1910 Stearns Model 15-30

Frank Ballou Stearns, at the age of seventeen, dropped out of school to pursue a career in building automobiles. The year was 1897, and the popularity of cars was slowly beginning to form. Stearns quickly showed potential by building a superb model. It was powered by a four-cylinder engine that never really fired evenly. So he reverted back to a single-cylinder unit and gave it a very large bore and stroke in order to achieve the same horsepower output as the four. The prototype, featuring chain drive, was completed in 1896. His father was so impressed he provided some financial backing and allowed his son to move the production from the basement of their house to their barn. The barn was converted into a machine shop, and the F.B. Stearns & Co. was formed in 1898 with the help of Ralph and Raymond Owen of Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1899 about fifty examples of the Stearns automobile were purchased. They were single-cylinder cars with around eight horsepower available from the two-cycle engine and equipped with tiller steering and Stanhope configuration.

In 1911, a license to build the Knight engine was obtained and the company became known as Stearns-Knight.

By Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2006