Doble "F" Boiler
| In 1948 Charles F. Keen was living at 2661 East Washington Blvd., Madison 4, Wisconsin and he was working with Abner Doble who was at that time working in Milwaukee for Nordberg and also doing some work for Greyhound bus in the Chicago area. Keen had Doble design a boiler for a Stanley engine. The first letter between them was dated June 25, 1948 with design work going on through June 5, 1949. The last date in Doble’s notes is from February 7, 1950 and says: “Dropped him. Poor pay.” |
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As usual Keen wrote almost nothing down and his widow threw everything out. What we do know was recorded by the Ziesemer brothers. Here is what we think happened: one Doble “F” boiler went into Keen Steamliner #1 that is now in England where the late Jeff Theobald was restoring it. One is in Keen Steamliner #2 which is in the Kimmel steam shop and runs intermittently. The third one was in a 20 hp 1920 Stanley owned by Ron Ziesemer and had a carburetor burner. This particular boiler was found years later and restored and sold to me by Ron’s son Art so that he could put an original style Stanley boiler in the car. The way to tell an “F” from an “E” is the water wall around the combustion chamber. |
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