The Keystone Steamer was an American

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

manufactured from 1899 until 1900 in

Lebanon, Pennsylvania Lebanon () is a city in and the county seat of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,814 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Lebanon is located in the central part of the Lebanon Valley, east of Harrisbu ...

History

Keystone Match & Machine Company was founded in 1894 and offering bicycles from 1896. In 1899 the company offered an interesting but complicated

steam car A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE) in which the fuel is combusted outside of the engine, unlike an internal combustion engine (ICE) in which fuel is combusted ins ...

. It featured '' runabout''

coachwork A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

and was powered by three small single-cylinder

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

s built into each of its rear

wheel A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...

hubs in a way that they worked as a

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

. It was tried to avoid the use of

sprocket A sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a profiled wheel with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which radial projections engage a chain passi ...

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

and a

differential gear A differential is a gear train with three drive shafts that has the property that the rotational speed of one shaft is the average of the speeds of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average. Functional description The following descr ...

as each wheel worked completely independent from the other. The vehicle could reach a maximum speed of .Kimes (1985; p. 770) Planned production included trucks, but the Keystone Match & Machine Co. gave up all automobile projects in 1900, concentrating instead in producing matches and machinery for that purpose. Engineer J. G. Xander, who mainly developed the Keystone Steamer, went to

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

where he manufactured steam and gasoline engines, and offered for a short time the

Xander Xander is an abbreviated form of the name Alexander and pronounced like "Zander". Alexander is the Latin form of the Greek name "Alexandros". The name's meaning is interpreted from "alexein" which means "to defend" plus "andros" which translates to ...

automobile, built on custom order.Kimes (1985; p. 1524)

References

{{Reflist Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Pennsylvania Companies based in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania Lebanon, Pennsylvania American companies established in 1894 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1894 1899 establishments in Pennsylvania Vehicles introduced in 1899 Veteran vehicles 1890s cars 1900s cars Highwheeler