1903 White
‘Incomparable’ was the adjective applied by its makers to the White steam car, first built in 1900 by the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and unique among its contemporaries in having a semiflash boiler with virtually automatic control. The first Whites were fairly basic steam buggies, but in 1903 the design matured into a wheel-steered tonneau with a 10hp compound engine, powerful enough to carry limousine bodywork.
1903 Humber ‘Humberette’
Thomas Humber was famed as a bicycle builder long before his first car appeared in 1896. The company had by then become part of Harry J. Lawson’s dubious motor monopoly, and the first powered vehicles did nothing to enhance the firm’s reputation. Reformed as an independent company in 1900, Humber were soon building some excellent light cars, one of the best being the little 5 hp Humberette single-cylinder model introduced in 1903, the first Humber to be built in large numbers. Early Humbers had two unique features; a single-spoke steering wheel and the fact that their engines cranked anti-clockwise, a feature claimed to reduce the risk of a broken wrist in case of a backfire when starting.
1903 De Dietrich
A company with an earlier origin was the French De Dietrich firm, founded in 1684, which in 1896 acquired the manufacturing rights to a design by Amedee Bollee fils of Le Mans. This Bollee-Dietrtch was the first petrol car to have a shaft-driven rear axle (although primary drive was by belts), but the design which replaced it in 1900 was chain-driven, and originated with the Marseillaise firm of Turcat-Mery. The two cars shown on her are both 24 hp De Dietrichs designed by Turcat-Mèry and built in 1903. The upper weas fitted with racing bod by the late Richard Shuttleworth while the lower one was rediscovered in the 1960’s after being stored for many dacadesand subsequently restored to its now beautiful condition.
1903 Siddeley
Although it bore the name of Siddeley, this 1903 twin-cylinder tonneau was no more than a slightly modified Peugeot. Nor was its stablemate any more original, for the 6 hp single-cylinder model was built by Wolseley, and fitted with a Siddeley radiator. This loose union between the two companies became a marriage of convenience in 1905, when Wolseley absorbed Siddeley. John Davenport Siddeley became manager of the new consortium, however.
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