Once upon a time, the steam engine reigned supreme — first in trains and heavy tractors, as you well know, but eventually in cars as well. It’s quite hard to fathom today, but at the turn of the 20th century, more than half the cars in the US were steam-powered. The steam engine was so advanced that, in 1906, a steam car called the Stanley Rocket even held land speed record — a heady 127 mph!
Now, you might think that the steam car was only a success because internal combustion engines (ICE) didn’t exist yet — but in actual fact, steam cars and ICE cars were developed contemporaneously. Because engineers already had 100 years of steam engine experience, though, the steam car had a rather large head start. While hand-cranked ICEs were breaking the arms of hapless operators, by 1900 steam cars were already highly automated — and, with no clutch or gearbox (steam provides constant pressure, unlike the piston strokes of an ICE), very easy to drive. The one caveat, of course, was that you had to wait a few minutes for the boiler to heat up.
