[Yo-Yo]

'Suddenly boom, I got a face full of gas and my face caught on fire': Jay Leno tells how his 1907 steam car burst into flames and shares new pictures of his horrific burns - as friend says 'I could not see his face, it was a wall of fire'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11537529/Jay-Leno-tells-1907-steam-car-burst-flames-shares-new-photos-horrific-burns.html

[gundog]

Back in HS, a friend used to wonder about the possibility of a microwave heat/steam engine combination.

[4yearlurker]

I had a old Popular Mechanics magazine from circa 1944 and it had an article “Convert your pick-up truck to run on fire wood!” The same issue also had a “build a fold out couch in one weekend” article too.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Ordinary people could not use them.

If you were a wealthy person your schedule was fixed and you chauffeur would start up your boiler before you needed to leave.

If you were the country doctor (and doctors were the first to buy things like cars) and you needed to get to a patient fast a steamer would be worse then a horse.

Police, fire or military would also regard horses as better, faster and more reliable then a steamer.

[PIF]

We used to have horse-drawn wagons - will they come back?

[lee martell]

Don’t they need to be cranked in order to start?
I thought I recalled seeing silent movies with the early cars, some needing to be cranked from a turning device in the rear.

[dljordan]

“The boiler was also located under the driver’s seat”

Why do you guys sit in your helmets? So we don’t get our balls blown off!

[Getready]

All I heard was that the issue was the high pressure container. If that blew(impact or metal failure) the result was catastrophic.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I think I'll just wait for Mr. Fusion.

[xp38]

What happened.....they ran out of steam

[joshua c]

what fuel was used to generate the steam?

[marktwain]

Steam engines were and are far less efficient than internal combustion engines.

[AnalogReigns]

We still rely on steam engines....in a turbine form, to push our nuclear ships and subs. If their systems could be miniaturized....

[Organic Panic]

I miss the gentle glow of lamps fueled by whale oil.

[NorthMountain]

No.

[DesertRhino]

Yeah, let’s operate on live steam. Great idea! What could possibly go wrong?

[x]

Big Rug put them out of business.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Flash boiler apparently was the best. It was by Doble. I’m sure it had its downfalls.

I would love to have steam. It isseriously powerful. But it is hard to get steam up. Hence why steam is basically only used for huge plants that are best to run constantly. Locomotives had to be up and running almost constantly and hence required more maintenance.

So now, steam is still awesome for running power plants. Those you don’t need to stop as we’d rather have continuous power in our networks. So itis good ROI

Cars are a big challenge because we don’t want them running all the time. And steam head takes to long to build. Not instantaneous like ICE or a charged EV

[jerod]

This happened to them...

The internal combustion engine... As long as you tune it up every now and change the oil on a regular basis... It will last forever!

[Navy Patriot]

I would point out that steam powered vehicles require an additional change of state to produce the expanding steam for motive power reducing efficiency.

Gasoline, diesel, or flammable gas powered internal combustion engines are far more efficient.