1919 Stanley Model 735A

In the early 1900's, steam was the dominant fuel source for automobiles. They were clean and quiet and had a longer range than electrics. Their disadvantage was that they required 30 minutes to build up sufficient power to drive. In the 1900 to 1927 time frame, there were more than 30 steam car manufacturers and they provided a total of 10,494 cars.

The Stanley Steamer was invented by Francis Edgar Stanley and manufactured by him along with his twin brother, Freelan Edgar Stanley. Initially, the Stanley Brothers were violin makers and avid inventors who made a fortune with their patented dry photographic plates. The brothers both felt, however, that the so-called 'explosion motors' of the era were a passing fad and that steam was the best form of power generation and storage.

The Stanley Motor Carriage Company began producing steam-powered automobiles in the late 1890s. They sold out to Locomobile and invented the dry plate photographic process, which they sold to Eastman (Kodak). They took up steam-powered automobile production again in 1902. As a publicity stunt, an early model became the first motor vehicle to drive up Mount Washington, New Hampshire, the highest peak in the northeastern United States.

This is one of 499 built.