They ran a small general engineering company started by their father in about 1875. They moved into the business and, in 1887, designed a small steam engine which they had running in 1889 and installed in a four wheeled chassis. All of this was being done in their spare time while the business moved on to electrical installation with small generators run by steam or gas engines or water turbines.
They then combined the bicycle with the generating set, with the engine mounted above the front wheel, which it drove by belt.
The idea was not taken any further.
A lone experimenter who produced a primitive car during the 1880s was
Charles Santler of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, who claimed to have helped
Karl Benz build his first car in Germany in 1885-86. After his return to
England, Santler began developing a steam car, but fitted it with a petrol
engine in the early 1890s. Since he had no intentions of building cars
for sale to the public, Santler carried out many of his trials on the
private estate roads of nearby Madresfield Court to escape attention.
Source: Graces Guide
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