Doble Steam Motors Corporation photograph collection, 1898-ca. 1963, bulk 1917-1935

Summary

Creators:

Doble Steam Motors Corporation

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.

Extent:

3 albums (198 photographic prints) and 1 box (185 photographic prints) 60 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

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).

Biographical / historical:

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.

Date	Event
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

Acquisition information:

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.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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