The rare 1901 Locomobile has been rebuilt from the remains of the city’s first privately-owned automobile, which was bought by Thomas Kempthorne, of the pharmaceutical manufacturing company Kempthorne Prosser & Co Ltd.
Mr Kempthorne created a minor sensation in 1901 when he was driven along Princes St in the steam-powered two-cylinder vehicle with one of his company’s engineers at the tiller.The Vintage Car Club (Otago Branch) have held the engine of the car since the late 1950s.
Several original parts, including the engine, oil reservoir tank, front axle, brake control mechanism, petrol tank and air pressure tank were all recovered from a farm near Clinton, where the car was wrecked, and these parts have been used in the rebuild.
Missing components have been faithfully replicated using patterns, castings and drawings taken from original cars.
The trust has been fortunate to call upon the skills and knowledge of local engineers and other Locomobile owners, as well as Vintage Car Club members and local businesses which have donated parts and labour.
The vehicle has now been commissioned to full working order.
"The engine is powered by steam pressure from a boiler.
"The boiler is fired by petrol. The original boiler was fired using white spirits such as kerosine, diesel, methylated spirits.
"It doesn’t burn it as a raw fuel, it vaporises it into a gas form. It’s fired into a burner plate, which is like a gas cooker plate and that heats the water into steam.
"From dead cold, it takes around about 25-30 minutes to get a full head of steam," he said.
The trust plans to put the vehicle on public display for the first time at The Great Kiwi Home & Living Show, at Forsyth Barr Stadium, on November 3 and 4.
Because the vehicle is a unique part of Dunedin’s early automotive history, it is hoped it can be put on permanent public display somewhere in the city.
1901 Locomobile
Designed by twins Francis (1849-1918) and Freelan Stanley (1849-1940).
Made in the United States.
First car produced in 1897.
In 1899, they sold the rights to the design to Locomobile.
The twins were also noted for inventing glass negative plates for photography, and Kodak bought the patent from them.
They also invented the first X-ray machine, and made violins equivalent to those of Stradivarius.
Thomas Whitelock Kempthorne
1834: Born in Cornwall.
1854: Emigrated to Melbourne and worked in the wholesale drug trade for Benson Brothers and H&E Youngman.
1863: Moved to Dunedin.
1870: Went into partnership with Welsh chemist Evan Prosser and set up Kempthorne Prosser & Co Ltd.
Head office was in Stafford St, had a pharmaceutical factory and warehouses across NZ.
The company became New Zealand’s largest drug manufacturer and later branched out into chemical fertilisers having a manufacturing plant at Burnside.
1904: Kempthorne retired as managing director of the company.
He was also a director of the National Insurance Company, Perpetual Trustees Estate and Agency Company, and Donaghy’s Rope and Twine Company Ltd.
1915: Died in Dunedin of a cerebral haemorrhage on November 3, and was buried in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery.
He was married twice — first to Sarah Inman (nee Moody) and had six children before her death in 1895; and to Annie Charlotte Rawdon Robinson, to whom he had another child before her death in 1903.
