrialist, started selling English steam
threshing systems. A couple of years later Kemna started producing various other steam-powered vehicles (such as
road rollers) but also high quality
steam ploughing engines and road steamers.
Randolph of Glasgow Steam bus In 1872 a steam coach by Charles Randolph of
Glasgow weighed , was in length, but had a maximum speed of only . Two vertical twin cylinder engines were independent of one another and each drove one of the rear wheels by spur gearing. The entire vehicle was enclosed and fitted with windows all around, carried six people, and even had two driving mirrors for observing traffic approaching from behind, the earliest recorded instance of such a device.
Bollée Steam bus From 1873 to 1883
Amédée Bollée of
Le Mans built a series of steam-powered passenger vehicles able to carry 6 to 12 people at speeds up to , with such names as
La Rapide,
La Nouvelle,
La Marie-Anne,
La Mancelle and ''L'Obéissante
. To L'Obeissante'' the boiler was mounted behind the passenger compartment with the engine at the front of the vehicle, driving the differential through a shaft with chain drive to the rear wheels. The driver sat behind the engine and steered by means of a wheel mounted on a vertical shaft. The lay out more closely resembled much later
motor cars than other steam vehicles. Moreover, in 1873 it had
independent suspension on all four corners.
Grenville of Glastonbury steam car In 1875–1880 R. Neville Grenville of
Glastonbury constructed a
3-wheeled steam vehicle which travelled a maximum of . This vehicle is still in existence, preserved for many years in the
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery but since 2012 at the
National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
Cederholm of Sweden steam car In 1892 painter Joens Cederholm and his brother, André, a blacksmith, designed their first car, a two-seater, introducing a
condensor in 1894. It was not a success.
Shearer of South Australia steam car Starting in 1894
David Shearer designed and built the first car in
Australia. It was capable of on the streets of
Adelaide,
South Australia. The boiler was his own design, being a horizontal boiler of the semi flash type. Steering was by a tiller type design and a photograph of the vehicle shows it carrying eight passengers. The news article on the car has a sectional drawing of the design. The car's first official road trial was in 1899.
De Dion & Bouton Steam vehicles :
See steam tricycle The development by
Léon Serpollet of the flash steam boiler brought about the appearance of various diminutive steam tricycles and quadricycles during the late 1880s and early 1890s, notably by
de Dion and Bouton, these successfully competed in long-distance races but soon met with stiff competition for public favour from the internal combustion engine cars being developed, notably by
Peugeot, that quickly cornered most of the popular market. In the face of the flood of IC cars, proponents of the steam car had to fight a long rear guard battle that was to last into modern times.
Locomobile Company of America steam car from a January 1901 advertisement This American firm bought the patents from the Stanley brothers and began building their steam buggies from 1898 to 1905.
Locomobile Company of America went into building gas cars and lasted until the
Depression.
Stanley Motor Carriage Company In 1902 the twins Francis E. Stanley (1849–1918) and Freelan O. Stanley formed the
Stanley Motor Carriage Company. They made famous models such as the 1906 Stanley Rocket, 1908 Stanley K Raceabout and 1923 Stanley Steam Car. ==Early to mid-20th century==