Doble Steam Motors

The term “genius” is bandied about rather freely nowadays and applied to a great many people who, though perhaps very talented, or lovable, or whatever, are not really true geniuses. But one man who deserves the appellation probably more than most is Abner Doble, because the automobiles he designed and that his Doble Steam Motors Corporation built, were the ultimate of their time and are still considered unusually advanced today, nearly 100 years later.

One sign of his genius is this: Doble cars were not only the most advanced steam cars of their time, they ranked among the ultimate cars of any type or make. Doble seemed almost to have a channel to the future: His automobiles were so far ahead of their time they seemed often to have been impossibly great.

Doble was born in San Francisco in 1895. He served an engineering apprenticeship at his father’s Abner Doble Company with his three younger brothers — the firm made