alsancle
May 23
1902 Capitol Chariot Steam Car
Not a Doble but stupid cool. The Bonham's auction at the National Auto Museum (formally Harrah's) keeps getting better and better. Check this thing out. Maybe Chris can explain how it works.
https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/32353/lot/50/1902-capitol-chariot-steam-car-chassis-no-dmv02611nv/
44.5ci Double-Acting Twin-Cylinder Steam Engine
6bhp at 160psi Steam Pressure
Chain Drive
Semi-Elliptical Leaf Springs
Rear Axle Mechanical Brake
Powered by a then-thoroughly understood double-acting two-cylinder steam engine, Goodwin's "Capitol" Chariot had an obscure early history but, according to his family, from whom the Harrah's Automobile Collection acquired the vehicle, it was built in 1889, patented, and offered to the public in 1902. The public, having by 1902 a range of other options in self-propelled vehicles, did not warm to Frank Goodwin's steamer and it remained in the family's barn until granddaughter Sheila Goodwin's offer to sell it to the HAC was accepted.
It remains today as it was acquired and displayed at the Harrah's Automobile Collection and the National Automobile Museum for over fifty years, an artifact with righthand drive tiller steering, an imaginatively carved wooden body with glass mirror panels, solid tires and a cyclops candle headlight.
Seating is imaginative, with three-abreast forward-facing seating on the main body and one more upholstered seat, a rear-facing perch atop the front-mounted boiler that must have been welcome during the depths of Little Ice Age winter but known as "the Hot Seat" in warmer seasons.
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