Grout steam car

The locomotive like appearance of this car, with its cylindrical front, the single headlight in the middle and, most striking of all, the cowcatcher, is meant to make it immediately clear what powers it: steam

This four-seater tourer was built by Grout in America and is fitted with a 2-cylinder 12 hp steam engine. A patented system conducts the heat and unpleasant smells away from the passengers. Steam passes through a condenser and is re-used. In 1904 this car cost about 1,500 dollars. Financed by their father, who made a fortune in the sewing machine industry, the three Grout brothers from Orange, Massachusetts started manufacturing cars in 1898. Grout Bros. first built petrol-engined cars but later switched to steam. The cars were also exported to Britain and sold there under the name of Weston. The company was continually on the brink of bankruptcy and folded in 1912. Very few Grouts survive.