Letters

STEPHEN FOX’S ARTICLE “THE STRANGE Triumph of Abner Doble,” in the Summer 1998 issue, mentions only briefly the McCulloch Corporation’s steamautomobile endeavor with Abner Doble in the 1950s. I thought readers might like a more complete story.

In about 1950 the industrialist Robert P. McCulloch foresaw a coming market for an executive hot rod—a high-performance, plush, expensive sports vehicle for the elite. To make the car he envisioned, named the Paxton, truly unusual, he chose steam to be the motive power. McCulloch’s engineers, myself included (I eventually became engineering vice president and am now retired), felt that the basic cycle efficiency of the steam engine would be too low to compete with current automobiles, but Abner Doble entered the scene and made a very optimistic case to McCulloch, so Doble was engaged as a consultant, and development began. I was in charge of building the vehicle and its steam power plant.

Mr. Doble had presented preliminary designs for all the components except the steam condenser, and they were well thought through, but the operating pressures and temperatures involved were going to result in a low overall efficiency, too low for this type of vehicle, so we used much of Doble’s basic concept but modified the design to operate with the pressure almost doubled and the temperature raised as high as we dared without compromising lubrication during the first stage of expansion.

After thorough dynamometer testing of the steam generator and the expander engine, three complete power plants were fabricated—except for the steam condenser. Since the Paxton vehicle was not ready, a new 1954 Ford was stripped of its engine, transmission, rear axle, and radiator and refitted with the first experimental power plant.

Mr. Doble was at our Los Angeles plant much of this time and was of immeasurable help. He was a very capable, innovative engineer, except when he had imbibed a bit heavily. Then he became very difficult to work with and had to be isolated from the high-class engineers. I was the intermediary.

At the beginning of the project we arranged to purchase a Model E Doble so our engineers could get the feel of steam power firsthand. It was an elegant car in very poor repair, and it eventually wound up at Harrah’s auto museum in Reno, where it was completely and beautifully restored.

Our steam-powered Ford was driven several hundred miles around West Los Angeles before the project was discontinued. The car was very quiet and smooth at good road speeds and took only a matter of seconds to start. In fact the steam generator was so well insulated that I parked the hot car in the garage one evening and there was still enough steam pressure left in the morning to back down the driveway as the new starting heat came on. Even in a cold start, steam was available to move the car within about 15 seconds.

On the other hand, we were never able to install enough condenser to keep all the water and steam within the vehicle. This was a high-performance car with a high-horsepower engine, and no reasonable condenser could do the job. A modern car just cannot consume 20 gallons of properly prepared boilerfeed water every couple of hundred miles. All Dobles required that.

To the best of my knowledge that was the last steam effort of Abner Doble, and I am pleased to say we parted friends.