Electric Car built in.................1884!!!!!

[Pappa Midnight]

Just though I'd post this to show that sometimes fact is a little weirder than fiction.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5212278/Worlds-first-electric-car-built-by-Victorian-inventor-in-1884.html

Also found a nice little site about him
http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/genealogy/Parker/ThomasParker.htm

A pretty cool inventor for an "alternative" Victorian setting.

PM

[Scout_II]

The tail end of the Victorian age...but:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/vintage/4215940

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Motor_Vehicle

I've used them a good bit in alternative history settings.

[The_Beast]

Mr Leno's electrics, along with his skepticism, were featured in a recent US-PBS Nova show.

For Victorian history, an interesting point was that the automobile, and the internal combustion engine,was seen as an environmental step. I assumed the main interest would be the elimination of horse droppings, 'road apples', which was indeed a large problem.

However, an even bigger problem was the period's disdain of animal welfare. We now think of ASPCA for cats and dogs, near the turn of the previous century, it was the treatment of horses that was decried. They would be worked, often pulling impossible large and heavy loads, until they dropped in their traces. Then the owner would unhitch, find another horse, and leave the carcass.

In New York, the sanitation department was finding the clearing of such bodies almost impossible to handle.

I've oft thought that the city vignettes we see on the forum would have considerable verisimilitude added with the inclusion of a rotting horse on the street.

A bit off topic for the thread, less so for the forum. 

As for Leno's opinions, I'm a bit less convinced about the death of electric.

Doug

[Gluteus Maximus]

Blimey - here we all are, obsessing about steam and rivets when electrical powered vehicles were already feasible. Makes building VSF vehicles slightly less complicated. I can never get my head around steam-power. Where do all the pipes go and what do all those dials do? 

[Bullshott]

Blimey - here we all are, obsessing about steam and rivets when electrical powered vehicles were already feasible. Makes building VSF vehicles slightly less complicated. I can never get my head around steam-power. Where do all the pipes go and what do all those dials do? 

Electric vehicles are fine if a) you have a means to re-charge them (usually limiting them to short distance trips only)and b) you are not intennding to load them up with anything heavy (like armour or artillery). In the end, if you want a 19th century heavy vehicle you are limited to steam.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Electric vehicles are fine if a) you have a means to re-charge them (usually limiting them to short distance trips only)and b) you are not intennding to load them up with anything heavy (like armour or artillery). In the end, if you want a 19th century heavy vehicle you are limited to steam.

I suppose you could tow a steam-powered generator to power the vehicle