Stanley Motor Carriage Company

The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam cars that operated from 1902 to 1924. Twin brothers Francis and Freelan Stanley founded it after selling their photographic dry plate business to Eastman Kodak; they had built their first car in 1897 and sold over 200 in 1898 and 1899, more than any other American maker. In 1899 Freelan and his wife Flora drove one to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The cars, nicknamed Stanley Steamers, used a wire-wrapped fire-tube boiler and a two-cylinder engine geared to the rear axle with no transmission or clutch, and a Stanley set a world record for the mile in 1906. Electric starters and better gasoline engines eroded its advantage, Francis died in 1918, and the factory closed permanently in 1924.