Alternative Fuel: Coal (Part III)

I know what you are thinking right now, you're thinking, "coal-powered cars? You already talked about steam cars though!" But I am not talking about a coal steamers (especially since steam cars mostly ran on kerosene or gasoline), but rather cars that ran on coal gas.

As with most things, necessity is the mother of all invention, and this situation is no different. During WWII, gasoline was in short supply because the war effort was consuming all of the world's gasoline production, leaving little for consumers. Tinkerers and inventors the world over began thinking of replacements for gasoline (and for rubber, cotton, and a host of other rationed goods). One solution for the gasoline crisis was to find other sources of combustible gases to force into the cylinders of existing vehicles. In France, the solution came in the form of coal gas.

The basic principle of the engine was based on the fact that the combustion of coal produces a similarly combustible gas, coal gas. As such, a conversion kit was devised that would mount two coal gas generators on the fenders. The generators would burn coal, then suck the gas straight into the engine and running the engine off of the coal gas.

Few surviving conversion kits exists, but one such kit turned up on a 1938 Citroen Traction Avant at the 2006 Amelia Island Concours. Photos sourced from Stanley Motor Carriage and Ultimatecarpage.com

Alternative Fuel: Electricity (Part II)

The electric car has always been a part of the automotive landscape, but never a major focus. For a long time, electric cars were actually the most popular type of automobiles. Back in the late 1890's up until the mid teens, electric cars actually out sold gasoline and steam powered cars. There was a very simple reason for this: ease of use. Electric cars always have been the easiest cars to work with because they have very few moving parts in their motors, no reciprocating parts, are dead silent, and were easy to start at any time, in any temperature.

This last part was actually the biggest reason for their success in the early part of the century. Gasoline engines were loud, clunky, full of vibrations, difficult to work with, and very hard to start before the invention of the electric starter in 1911 by Charles Kettering (with the first self starting car being a Cadillac). Without an electric starter, to start a car, you had to crank start it. Besides being dangerous (the crank was directly connected to the crankshaft, so if the engine started and you didn't disengage the crank, it could whip around break bones), it was very difficult, requiring the strength of a strong man to operate.

Electric cars opened up motoring to men and women alike. Electric cars were offered in prices from less than $1000 to over $5000 for ornate limo-like vehicles. Dead silent and smooth, an early 20th Century electric car could drive around 80 miles on a single charge at reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. Not fast by today's standards, but actually inline with most gasoline powered cars' abilities.

As with the GM EV1 of recent past, early electric cars were not killed by any corporate conspiracy by the oil companies or anything, but rather by real market forces. When gasoline cars became more refined, and self starting, the ability to drive farther and faster in a gas car outstripped the slow, silent running of the electric cars. Gasoline cars quickly pulled ahead and have remained ahead ever since.

Images are of a 1910 Detroit Electric

Alternative Fuel: Steam (Part I of V)

With the election looming there in the United States, I thought it was high time I did a little series on alternative fuels. With the current fixation on oil dependence, it is little wonder that alternative fuels have become to new baby of the election season, with every politico spouting off how they support some alternative fuel. Of course (and I'm sure you're expecting this out of me by now), alternative fuels are nothing new. Every fuel we use today has been applied in some fashion in the past, be it recent past or turn of the previous century past.

For the first part, I want to focus on steam technology. The steam engine is nothing new and is, in fact, one of the oldest propulsion systems out there, short of wind power. Invented in 1705 by Thomas Newcomen, steam engines have powered everything from boats to cars to generators for the past 300 years. Steam was actually one of the more popular vehicular propulsion systems up until the 1920's.

Steam's popularity was rooted in the fact that it was simple, powerful, efficient, and very quiet. A good steam car could easily outpace a gas powered car and do so while making only the light puff puff of the steam piston. The major downside to steam was its difficulty in operation and dangers. Early steamers took about 20-30 minutes to build up full steam pressure and consumed large amounts of water, about a gallon a mile. This was compounded with the fact that you had to decompress the boiler when you arrived at your destination. This required you to open a pressure valve and release all the hot steam. As such, steam cars, with their high pressure steam and hot boilers were one of the few contraptions that could both burn and scald you at the same time.

Many of these problems were righted by former train engineer Abner Doble and his Doble Steam Cars. The quick start-up time of less than 30 seconds on a cold day, fluid power deliver, and ease of use were all boons for steam, but this technology came at a price: around $8000 in 1925. By the 1930's, steam cars were all but gone, a victim of the gasoline engine, which had become easier to use and more developed with such innovations as the electric starter and better carburetors.

Today, there are still steamer fans out there, like Jay Leno, and some new companies are even considering steam hybrids. BMW created a steam hybrid system called the turbosteamer concept late last year, but little has been heard about the project since.

Photos, clockwise from lower left, are of a 1925 Doble Model E Convertible Coupe by Murphy (three shots), a 1908 Stanley H5 Gentleman's Speedy Roadster, a 1909 Stanley R20 Roadster, a 1910 Stanley Model 71 4-Passenger Touring, and a 1916 Stanley 725 5-Passenger Touring.

Profile: DeLorean DMC-12

For reasons that have been argued about at length for decades, most cars have originated from the following countries: Germany, France, Italy, England, the United States, and Japan. Virtually every major automaker is based in one of those countries. Interestingly, some of the most fascinating and strange cars have come from outside of the above countries. One such anomaly is the DeLorean DMC-12, which holds the notable distinction of being one of the only cars ever to come from Ireland.

The DeLorean was the brain child of former GM executive John Z. DeLorean. Already a famous executive by the time he went off on his own, DeLorean wanted to produce a unique, new sportscar unlike anything on the market at the time. The first prototype debuted in 1977 and cars started rolling off of the line in early 1981. What separated the DeLorean from other cars were its unique gullwing doors and stainless steel body, which was left brushed and unpainted.

While the cars were wild looking and made a scene whenever they opened their doors, they were not sure what they wanted to be. They had nice styling, understated and sporty by Giorgetto Giugiaro, but little grunt from their underpowered Peugeot built 2.8L V6. Worse still, the factory had come online too quickly, and the Irish factory workers were poorly trained and ill-adjusted to factory line work. As a result the cars suffered from dreadfully poor build quality.

After only 2 years in production, and about 8500 cars, DeLorean closed its doors. Ironically, the failed sportscar maker received its greatest publicity after it went out of business with its starring role in the Back to the Future trilogy where a modified DeLorean played the time machine. Now, everyone knows what a DeLorean is, but most people only know it as 'that car from the Back to the Future movies!'

Contrary to common belief, of course, the real DeLorean cannot travel through time.

Hiding behind a mask: Exterior modifications

This weekend I took advantage of my youth and dressed up for Halloween and went into downtown Chicago to enjoy myself with some friends. A buddy of mine and I dressed up as The Blues Brothers, which enjoyed a healthy amount of recognition and positive response, which was the intended result.

The reason I bring this up is because the whole element of costume brought up an interesting point. On Halloween, people dress up in costume to reveal a part of them they normally don't let out in public. The hide behind a mask, an outfit, or an alter-ego and enjoy the fact that they can freely express themselves in this manner, for one night a year, without fear of retribution or strange looks.

In the car world, this ideal is taken a step further, I think, with severe exterior modifications. In the 1950's, it was hotrods, in the 1960's it was muscle cars, in the 1970's it was the aforementioned muscle cars and a trickling in of European imports, and the Japanese import has dominated this scene since the mid 1980's (but especially in the 1990's). People have created a mask for their car to express a part of themselves that their unmodified car lacked.

Unfortunately, all too often, this modification is tasteful only to the individual modifying it. And unlike that Halloween costume, which in my case consisted of a black suit, a white shirt, a black pencil tie, sunglasses, and a fedora, at the end of the night, you can't remove the modifications to your car so easily. Alas, it still represents and interesting, and pervasive, element of the culture of the automobile.