Alternative means of transport

 The search for reliable, safe means to propel an automobile is not just a 21st century quest.  In the early days of the automobile, gasoline engines were not the only way to make coaches and wagons move without horses.

Detroit Electric cars were advertised as getting 80 miles of use between charges, and one was run over 211 miles without recharging.  Thomas Edison owned one.  John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in America, had a pair of them.

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(In the process of restoration)

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This example is housed in the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon.

Henry Ford’s wife had one.

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Battery technology has not evolved too far in 98 years.  The Detroit Electric used a lead-acid battery:

The maximum speed was just about 20 miles an hour, but that was considered fast enough for city driving. These cars were marketed especially to women, being much safer than the hand-cranked cars of it’s day.  They were popular with doctors too for the same reasons – these cars were quiet, smokeless, and less dangerous to start than hand-cranked gasoline engines.

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Electricity and gasoline were not the only means of moving new fangled horseless carriages.

Next up, a hundred years ago, the meld of Old and New merged steam and the Horseless Carriage.

 

 

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