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Finding Aid to the Doble Steam Motors Corporation Photograph Collection, 1898-ca. 1963 (bulk 1917-1935)
BANC PIC 1961.008-.009
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Collection Title: Doble Steam Motors Corporation photograph collection
Date (inclusive): 1898-ca. 1963
Date (bulk): 1917-1935
Collection Number: BANC PIC 1961.008-.009
Creator:
Doble Steam Motors Corporation
Extent:
3 albums (198 photographic prints) and 1 box (185 photographic prints)
60 digital objects
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract: Photographs documenting the steam automobiles and engines created by Abner Doble and Warren Doble, especially as part of the
Doble Steam Motors Corporation. Pictured are completed automobiles as well as engine and auto parts, photographic copies of
design drawings, and some views of factory facilities.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf
of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright
owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Doble Steam Motors Corporation photograph collection, BANC PIC 1961.008-.009, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley
Digital reproductions of selected images are available.
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS 77/183 c).
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog
Doble, Abner--Archives
Doble, Abner--Pictorial works
Doble, Warren--Pictorial works
A. & G. Price--Pictorial works
Doble Steam Motors Corporation--Pictorial works
Henschel & Sohn--Pictorial works
Sentinel Waggon Works--Pictorial works
Automobile factories--California--Oakland--Photographs
Automobiles, Steam--Design and construction--Photographs
Automobiles, Steam--Photographs
Automobiles--Design and construction--Photographs
Locomotives--Design and construction--Photographs
Steam-engines--Design and construction--Photographs
Trucks--Design and construction--Photographs
Frost, C.K.
Huntington, C. L.
Williams, Roy A.
Morton & Co. (San Francisco, Calif.)
Doble, Abner
Hohmann, Eduard J.
The Doble Steam Motors Corporation photograph collection was received with the Abner Doble papers (formerly called the Doble
family papers), which were given to the Bancroft Library by Mrs. Alene Doble in 1961.
Abner Doble was born in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1890. At the age of eight, he began an apprenticeship at the
Abner Doble Company, the factory founded by his grandfather and namesake. His father, William Ashton Doble, was inventor of
the Pelton-Doble Water Wheel and chief engineer for the Pelton Water Wheel Co., which eventually merged with his family's
business. Abner Doble designed and built his first steam car while a student Lick High School in San Francisco. He attended
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1910-1912, but left college in order to focus his attention on the development
of steam automobiles. In 1912 he developed the Doble Model A in Waltham, Massachusetts, soon followed by the Doble Model B
roadster. In 1915 Doble drove the Model B to Detroit where the General Engineering Company offered to put it into production.
Renamed the Doble-Detroit, his car was introduced at the New York auto show of 1917. Although over 10,000 orders came in for
the model, wartime demand for steel put manufacturing on hold and only 30 Doble-Detroit cars were ever produced.
In 1920 Doble and his brothers (chiefly Warren Doble, with early involvement of John and William Doble) organized the Doble
Steam Motors Corporation in San Francisco with the intention of developing the finest steam car ever built. Doble modeled
his factory, which later moved across the bay to Emeryville, on the Rolls-Royce plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. The cars
manufactured by Doble were luxury vehicles guaranteed to run for 100,000 miles. Their reputation for fine performance spread
and orders came in quickly. The production process was costly, as well as enormously time consuming, given the amount of attention
paid to nearly every detail of the car's manufacture. As a result of Doble's high standards, the company manufactured only
42 cars between 1923 and 1931. Finally, unable to secure adequate financing, Doble Steam Motors went bankrupt in 1931. Despite
the company's failure, steam enthusiasts still consider the Doble steam car of this era to be among the best ever produced.
After the collapse of their company, Abner and Warren Doble became consultants to several firms engaged in the development
of steam technology. In Germany they helped to develop steam powered trains, buses, trucks and boats for A. Borsig, Co. and
Henschel & Sohn. The Dobles also worked on steam trucks and railcars for Sentinel Waggon Works in England and steam buses
for A & G Price, Ltd., New Zealand. In 1946 Abner Doble was retained by Nordberg Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
to develop a steam power plant for city buses. This engine, known as the Ultimax, was the culmination of Doble's nearly four
decades of experience in steam technology. Another firm later attempted to employ the Ultimax for use in railway locomotives.
Finally, in 1950, McCulloch Motors of Los Angeles hired Doble as consultant on the development of the Paxton Phoenix, a steam
powered luxury car fitted with an Ultimax engine. Once again, lack of funding forced the company to abandon the project and
the car was never completed.
Abner Doble continued to work as a consultant throughout the 1950's. One of his last projects was for Charles F. Keen of Milwaukee
on the development of the Keen steam car in 1956.
Abner Doble died in Santa Rosa, California on July 16, 1961.
Chronology: Life of Abner Doble
| 1890 | Born March 26, San Francisco, CA |
| 1898-1905 | Apprenticeship at the Abner Doble Company, San Francisco, CA |
| 1910-1912 | Attends Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA |
| 1912 | Develops the Doble Model A, Waltham, MA |
| 1914 | Develops the Doble Model B Roadster, Waltham, MA |
| 1916 | Introduces Doble-Detroit Steam Car, Detroit, MI |
| 1920 | Doble Steam Motors factory opens in San Francisco, CA |
| 1923 | Factory moved to Emeryville, CA |
| 1929-1931 | Consultant to A & G Price, Ltd., New Zealand |
| 1930-1936 | Consultant to Sentinel Waggon Works, Shrewsbury, England |
| 1931 | Doble Steam Motors closes |
| 1931 | Consultant to A. Borsig Co., Berlin, Germany |
| 1931-1934 | Consultant to Henschel & Sohn, Kassel, Germany |
| 1946-1948 | Consultant to Nordberg Manufacturing Co., Milwaukee, WI |
| 1950-1956 | Consultant on development of Paxton Phoenix steam car for McCulloch Motors Corporation, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1956 | Consultant on Keen steam car, Milwaukee, WI |
| 1957 | Consultant on monotube boiler for Charles W. Tadlock, St. Louis, MO |
| 1961 | Died July 16 in Santa Rosa, CA |
The Doble Steam Motors Corporation photograph collection consists of photographs received with the Abner Doble papers. Images
document the steam automobiles created by Abner Doble and his brother Warren Doble, especially as part of the Doble Steam
Motors Corporation. Some images depict earlier steam cars designed and built by the brothers, including the Doble-Detroit
of 1915-1917. Pictured are completed automobiles as well as engine and auto parts, photographic copies of design drawings,
and some views of factory facilities. Other images relate to vehicles produced by other companies with whom the Dobles contracted,
namely, A. & G. Price (New Zealand), Henschel & Sohn (Germany), and Sentinel Waggon Works (Great Britain). Work for these
companies included engines and parts for trucks, buses, boats, and trains.
Most photographs are contemporary with the production of the vehicles pictured, and appear to have originated as part of the
corporation's records. A few photographs are of Doble cars at a date much later in the 20th century, and were presumably added
to the collection by a family member.
Photographs by various professional photographers are present. Many are by Roy A. Williams or the C.L Huntington Photographic
Corporation (both of Oakland, Calif.), with others by Morton & Co. (San Francisco, Calif.) and C.K. "Jack" Frost (Oakland,
Calif.) A few images are by Eduard Hohmann (Berlin, Germany).