The successes and failures of the Doble brothers and their steam cars

多布勒兄弟及其蒸汽汽车的成功与失败

A  When primitive automobiles first began to appear in the 1800s, their engines were based on steam power. Steam had already enjoyed a long and successful career in the railways, so it was only natural that the technology evolved into a miniaturized version which was separate from the trains. But these early cars inherited steam`s weaknesses along with its strengths. The boilers had to be lit by hand, and they required about twenty minutes to build up pressure before they could be driven. Furthermore, their water reservoirs only lasted for about thirty miles before needing replenishment. Despite such shortcomings, these newly designed self-propelled carriages offered quick transportation, and by the early 1900s it was not uncommon to see such machines shuttling wealthy citizens around town.

19 世纪，当原始汽车首次出现时，其发动机是以蒸汽动力为基础的。蒸汽在铁路上已经获得了长期的成功应用，因此这项技术自然而然地发展成了与火车分离的小型化版本。但是，这些早期的汽车在继承了蒸汽的优点的同时，也继承了它的缺点。锅炉必须用手点燃，需要大约 20 分钟的时间来积累压力，然后才能驱动。此外，它们的蓄水池在需要补充水之前只能维持大约 30 英里。尽管有这些缺点，这些新设计的自行式马车还是提供了快速的交通工具，到 20 世纪初，这种机器在城里接送富裕市民的情况并不少见。

B  But the glory days of steam cars were few. A new technology called the Internal Combustion Engine soon appeared, which offered the ability to drive down the road just moments after starting up. At first, these noisy gasoline cars were unpopular because they were more complicated to operate and they had difficult hand-crank starters, which were known to break arms when the engines backfired. But in 1912 General Motors introduced the electric starter, and over the following few years steam power was gradually phased out.

但是，蒸汽汽车的辉煌时代已经一去不复返了。很快，一种名为内燃机的新技术出现了，它能够在启动后立即在道路上行驶。起初，这些嘈杂的汽油车并不受欢迎，因为它们操作起来更加复杂，而且它们的手摇启动器很难用，众所周知，当发动机回火时，手摇启动器会断臂。但在 1912 年，通用汽车公司推出了电启动器，在随后的几年里，蒸汽动力逐渐被淘汰。

C  Even as the market was declining, four brothers made one last effort to rekindle the technology. Between 1906 and 1909, while still attending high school, Abner Doble and his three brothers built their first steam car in their parents` basement. It comprised parts taken from a wrecked early steam car but reconfigured to drive an engine of their own design. Though it did not run well, the Doble brothers went on to build a second and third prototype in the following years. Though the Doble boys` third prototype, nicknamed the Model B, still lacked the convenience of an internal combustion engine, it drew the attention of automobile trade magazines due to its numerous improvements over previous steam cars. The Model B proved to be superior to gasoline automobiles in many ways. Its high-pressure steam drove the engine pistons in virtual silence, in contrast to clattering gas engines which emitted the aroma of burned hydrocarbons. Perhaps most impressively, the Model B was amazingly swift. It could accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in just fifteen seconds, a feat described as `remarkable acceleration` by Automobile magazine in 1914.

即使在市场衰退的时候，四兄弟仍为重新点燃这项技术做出了最后的努力。1906 年至 1909 年间，还在上高中的阿伯纳-多布勒和他的三个兄弟在父母的地下室里制造了他们的第一辆蒸汽汽车。这辆车的部件来自一辆残破的早期蒸汽汽车，但经过重新配置，可以驱动他们自己设计的发动机。虽然这辆车运行得并不好，但多布勒兄弟在接下来的几年里又制造了第二辆和第三辆原型车。尽管多布勒兄弟的第三辆原型车被昵称为 “B 型车”，仍然缺乏内燃机带来的便利，但由于它比以前的蒸汽汽车有许多改进，因此引起了汽车行业杂志的关注。事实证明，B 型车在许多方面都优于汽油汽车。高压蒸汽驱动发动机活塞时几乎没有噪音，与之形成鲜明对比的是，哗哗作响的汽油发动机会散发出碳氢化合物燃烧后的气味。也许最令人印象深刻的是，B 型车的速度惊人。它可以在 15 秒内从静止加速到每小时 60 英里，1914 年的《汽车》杂志称其为 “惊人的加速度”。

D  The following year Abner Doble drove the Model B from Massachusetts to Detroit in order to seek investment in his automobile design, which he used to open the General Engineering Company. He and his brothers immediately began working on the Model C, which was intended to expand upon the innovations of the Model B. The brothers added features such as a key-based ignition in the cabin, eliminating the need for the operator to manually ignite the boiler. With these enhancements, the Dobles` new car company promised a steam vehicle which would provide all of the convenience of a gasoline car, but with much greater speed, much simpler driving controls, and a virtually silent powerplant. By the following April, the General Engineering Company had received 5,390 deposits for Doble Detroits, which were scheduled for delivery in early 1918.

第二年，艾伯纳-多布勒驾驶着B型车从马萨诸塞州来到底特律，为他的汽车设计寻求投资，并利用这笔资金开办了通用工程公司。他和他的兄弟们立即开始了 C 型车的研发工作，C 型车旨在扩大 B 型车的创新成果。兄弟们增加了一些功能，如在车厢内使用钥匙点火，操作员无需再手动点燃锅炉。通过这些改进，多布尔斯的新汽车公司承诺，蒸汽汽车将提供汽油汽车的所有便利，但速度更快，驾驶控制更简单，动力装置几乎无声。到次年 4 月，通用工程公司收到了 5390 辆多布勒-底特律汽车的订金，计划于 1918 年初交付。

E  Later that year Abner Doble delivered unhappy news to those eagerly awaiting the delivery of their modern new cars. Those buyers who received the handful of completed cars complained that the vehicles were sluggish and erratic, sometimes going in reverse when they should go forward. The new engine design, though innovative, was still plagued with serious glitches.

同年晚些时候，艾伯纳-多布勒向那些急切等待现代新车交付的人们宣布了一个令人不快的消息。那些收到少量完工汽车的买家抱怨说，这些汽车行驶缓慢、不稳定，有时本应向前行驶，却出现了倒车现象。新的发动机设计虽然具有创新性，但仍然存在严重的故障。

F  The brothers made one final attempt to produce a viable steam automobile. In early 1924, the Doble brothers shipped a Model E to New York City to be road-tested by the Automobile Club of America. After sitting overnight in freezing temperatures, the car was pushed out into the road and left to sit for over an hour in the frosty morning air. At the turn of the key, the boiler lit and reached its operating pressure inside of forty seconds. As they drove the test vehicle further, they found that its evenly distributed weight lent it surprisingly good handling, even though it was so heavy. As the new Doble steamer was further developed and tested, its maximum speed was pushed to over a hundred miles per hour, and it achieved about fifteen miles per gallon of kerosene with negligible emissions.

兄弟俩最后一次尝试生产可行的蒸汽汽车。1924 年初，多布勒兄弟将一辆 E 型汽车运往纽约，接受美国汽车俱乐部的道路测试。汽车在冰天雪地里停放一夜后，被推到马路上，在清晨冰冷的空气中放置了一个多小时。一拧钥匙，锅炉就点燃了，并在四十秒内达到工作压力。当他们进一步驾驶这辆测试车时，他们发现，尽管它如此沉重，但其均匀分布的重量却赋予了它出人意料的良好操控性。随着新型多布勒蒸汽船的进一步开发和测试，它的最高时速被推到了一百多英里，每加仑煤油可行驶大约 15 英里，排放物几乎可以忽略不计。

G  Sadly, the Dobles` brilliant steam car never was a financial success. Priced at around $18,000 in 1924, it was popular only among the very wealthy. Plus, it is said that no two Model Es were quite the same, because Abner Doble tinkered endlessly with the design. By the time the company folded in 1931, fewer than fifty of the amazing Model E steam cars had been produced. For his whole career, until his death in 1961, Abner Doble remained adamant that steam-powered automobiles were at least equal to gasoline cars, if not superior. Given the evidence, he may have been right. Many of the Model E Dobles which have survived are still in good working condition, some having been driven over half a million miles with only normal maintenance. Astonishingly, an unmodified Doble Model E runs clean enough to pass the emissions laws in California today, and they are pretty strict. It is true that the technology poses some difficult problems, but you cannot help but wonder how efficient a steam car might be with the benefit of modern materials and computers. Under the current pressure to improve automotive performance and reduce emissions, it is not unthinkable that the steam car may rise again.

遗憾的是，多布尔斯出色的蒸汽汽车从未取得经济上的成功。1924 年，它的售价约为 18,000 美元，只有非常富有的人才会购买。另外，据说没有两辆 Es 型汽车是完全一样的，因为艾伯纳-多布勒对设计进行了无休止的修改。到 1931 年公司倒闭时，令人惊叹的 E 型蒸汽汽车只生产了不到 50 辆。在他的整个职业生涯中，直到 1961 年去世，艾伯纳-多布勒一直坚持认为蒸汽动力汽车即使不比汽油汽车优越，至少也与汽油汽车相当。从证据来看，他可能是对的。许多幸存下来的 E 型多布勒汽车仍然保持着良好的工作状态，有些只进行了正常的维护，就已经行驶了 50 多万英里。令人吃惊的是，未经改装的多布勒 E 型汽车运行起来非常干净，足以通过加利福尼亚州的排放法规，而这些法规是相当严格的。诚然，这项技术带来了一些棘手的问题，但我们不禁要问，在现代材料和计算机的帮助下，蒸汽汽车的效率会有多高。在当前提高汽车性能和减少排放的压力下，蒸汽汽车再次崛起并非不可想象。