The Magic         
          of Steam

With the introduction of the Model 735 Stanley the Stanley Motor Carriage Company took up a vigorous advertising campaign touting the advantages of the steam car over the "internal explosion engine" powered automobile.  The brochure that follows provides interesting insight into how the steam car was being marketed in 1918 when the Model 735 was introduced.  By this time the internal combustion engine powered automobile and already reached dominance over the steam car so Stanley was taking a different approach.

In order to provide each of the seven pages of this booklet in a readable manner the booklet is presented in "book" form.  The down side of this method of presentation is that each pair of pages requires a large file size for storage.  Brown buttons similar to the one above this paragraph have been provided at the top of each page to preload the next pair of pages while the present pair of pages is being read.  When you initially start to read a page, move your curser over the button and click it once so that the next pair of pages will be loaded while you are reading the present pair.  This will allow you to read through the booklet's seven pages quickly without having to wait the 90-seconds a page takes to load at 56K.  Select the button above to preload pages 2 & 3 of the booklet while you finish reading this page.

As you read through the pages of this brochure you will notice that Stanley made great effort to point out that there are minimal electrics (only the lights), no clutch or transmission, no carburetor, and no high-voltage ignition system on a Stanley.  An emphasis is placed on the fact that the technology of a Stanley has been around for over 100 years; is extremely simple; totals about three dozen moving mechanical parts; is a proven technology; and has been refined to the highest extent possible.  Perhaps the most interesting argument revolves around the idea that the public demanded internal combustion engine powered cars because there are more of them therefore they must be better! and that early automotive engineers were obsessed with obtaining "power directly from fuel".

This booklet is an excellent example of marketing.  We hope that you enjoy reading it and find the material presented interesting reading.