How do you account for the impression, that it requires more mechanical skill to run a Stanley than in internal-explosive car?
Where such prejudice exists, it can come only from not having looked into the subject. Things can be great or small only by comparison. The functions of the Stanley power plant reduce themselves to the simplest character — boiling water over a kerosene stove and controlling the admission of the resulting steam into a two cylinder engine, the only manual control for running being the throttle itself. The absence of the element of mind in control of the Stanley is one of its greatest comforts. For instance, the driver does not have to use thought or skill in “selecting” his “speed,” for the throttle is always placed by him unconsciously at the point best suited for the work of the moment.
