Alternative energy from an earlier era, also known as the 1899 Locomobile Steam Runabout. Forty-eighth in a series of classic vehicles, captured 9/21/08, at the beautiful Palos Verdes Concours d'Elegance, held annually at the beautiful Trump National Golf Club on the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula in overpopulated Southern California. For more information on this event, see my posting for 9/28/08. Forget the Bentley, Cadillac and Rolls Royce. What we have portrayed here is comfort, elegance, luxury and power to beat anything else on the road. The Locomobile Company of America was founded in 1899, the name coined from locomotive and automobile. John B. Walker bought out Francis and Freelan Stanley's steam car company for US $250,000 (with all of one car built, but 199 more ordered), promptly selling half to paving contractor Amzi L. Barber. Their partnership lasted just a fortnight; Walker went on to found Mobile Company of America at the Stanley works in Tarrytown, New York, while Walker moved house to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as Locomobile, the Stanley twins named as General Managers. Locomobile began by producing steam cars. The steam Locomobiles were unreliable, finicky to operate, prone to parafin fires, had small water tanks (getting only 20mi {32km} per tank), and took time to raise steam; Rudyard Kipling described one example as a "nickle-plated fraud." Nevertheless, they were a curiosity and middle class Americans clamored for the latest technology. Salesmen, doctors and people needing quick mobility found them useful. Over four thousand were built between 1899 and 1902 alone. Most had simple twin-cylinder engines (3x4", 76.2x102mm; 57ci, 927cc) and wire wrapped 500 psi flash boiler burning naphtha. Typical of the product was the 1904 Runabout, which seated two passengers and sold for US $850. The compound two-cylinder steam engine was situated amidships of the armored wood-framed car. Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia Thankx for clicking on, and have a tendentious Thursday.