Author: Kerry Segrave Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476676712 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 264
Book Description
The electric vehicle seemed poised in 1900 to be a leader in automotive production. Clean, odorless, noiseless and mechanically simple, electrics rarely broke down and were easy to operate. An electric car could be started instantly from the driver's seat; no other machine could claim that advantage. But then it all went wrong. As this history details, the hope and confidence of 1900 collapsed and just two decades later electric cars were effectively dead. They had remained expensive even as gasoline cars saw dramatic price reductions, and the storage battery was an endless source of problems. An increasingly frantic public relations campaign of lies and deceptive advertising could not turn the tide.
Author: Kerry Segrave Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476634963 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 263
Book Description
“Extraordinary…will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to both community and academic library collections…a must read”—Midwest Book Review The electric vehicle seemed poised in 1900 to be a leader in automotive production. Clean, odorless, noiseless and mechanically simple, electrics rarely broke down and were easy to operate. An electric car could be started instantly from the driver’s seat; no other machine could claim that advantage. But then it all went wrong. As this history details, the hope and confidence of 1900 collapsed and just two decades later electric cars were effectively dead. They had remained expensive even as gasoline cars saw dramatic price reductions, and the storage battery was an endless source of problems. An increasingly frantic public relations campaign of lies and deceptive advertising could not turn the tide.
Author: Ernest Henry Wakefield Publisher: SAE International ISBN: 1560912995 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 582
Book Description
History of the Electric Automobile covers the evolution from the first electric vehicles of the 1880s to the advances of today. Beginning with early electric vehicle development in England, France, and the United States, this book provides an in-depth look at the so-called "golden age of electric vehicles" (1895-1905), demonstrating the technological improvements and business risks of this era. This history also explores the "dead period" of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and the subsequent re-birth of interest in electric vehicles in the early 1960s. Events which have impacted the development of electric cars since then -- most notably the Electric Vehicle Act of 1976 -- are also examined. The book also features an appendix section containing such information as a name table of American electric cars, the Electric Vehicle Act of 1976, "nostalgia", and more. A glossary and index are also included. "For more than a century, nearly all seers who have predicted the role of electric vehicles in personal transportation have been wrong. This book records what actually happened, both within America and internationally." - Ernest H. Wakefield
Author: Nigel Burton Publisher: Crowood ISBN: 1847975712 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 512
Book Description
One hundred years ago electric cars were the most popular automobiles in the world. In the late nineteenth century and at the start of the twentieth century, they outsold every other type of car. And yet, within a couple of decades of the start of the twentieth century, the electric car had vanished. Thousands of battery-powered cars disappeared from the streets, replaced by the internal combustion engine, and their place in the history of the automobile was quietly erased. A century later, electric cars are making a comeback. Fears over pollution and global warming have forced manufacturers to reconsider the electric concept. A History of Electric Cars presents for the first time the full story of electric cars and their hybrid cousins. It examines how and why electric cars failed the first time - and why today's car manufacterers must learn the lessons of the past if they are to avoid repeating previous mistakes all over again. The book examines in detail: Early vehicles such as the Lohner-Porsche petrol-electric hybrid of 1901; Key figures in the history of the electric car development such as Henry Ford; Sir Clive Sinclair's plans to build a number of electric vehicles, designed to sit alongside the Sinclair C5; The return of the electric technology to vehicles as diverse as the NASA Lunar Rover, commuting vehicles and supercars; Future developments in electric cars. For the first time the full story of electric cars and their hybrids are examined.The hidden past of the electric automobile is uncovered and its future developments are discussed. Superbly illustrated with 300 colour photographs, many of which are rare and original sketch designs. Nigel Burton has written and lectured on cars and automotive history for more than twenty years.
Author: David A. Kirsch Publisher: ISBN: Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
In the context of regulations requiring emission so low that electric and hybrid cars will be necessary, Kirsch (industrial ecology, U. of California-Los Angeles) takes the Electric Vehicle Company as a starting point for a vision of an alternative automotive system in which gasoline and electric vehicles would each have been used to supply different kinds of transport services. He argues that technological superiority was in the hearts and minds of engineers, consumers, and drivers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Author: Gijs Mom Publisher: JHU Press ISBN: 9780801871382 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
Winner of the Engineer-Historian Award from the International History and Heritage Committee of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot Award given by the Society of Automotive Historians Recent attention to hybrid cars that run on both gasoline and electric batteries has made the electric car an apparent alternative to the internal combustion engine and its attendant environmental costs and geopolitical implications. Few people realize that the electric car—neither a recent invention nor a historical curiosity—has a story as old as that of the gasoline-powered automobile, and that at one time many in the nascent automobile industry believed battery-powered engines would become the dominant technology. In both Europe and America, electric cars and trucks succeeded in meeting the needs of a wide range of consumers. Before World War II, as many as 30,000 electric cars and more than 10,000 electric trucks plied American roads; European cities were busy with, electrically propelled fire engines, taxis, delivery vans, buses, heavy trucks and private cars. Even so, throughout the century-long history of electric propulsion, the widespread conviction it was an inferior technology remained stubbornly in place, an assumption mirrored in popular and scholarly memory. In The Electric Vehicle, Gijs Mom challenges this view, arguing that at the beginning of the automobile age neither the internal combustion engine nor the battery-powered vehicle enjoyed a clear advantage. He explores the technology and marketing/consumer-ratio faction relationship over four "generations" of electric-vehicle design, with separate chapters on privately owned passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Mom makes comparisons among European countries and between Europe and America. He finds that the electric vehicle offered many advantages, among them greater reliability and control, less noise and pollution. He also argues that a nexus of factors—cultural (underpowered and less rugged, electric cars seemed "feminine" at a time when most car buyers were men), structural (the shortcomings of battery technology at the time), and systemic (the infrastructural problems of changing large numbers of batteries)—ultimately gave an edge to the internal combustion engine. One hopes, as a new generation of electric vehicles becomes a reality, The Electric Vehicle offers a long-overdue reassessment of the place of this technology in the history of street transportation.
Author: SCHIFFER MICHAEL BRI Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC) ISBN: Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Describes the early history of electric automobiles, 1895-1920, and how they vanished, not because of technological deficiencies but in a battle about money and gender. Women preferred the quieter, safer electric cars, but men wanted the roaring, speedy gas engines made by Henry Ford. Schiffer (anthropology and traditional technology, U. of Arizona) also reviews the current technology and prospects for a revival. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Author: Michael B. Schiffer Publisher: ISBN: 9780756774547 Category : Transportation Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Describes the history and future promise of electric cars in the U.S. Charting the early trajectory of the electric auto from 1895 to 1920, Schiffer argues that its failure had as much to do with money and gender as with technological shortcomings. In the late 19th cent., electric autos scurried through several NE cities, their quiet engines and easy operation preferable to horse-drawn carriages and the temperamental ways of gas-powered vehicles. With a range of 50-100 miles by 1910, electrics were perfect for in-town errands, especially for women. During the same period, "automobilists" -- mostly men -- championed the range and speed of the gas engine, esp. for touring and racing. In the end, it was culture more than technology that stymied the electric car. Illus.
Author: Michael Schiffer Publisher: Smithsonian ISBN: 9781588340764 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Describes the history and future promise of electric cars in America, revisiting the race between electric and gasoline-powered cars in all its aspects, including the little-known collaboration of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison on Edison's electric car, and arguing that the electric car's time may have finally come.
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Author: Kerry Segrave
Author: Kerry Segrave
Author: Ernest Henry Wakefield
Author: Nigel Burton
Author: David A. Kirsch
Author: David A. Kirsch
Author: Gijs Mom
Author: SCHIFFER MICHAEL BRI
Author: Michael B. Schiffer
Author: Michael Schiffer