The Empire was an American

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufactured from 1901 until 1902. A product of

Sterling, Illinois Sterling is a city in Whiteside County, Illinois, United States, along the Rock River. The population was 14,782 at the 2020 census, down from 15,370 in 2010. Formerly nicknamed "Hardware Capital of the World", the city has long been associate ...

, it featured a vee-twin

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

geared to its right-hand rear wheel. It had a rectangular, transverse mounted

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

with horizontal tubes across the chassis. Coachwork was of the motor buggy style. Built by the Empire Manufacturing Co. (soon to be renamed the Empire Automobile Co.) in

, it was offered for only $750; the popular

Oldsmobile Curved Dash The gasoline-powered Oldsmobile Model R, also known as the Curved Dash Oldsmobile, is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile, meaning that it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. It was introduced by the Olds ...

cost $650. Essentially the same car was built 1901-1902 by the Sterling Automobile & Engine Co. When this company failed to pay its factory mortgage the company was sold by the sheriff's office for $1,300 and manufacture halted.

References

*David Burgess Wise, ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles''. * Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Steam cars Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Illinois {{veteran-auto-stub