'When all was well, the little Stanley runabouts probably provided more pleasurable motoring than anything else on the market at the turn of the century - that is if they were handled properly - they ran very quietly and with that effortless smoothness which no petrol car of the time could rival.

They were also quite lively...' - Anthony Bird, 1967.

Francis E and Freeland O Stanley were identical twins, whose Stanley Dry Plate Company produced photographic equipment.

The brothers also designed steam cars, experimenting with a solitary prototype in 1887 before reviving the project in 1897.

By the following year they had completed three more, one of which completed a spectacular demonstration in Charles River Park, Boston where it successfully scaled an 80ft incline that had defeated its rivals.

Orders for 200 cars resulted and the Stanleys were in business.

That first design was sold to John Brisben Walker and manufactured as the 'Locomobile', while the Stanleys progressed to a no...