The Locomobile Company of America was a pioneering American automobile manufacturer founded in 1899, known for its dedication to precision before the assembly-line era. It was one of the earliest car manufacturers in the advent of the automobile age. For the first two years after its founding, the company was located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Production was transferred to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1900, where it remained until the company's demise in 1929. The company manufactured affordable, small steam cars until 1903, when production switched entirely to internal combustion-powered luxury automobiles. Locomobile was taken over in 1922 by Durant Motors and eventually went out of business in 1929. All cars produced by the original company were always sold under the brand name Locomobile.

History

thumb|1901 Locomobile steam car on the London to Brighton run

thumb|left|Model circa 1900

thumb|right|Sectional view showing parts and details, circa 1900

thumb|right|Locomobile plant.

thumb|right|Locomobile advertisement 12 hp (1903)

thumb|right| Locomobile Model B (1903)

thumb|right|1904 Locomobile Model C and Model D advertisement

thumb|Locomobile Model D (1904) 16-22 hp

The Locomobile Company of America was founded in 1899, the name coined from "locomotive" and "automobile". John B. Walker, editor and publisher of Cosmopolitan, bought the plans for an early steam-powered vehicle produced by Francis and Freelan Stanley for a price they could not resist, US$250,000 (). At the time, one car had been built, and 199 more had been ordered. Walker promptly sold half of his interest to paving contractor Amzi L. Barber for the same price as he had purchased the entire company. Walker and Barber's partnership lasted two weeks. Walker went on to found Mobile Company of America in North Tarrytown, New York, while Barber moved house to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as Locomobile, where the Stanley twins were named general managers. The Stanley twins founded the Stanley Motor Carriage Company in 1902, becoming the sharpest rival to Locomobile.

thumb|upright|left| Locomobile owned by [[Prince Henry of Prussia (born 1862)|Prince Henry of Prussia (1902)]]

thumb|upright|left|A 1907 Locomobile Type E Touring

Locomobile began by producing steam cars. The steam Locomobiles were unreliable, finicky to operate, prone to kerosene fires, had small water tanks (getting only per tank), and took time to raise steam; author Rudyard Kipling described one example as a "nickel-plated fraud". It also served as a catering vehicle, with the useful ability (in British eyes, at least) of being able to brew a cup of tea by tapping the boiler. This encouraged the firm to drop steam vehicles the following year, selling the Stanley brothers back their rights for $20,000.

Switch to internal combustion engines

thumb|Locomobile 30(L) (1909)

thumb|Locomobile E (1908)

thumb|Locomobile Type H (1905-1907)

thumb|Locomobile Type I (1908)

thumb|Locomobile 30 L (1911).

thumb|Locomobile 48 (M) SIX PASSENGER TOURING CAR.

thumb|Locomobile 48 M (1911).

thumb|Riker advertisement (1918)

thumb|Riker Trucks (1918) 3t and 4t

The 1904 internal combustion Locomobile Touring car had a tonneau and space for five passengers, and sold for $4500, quite a change from the low-priced steam buggies. The front-mounted, vertical, water-cooled straight-four engine produced . A three-speed sliding transmission was used, as on the Système Panhard cars with which it competed. The angle steel-framed car weighed . The 1908 Locomobile 40 Runabout was a two-seater and sold for $4,750 (). On the strength of recent competition successes, Locomobile soon became known for well-built and speedy luxury cars.

right|thumb|Locomobile 48(M) seven-passenger touring car from a 1920 magazine advertisement

In competition

Like other early marques, Locomobile entered motor racing, contesting the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup with a racer; after suffering a transmission gear failure, and with no spare available, driver Joe Tracy only managed two circuits of Auvergne before the transmission packed up entirely. Tracy did better for the company at the Vanderbilt Cup, placing third. In 1925, the Locomobile team entered a front-wheel-drive Miller car called the "Junior Eight Special" after their recently introduced smaller car at the Indianapolis 500, but there was nothing Locomobile about it aside from the name. While called the "M" internally, this car is usually referred to by its tax hp rating. The brake horsepower rating was somewhere north of 90 for the original model, higher in the later versions. Quality of materials and workmanship were impeccable and among the best in the world. Such was also its pricing: A typical open-body cost about $10,000 when the average Model T Ford Phaeton cost about $300. Locomobile also offered custom designs for the lamps and metal work, carried out by Tiffany Studios. The model 38 has a , version of the T-head six and sits on a somewhat shorter wheelbase. By 1914, Locomobile had stopped selling all four-cylinder models to concentrate exclusively on sixes.

In July 1922, Locomobile was acquired by Durant Motors, which not only continued using the Locomobile brand name for their top-of-the-line autos until 1929, but also still produced the Model 48 until its demise in 1929. Until the mid-1920s, this car was Locomobile's only offering. In 1925, the marque brought out their first new model, the 8-66 Junior Eight, with a more contemporary straight-eight engine, and more importantly, a lower price of $1,785.

Introduction of the even smaller Junior Six was in 1926, but this car remained available only for one model year. The larger Model 90 that appeared in the same year was produced until 1929.

With the 8-70 of 1927, Locomobile added one more eight-cylinder car. Using an off the shelf Lycoming engine, this was not accepted as a true Locomobile in the marketplace and it served to damage the company's reputation. In the following year, the Junior Eight 8-66 was phased out.

For 1929, a new 8-86 and 8-88 came out, but it was too late to save the company. Locomobile production ended in 1929.

Locomobile model specifications

  • Locomobile Type D
  • Locomobile Type E
  • Locomobile Type F
  • Locomobile Type H
  • Locomobile Type Cup Racer
  • Locomobile Type I
  • Locomobile Type 30
  • Locomobile Type 40
  • Locomobile Type 30 L
  • Locomobile Type 48 M
  • Locomobile Type 32 L
  • Locomobile Model 48 Sportif

Lokomobile trucks ˋRikerˋ

From 1916 to 1921, Lokomobile produced trucks under the name Riker. During the First World War, 1,150 Riker trucks were used in Europe.

Overview of production figures

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Year !! Production !! Vehicle types this year

|-

| 1899 || align="right"|337 || Steam Runabout

|-

| 1900 || align="right"|767|| Steam Runabout

|-

| 1901 || align="right"|1.561|| Steam Runabout, Steam Buggy, Steam Locosurrey

|-

| 1902 || align="right"|2.750|| Steam Runabout, Steam Buggy, Steam Locosurrey, Steam Locotrap, Steam Locodilivery, A, B

|-

| 1903 || align="right"|1.897|| Steam Runabout, Steam Locosurrey, A, B, C, D, Dos-a-Dos

|-

| 1904 || align="right"|927|| Steam Runabout, Steam Locosurrey, A, B, C, D, Dos-a-Dos

|-

| 1905 || align="right"|688||D, E, H, F

|-

| 1906 || align="right"|723||E, H, Special

|-

| 1907 || align="right"|627||E, H, Special

|-

| 1908 || align="right"|1.000||E, I

|-

| 1909 || align="right"|1.000|| 30(L), 40(I)

|-

| 1910 || align="right"|1.000|| 30(L), 40(I), 48(M)

|-

| 1911 || align="right"|1.000|| 30(L), 48(M)

|-

| 1912 || align="right"|1.000|| 30(L), 48(M)

|-

| 1913 || align="right"|1.000|| 30(L), 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1914 || align="right"|1.000|| 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1915 || align="right"|1.000|| 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1916 || align="right"|1.000|| 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1917 || align="right"|1.000|| 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1918 || align="right"|627|| 48(M), 38(R)

|-

| 1919 || align="right"|429|| 48(M)

|-

| 1920 || align="right"|1.000|| 48(M)

|-

| 1921 || align="right"|721|| 48(M)

|-

| 1922 || align="right"|221|| 48(M)

|-

| 1923 || align="right"|116|| 48(M)

|-

| 1924 || align="right"|230|| 48(M)

|-

| 1925 || align="right"|828|| 48(M), Junior 8

|-

| 1926 || align="right"|2.586|| 48(M), Junior 8, 90

|-

| 1927 || align="right"|2.037|| 48(M), Junior 8, 90, 8-80

|-

| 1928 || align="right"|1.112|| 48(M), 90, 8-80

|-

| 1929 || align="right"|327|| 48(M), 90, 88

|-

| Sum || align="right"|30.511

|}

Locomobiles in fiction

A Locomobile is the setting for one of the final scenes of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, in which the protagonist, Amory Blaine, argues for socialism to the father of a college friend, who staunchly defends the capitalist ideal.

In the spring and summer of 1946, a seven-passenger 1911 Locomobile touring car was driven from Boston to Los Angeles and back as a promotional tour for the Columbia Pictures film Gallant Journey. While not appearing in the movie, the Locomobile attracted much attention for the picture on the tour.

In Thomas Savage's 1967 novel The Power of the Dog, set in the 1920s, the Locomobile is esteemed by protagonist Peter Gordon as a peer to the Pierce-Arrow: "... Those were the vehicles of the high and mighty, and he knew that only the Locomobile (fancied by old General Pershing, among others) rivaled the Pierce."

Clive Cussler's 2007 novel, The Chase, as well as his 2010 novel The Spy, featured a 1906 Locomobile.

In Dashiell Hammett's 1925 mystery story "Scorched Face", the rich girls for whom the Continental Op is looking, were driving a Locomobile "with a special cabriolet body" when they disappeared.

Papa LaBas from Ishmael Reed's 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo drives a Locomobile.

The Locomobile is central to the 2015 historical novel by Lisa Begin-Kruysman titled Around the World in 1909: Harriet White Fisher and Her Locomobile. The novel is based on Harriet White Fisher's circumnavigation of the globe; the Locomobile is driven, hauled, pushed, and floated in places where no man, let alone woman, had yet explored, certainly not on wheels.

See also

<!-- *Freelan Oscar Stanley and Francis Edgar Stanley

  • John Brisben Walker
  • Amzi L. Barber
  • Stanley Motor Carriage Company
  • Mobile Company of America -->
  • List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers

References

Further reading

  • Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904)
  • Ball, Donald L. The Genealogy of the Locomobile Steam Carriage, 1899–1904, 1994
  • Old 16 Locomobile (VanderbiltCupRaces.com)
  • 1906 Locomobile The story of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup win
  • Locomobile Catalog on DurantCars site 1920s Locomobiles
  • Locomobile items on Henry Ford Museum site
  • Locomobile Society Home Page
  • Locomobile Advertising View the old locomobile ads
  • 1923 Locomobile Model 48 Sportif in the 'Hemmings' magazine