

The 100 Year Old Electric Car - DavidWanjiru
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/vintage/4215940

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rmason
Bill Lear tried to build a steam engine to win the Indy 500 in the late
sixties but failed. It was called the Vapordyne and I can remember it excited
a lot of peoples imagination at the time.

[http://modernsteampower.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/lear-
vapord...](http://modernsteampower.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/lear-vapordyne-
steam-car/)

Really curious why someone hasn't used today's tech to reinvent the steam
powered car. Or a small steam engine to power an electric hybrid, it would use
a tiny fraction of the fuel of a Prius.

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desdiv
Here's a site with pictures of more than 50 (!!) early electric cars:

[http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/overview-of-early-electric-
ca...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/overview-of-early-electric-cars.html)

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DavidWanjiru
I actually submitted this hoping it'd already been submitted and discussed and
HN would redirect me to the thread, but it turns out it hadn't been submitted.
I'd searched to no avail. Anyway.

If they had a working electric car in 1909, I have no idea what to think.
Because there's so much to think:

 _How different would the world have turned out if vehicles powered with
electricity, rather than gasoline, had become the main mode of 20th century
transport.

_ How differently the development of and investment in electricity generation
and transmission would have developed if the point above were true.

*How much better off the world would be today, in terms of environmental pollution.

I'd love for somebody to burst this bubble for me, coz the idea that we had a
working, production electric car in 1909 but still somehow fucked it up is
depressing for me.

~~~
gaadd33
The first car to wear the name Porsche was an electric car in 1898:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner-
Porsche](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner-Porsche)

It also had 4 wheel drive with the motors in the wheel hubs. However it was
also prohibitively expensive. (Roughly $94,930.99 in today's dollars)

~~~
CamperBob2
That's about what they cost now. Sounds like the "Porsche" is a more stable
denominator of value than anything else, including gold.

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ricardobeat
Is the torque figure for the Doble Steamer correct? 1000 lb-ft is quite a bit
more than the 687 in Tesla's top performance model. That car would fly like a
rocket.

~~~
jacquesm
Steam power has ridiculous torque. It's like electrical in that the maximum
power is available at 0 rpm.

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simonblack
The Baker Electric is the car that Grandma Duck drives. I remember being
surprised as a teenager many years ago when I discovered that there actually
had been a car that looked like Grandma Duck's car.

[http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCXP5M_grandma-ducks-
car](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCXP5M_grandma-ducks-car)

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morganherlocker
For those interested in this topic in the DC area, a couple of these are
currently on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

[http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/100-years-
perso...](http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/100-years-personal-
electric-transportation-goes-view-%E2%80%9Camerica-move%E2%80%9D-exhibition)

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rocky1138
OT: Is anyone else unable to zoom in Chrome on that page? The rest of Popular
Mechanics' site works well, but for some reason CTRL+/-, CTRL+Scroll, or Zoom
through the settings menu is completely locked.

