What is Stanley Motor Carriage Company?
[[Image:Stanley steam car.jpg|right|thumb|230px|{{center|A 1912 model Stanley Steamer}}]] The '''Stanley Motor Carriage Company''' was an [[United States|American]] [[Manufacturing|manufacturer]] of [[Steam engine|steam-engine]] [[cars]]. The [[company]] was [[wikt:found|found]]ed in 1898 and [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]] in 1901.<ref>Staff, 'Stanley to Boost Production', ''The Automobile'' Vol. 36, (Chicago, 17 June 1917), p. 1069</ref> The cars made by the [[company]] were called '''Stanley Steamers'''. They were produced from 1896 to 1924. In the early 1900s [[steam]] was used to power [[Steam locomotive|locomotives]], [[steamship]]s, even [[sewing machine]]s. It seemed natural that steam could power cars. Of all the steam driven cars made in the early [[20th century]], the Stanley Steamer was the best-known and most [[wikt:popular|popular]]. Today Stanley Steamers are [[rare]] [[automobile]]s and hard to find outside of [[museum]]s and a few car collections. ==Early history== [[Twins]] [[Francis Edgar Stanley|Francis E. Stanley]] and [[Freelan Oscar Stanley|Freelan O. Stanley]] were the co-[[inventor]]s of the Stanley Steamer automobile.<ref name=Carey328>Charles W. Carey, ''American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries'' (New York : Infobase Pub., 2002), p. 328</ref> Freelan was a [[teacher]] and [[high school]] [[principal]]. Francis was also a teacher, but left teaching in 1874 to become a [[photographer]].<ref name=Hatch213.216>''Maine: A History'', Volume 4, ed. Louis Clinton Hatch (New York: The American historical Society, 1919), pp. 213–216</ref> In 1885 they both left their jobs and started a company to make [[photographic plate]]s for photographers.<ref name=Carey328/> they sold their [[shop]] four years later when they moved to [[Watertown, Massachusetts]]. They started another photographic plate business, but sold it to [[Kodak|Eastman Kodak]] in 1904.<ref name=Carey328/> The [[brother]]s had become interested in making cars and wanted to do that full time. == Building