29 Facts About Abner Doble

Abner Doble was an American mechanical engineer who built and sold steam-powered automobiles as Doble Steam Cars.

Abner Doble's father was William Ashton Doble, son of the inventor of the Doble water wheel.

Abner Doble's forebears had migrated from England to the US in the mid-1700s.

Abner Doble had been a sailor, a smith, and a lumberman, who became a journeyman blacksmith and subsequently became a partner in Nelson and Doble.

Abner Doble became one of the biggest manufacturers of miner's and blacksmith's tools on the US Pacific coast during the California Gold Rush.

Abner Doble became famous manufacturing Abner Doble's water wheel turbines for mining applications.

Abner Doble expanded to make drays and street cars for San Francisco, as well as being involved in operating a local railroad company.

Abner Doble apprenticed at his family's factory at the age of eight.

In 1909 Abner Doble graduated from high school and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Abner Doble dropped out after less than a year of studies, and with his brother, began to design his own steam car.

Abner Doble attempted to interest the Stanley twins in his condensing boiler.

In 1915, Abner Doble drove his Model B, a revamped version of the Model A from Massachusetts to Detroit to seek investors.

Abner Doble managed to obtain $200,000, which he used to open the General Engineering Company with C L Lewis.

Abner Doble blamed his company's production failure on the steel shortages caused by World War I, but the Abner Doble Detroit was mechanically unsatisfactory.

Abner Doble announced at the New York show that he was working on a steam engine for aeroplanes.

When John Abner Doble died of lymphatic cancer in 1921 the surviving brothers reunited in Emeryville, California.

In 1924 the State of California learned that Abner Doble had helped to sell stock illegally in a desperate bid to raise money for the company, and though Abner Doble was eventually acquitted in April 1928, the company failed during the ensuing legal struggle.

Abner Doble himself owned E-24 from 1925 to 1936 as his own experimental car.

Abner Doble took it with him when on consulting work in New Zealand and England.

Abner Doble sold it in England to Mortimer Harman Lewis of Hyde Park, London, just before he departed for the US.

In January 1932 Abner Doble left New Zealand and went via San Francisco to England.

Abner Doble was hired as the chief engineer for a new bus powerplant for a revived Stanley Steam Motors Corporation in Chicago.

Abner Doble then did engine designs for Cleaver-Brooks, Nordberg, and Greyhound.

Abner Doble's consultancy included in the development of the Paxton Phoenix car, for the Paxton Engineering Division of McCulloch Motors Corporation, Los Angeles.

Abner Doble did work on a design for a steam car for Alex Moulton of England, but it was never built.

Abner Doble was a consultant on the Keen steam car in 1957 and a monotube boiler for Charles W Tadlock of St Louis in 1957.

Abner Doble was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1972.

Abner Doble died on July 16,1961, of a heart attack, in Santa Rosa.

Abner Doble willed his body to the University of California at Berkeley.