L’automobile à vapeur renversée: une énigme du passé

The car is a 1906 White Model F steam car. You can tell because the gas tank in in the middle of the car, and it has a 1906 Model F burner only used on the Model F. Model E burners from 1905 have through-holes and 1907 Model H burners have an oval venturi. Also, it did not catch fire because the White gas tank has a rollover valve which shuts off fuel if car turns over or there is sudden rush of fuel.

The car is definitely a White steam car, made specifically between 1906 and 1908, (I think a Model L 20hp). Whites developed new models every two years, the earlier cars and later cars were quite different mechanically, which means the photographer was even older when he took the picture—at least 74 years of age!
It’s impossible to tell exactly how the accident occurred without more information, but the missing propshaft and the twisted back axle does suggest that the shaft broke dropping the front end into the road causing the car “pole vault” then slide on its side to a stop against the post.

The missing propeller shaft, ripped-out radius rod and twisted-up axle are evidence of the possible cause of this accident: a known risk of breakage of the cardan/propeller shaft joints of White steamers due to their engine’s steam valve operation, revealed by the American “Motor” magazine in its November, 1905, edition.

“Rattle in the Propeller Shaft. If your car has a propeller shaft drive, avoid extreme looseness in the cardan joints and other portions of the transmission. Anything that causes a rattle, as, for example, clutching and unclutching, and applying the transmission brake, is liable to hammer the pivot pins to pieces. And if one of these pins breaks, its mate will immediately follow. If the bevel driving pinion is loose on its key or if the cardan joint forging on the bevel pinion shaft is loose, the hammering will play hob with that shaft's bearings especially if, as is usual, they are ball bearings. In the White steamer there is especial need of preventing looseness in the cardan joints, since with the throttle nearly closed the low-pressure cylinder is driven by the high, resulting in a very irregular turning movement and a pronounced rattle if anything in the transmission is loose. There is always a little rattle, mainly in the bevel gears, but if the cardan pins are loose, they are likely to be broken.”

In the previous month’s edition, the same writer reported suffering a dropped cardan, it seems fortunately at the axle’s end first, on an unnamed car with a gearbox: “The other day one pin in the rear cardan unscrewed and dropped out, whereupon, of course, the forging wrenched itself free from the cross, breaking the opposite pin. The propeller shaft, from the square slip joint at its front end to the rear cardan, dropped into the road. Investigation showed that the strain of wrenching free had spread the yoke forging and cracked one of its prongs.”

Cardan shaft drive was not then well developed or trusted, particularly in America, with chain drive still considered more reliable, particularly for higher horsepower. Contemporary propeller shafts were solid chrome or nickel steel, typically no larger in diameter than one and a quarter inch (32mm). The propeller shaft of a 1905-6 White Model F or later G was perhaps two-thirds of their c.120-inch wheelbase—potentially a near seven-foot vaulting pole!

As far as the accident, there is damage to the bodywork and a crack in the running board which are facing up. The bend in the body seems to match the position of the pole. The terrain has a downward incline as well. I wonder if there was a slick patch or loss of brakes and the driver slid sideways into the pole. The asymmetric weight of the car and momentum potentially rotated the chassis around the pole 90 degrees and lifted it up. The rear wheel has failed which would drop the opposite side and allow some lift of the contacting side. Potentially he was turning into a driveway just ahead of this? However it is unclear why more damage is not seen.

It's a staged performance... The pole was put there after the reversal.

Interesting photo. The drive to the rear axle is not immediately apparent. Is there perhaps something like a single-cylinder crankshaft with a connecting rod and piston installed in the differential housing, facing upwards? Does anyone know more about this drive?
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Interressantes Foto. Der Antrieb der Hinterachse ist nicht sofort ersichtlich. Ist da vielleicht im "Differentialgehäuse" soetwas wie eine einzylinderkurbelwelle mit pleuel und Kolben nach oben eingebaut? Wer weiss mehr über diesen Antrieb??

It's a White steam car.

I am pretty sure it's a White. The clues are the cylinder(s) under the bonnet and the steam-generator under the front seat.