Steam

THE petrol shortage scare has receded and there in less need to think in terms of steam or electric cars. However, interest attaches to a brochure sent toss by a reader, relating to the Planet steam power plant, which won the 1949 medal of the Society of Inventors. It was a four-cylinder radial steam engine intended for installation in cars of 8 hp upwards, the concessionaires for which were at Handforth in Cheshire. They quoted the 127.66 mph (actually 121.57 mph) LSR of the Stanley steamer, in 1906, in their advertising brochure, but nothing came of the venture. — W.B.