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Museums 201: 1908 automobiles (photo diary) [1]
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Date: 2025-08-31
Automobiles were first developed in Germany in the late nineteenth century. During the first decade of the twentieth century, automobile manufacturing began moving from hand-made cars to mass production and mass marketing. As with most innovations, the early automobiles relied on what had come before: carriages and wagons which had once been pulled by horses were now powered by engines.
There were a number of concerns and competing ideas at this time about how to power the new vehicles: gasoline engines or steam engines or electric motors. Borrowing from marine technology, many of the early cars were steered with a tiller while some used a steering wheel. There were also different ideas about where the driver should sit: on the right or on the left, or, in some cases, in the rear.
Shown below are some 1908 automobiles.
1908 Hatfield Buggyabout
This vehicle was in the Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. This vehicle was made by Hatfield Motor Vehicle Company of Miamisburg, Ohio. Powered by a 10 horsepower 2-cylinder, air-cooled engine, it had a top speed of 25 mph. It sold new for $650.
1908 Ford Model S Runabout
This vehicle was on display in the Montana Auto Museum in Deer Lodge, Montana. This was the last Ford for built with a right hand drive in the United States. It had a top speed of 40 miles per hour and sold for $700. The small seat in the back was sometimes called the mechanic’s seat or, by some, the mother-in-law seat.
1908 Stanley Model K Steam Car
This car was on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon. The Stanley Motor Carriage Company, founded by the Stanley twins, manufactured steam-engine cars from 1902 to 1924.
The Stanley steam engine has two double-acting cylinders with a vaporizing gasoline (later kerosene) burner underneath. There are no documented reports of Stanley boilers exploding.
1908 Stoddard-Dayton
This vehicle was in the Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. The Stoddard Manufacturing Company moved from an agricultural implement business to producing high-quality automobiles in 1903 and re-incorporated at the Dayton Motor Car Company in 1 904. It was sold to the United States Motor Car Company in 1910 and moved operations to Detroit in 1913.
More automobiles
Museums 201: 1909 automobiles (photo diary)
Museums 201: 1910 automobiles (photo diary)
Museums 201: Some nineteenth-century automobiles (photo diary)
Museums 201: Early electric cars (photo diary)
Museums 201: Early steam cars (photo diary)
Museums 201: Fords of the Teens
Museums 201: Dodge automobiles, 1916 to 1928 (photo diary)
Museums 201: Extinct Cars of the Teens
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