Horses of Iron

[LockH]

Circa 1904: Nevada's First Electric Streetcar Line Was In Reno:
http://kunr.org/post/circa-1904-nevadas-first-electric-streetcar-line-was-reno#stream/0

Hehe... "streetcar with pedestrian catcher"... :wink: (Strangely, the word "engine" not used once in this article.) :wink:

Article includes:

Although the fare was only a nickel within city limits, young John and his friends found an enterprising way to get out of paying it. Some of the streetcars had metal cow-catchers attached to the front, to clear any stray objects off the tracks. When young John and his friends were too tired to walk home, they would sometimes sneak a ride on a streetcar by jumping on the cow-catchers.

"They were lathe-like strips of iron and when they were going up to the university where we lived, they had those up, so we would latch on to the cow-catchers and ride them home and then drop off."

8)

 

[LockH]

Just thought I could throw this into this thread.

Birth Of The Bike (1937) B&W film from British Pathé...
[youtube]tOMlIO0_fEQ[/youtube]

 

[LockH]

`Kay. NOT electric but... thought might throw in this thread anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_T1

In part/starts:

The Pennsylvania Railroad's 52 T1 class duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 steam locomotives, introduced in 1942 (2 prototypes) and 1945-1946 (50 production), were their last steam locomotives built and their most controversial. They were ambitious, technologically sophisticated, powerful, fast, and distinctively streamlined by Raymond Loewy.

8)

... Steam/coal-powered "taken to the max"... :lol:

 

[LockH]

Hehe... Seen "local to home"...

The Way We Were: Toronto's real first electric buses:
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/the-way-we-were-torontos-real-first-electric-buses

Starts:

On June 19, 1922, Torontonians got their very first look at the latest in pubic transit vehicles when the one-year-old Toronto Transportation Commission placed four of its newly-arrived electric trolley buses on the Mount Pleasant route that had heretofore been served by gasoline-powered buses. With this improvement in public transportation, the north Toronto community served by these new buses grew quickly — so much so, that three years later, the Commission decided to replace the 30-seat trolley buses with larger electric streetcars.

(As always, sorry re any typo/spelling errors...)

 

[LockH]

[burp] Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Pubic Transport in the Last Century
[youtube]p-I8GDklsN4[/youtube]

 

[LockH]

Hehe...

Address to the Seventh Annual Dinner of the Railway Business Association in New York City. January 27, 1916

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=117299

Includes:

We live in a world which we did not make, which we can not alter, which we can not think into a different condition from that which actually exists.

which we can not alter... Oh, YEAH. Mister President??? :wink:

 

[Dauntless]

Includes:

We live in a world which we did not make, which we can not alter, which we can not think into a different condition from that which actually exists.

which we can not alter... Oh, YEAH. Mister President??? :wink:

Now now, he said all that two decades before FDR proved that no matter how bad the economy already was, reckless overspending by the government can still make it worse. That was an era of people saying that stock prices took "A random walk down wall street." No one had even made the connection between larger or smaller oranges in a year with a cold winter followed by a warm spring, or vice versa.

What would you expect from people who believed that all rain started as snow that melted as it reached lower elevations?

 

[LockH]

^^ Hehe... BUT Mister Wilson added "which we can not think into a different condition from that which actually exists"?

Can give example... Currently, ESB "Search found 72 matches: kindergarten"... One of MY family ("ancestors") as Chief Inspector for Toronto schools helped start a NEW and "different" training program for young children - watt Friedrich Froebel, a German educator termed Kinder Garten, literally "children's garden" - in the late 1800s.

Then, in 1895 he was also President of the Toronto Woman's Enfranchisement Association:
https://archive.org/stream/cihm_13045#page/n7/mode/2up

... suggesting that women should have the right to vote in elections. This was decades before they were... (STILL looking for any info. re giving them the right to operate large vehicles... )

Then ya get folks like American Henry Ford... When he died (1947) there were "only" about 144 million folks in the USA... today maybe 323+... and increasingly/more than half now "urban"...

So. Is ANYTHING "perfect"? :wink:

Anyway. Back to "important stuff" ie the bettery-electric powered bicycle/trike. 8)

 

[LockH]

First post in this thread starts:

Caution: Gas vehicles...

Horatio Nelson Jackson has his own page on Wiki...:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson_Jackson

Watt starts off:

Horatio Nelson Jackson (March 25, 1872 – January 14, 1955) was an American physician and automobile pioneer. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States.

... and it turns out there's a YT vid... American Experience : Horatio's Drive | Top Documentaries 2017
[youtube]suNYAP1B8uM[/youtube]

8)

 

[LockH]

The Story of Electricity
[youtube]hVu844ZcCdU[/youtube]

8)

 

[LockH]

Hehe... ESB "Search found 0 matches: Isambard Kingdom Brunel"... watts got his own entry on Wiki...:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

... watt starts:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS - Fellowship of the Royal Society; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was an English mechanical and civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th century engineering giants", and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised pubic transport and modern engineering, but didn't know squat about electric traction.

Great Britons: Isambard Kingdom Brunel Hosted by Jeremy Clarkson - BBC Documentary
[youtube]QwHnVH9jWmU[/youtube]



EDIT: "... and that meant, they had to invest in engineering." :lol:
(Went to my first University to be an EE - Electrical Engineer. Hehe...)

EDIT (again): ""Engineers back then were like Rock-and-Roll Gods... with a hint of Hollywood"

HAHA... Sorta-like some ebikers in this 21st-Century.

 

[LockH]

Indy was hub for electric cars -- 120 years ago:
https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2018/01/05/indy-hub-electric-cars-120-years-ago/1007129001/

Starts:

Electric cars increasingly look like the future of the American automobile, and more manufacturers are investing in electric car designs as a “green” alternative to the internal combustion engine. Ironically, this is the second time that electric cars have vied with gasoline automobiles. At the dawn of the automobile age, electric vehicles were produced before most gasoline cars, and Indianapolis was one of the first places to produce the electric car.

8)

 

[LockH]

EV History: 100-Year Old Ads For Pope Waverly Electric Cars:
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/10/ev-history-100-year-old-ads-pope-waverly-electric-cars/

Starts:

We often talk about the future of the automobile being electric, and news about companies like Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo contributing to that electric future is great. But, as we celebrate this New Year’s Eve and look forward to a new year and new steps forward, I’d like to take a minute to look back to the past. Specifically, the electric car past, which the Pope Waverly electric cars helped to build.

... w/ads like:

 

[LockH]

Meanwhile... over in ES Newz...
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71159&start=675#p1350571

:wink:

 

[Dauntless]

Dunecraft balance bikes. For the kid whose parents just don't know what to do with all that money.

 

[Dauntless]

 

[LockH]

Dunecraft balance bikes. For the kid whose parents just don't know what to do with all that money.

HAHA...
http://dunecraft-balance-bikes.com/

Includes:

Custom Dunecraft Balance Bike?

If you cannot find your favourite colour or you would like to add something specific to the Dunecraft balance bike, please get in touch with us. Mail gys@dunecraft.nl

Email: "So... How much for the one with a battery and motor?" :lol:

 

[Dauntless]

How much for one the size of a beach cruiser so an adult could ride it?

 

[LockH]

Hehe... "Thing" is, they're probably targeting parents (who spends TONS of money on their children...) :lol:

 

[The Toecutter]

https://silodrome.com/packard-royal-streamliner-roadster/

It's called a "streamliner" but I don't imagine its drag coefficient is low.

 

[LockH]

https://silodrome.com/packard-royal-streamliner-roadster/

It's called a "streamliner" but I don't imagine its drag coefficient is low.

 

[Dauntless]

Way back when they were very sure is WAS so low.

 

[LockH]

^^ Hehe... See also the little fishies, marine animals, etc who figured out "hydrodynamics" many generations ago.
Def. more interested in "velomobiles" these days.
:wink:
L

 

[The Toecutter]

Way back when they were very sure is WAS so low.

Some of them weren't just sure, but correct!.

Cloth-body on steel frame Baker Torpedo below:

http://ptstudio.cgsociety.org/art/r...omotive-design-electric-first-version-1060695

http://www.silive.com/opinion/columns/index.ssf/2013/05/the_crash_of_the_baker_electri.html

 

[LockH]

(Wiki

The Staten Island Advance is a daily newspaper published in the borough of Staten Island in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough, and the only borough to have its own major daily paper, it covers news of local and community interest, including borough politics. As of April 25, 2007, Monday-Friday circulation was down 3.9% from the previous year, to 59,461. Sunday dropped 4.6% to 73,203.

The crash of the Baker Electric Torpedo (Commentary):
http://www.silive.com/opinion/columns/index.ssf/2013/05/the_crash_of_the_baker_electri.html

Starts:

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Long before it acquired its modern-day name, the Staten Island street we know as Hylan Boulevard had gained a fearsome reputation as a place where motorists tested their moxie and daring in a quest for fame and the ultimate speed thrill.

Includes:

At a time when internal combustion engines were noisy, dirty, sputtering, reluctant, unreliable and downright dangerous (sorta like today...), the Cleveland-based Baker Motor Vehicle Company’s highly regarded electric cars seemed to hold a winning hand.

They started instantly, without employing a "knuckle-buster" crank, and stopped when you wanted them to. They were simple, quiet, durable, and passengers were not required to share the perils of the road with a tank full of highly flammable fuel.

One of the first motor vehicles in the White House fleet was a Baker electric.

Continues:

The reputation of the Baker electrics was further burnished when the already-legendary American inventive genius Thomas Alva Edison chose one as his first car. It cost $850 — a sum that would be more than $20,000 in today’s currency.

Perhaps the most confounding drawback of electric cars has always been their batteries, which limited the vehicles’ range while adding considerable weight. And batteries of the day were also highly vulnerable to damage from jostling and jarring on the rutted, potholed roads.

... Includes:

The innovative 3,100-pound car carried two people — the driver and an electrician/brakeman. Its power plant, a 14-horsepower Elwell-Parker electric motor, was energized by a weighty bank of 11 of the nickel-iron batteries that had emerged from Edison’s lab only months earlier.

A 3100-pound vehicle for two as "innovative".

... and:

News reports from the day estimated that upwards of 20,000 people — nearly a third the number of Staten Island residents at the time— were on hand to watch the proceedings.

... and:

Once, as Baker was flying along a packed-sand beach in one of his racers, all of the wheels suddenly and almost simultaneously came off, sending him sledding along on the car’s belly.

“Electric Baker” crashed his cars so frequently that the moniker “Bad Luck Baker” began to follow him.

Ohhh... NEVer done THAT. :lol:

Includes a paragraph: AN EERIE SILENCE

Ends:

In an ironic twist, the street that hosted the ill-fated 1902 speed contest was, in 1940, named Hylan Boulevard, in honor of former New York City Mayor John Francis Hylan.

“Red Mike,” as Hylan was known, achieved small notoriety as a speeder, of sorts. He became mayor in 1918, some years after being fired from a job as a locomotive engineer for driving the train too fast.

Hehe... Driving "too fast"... :lol: