THE FUTURE AUTOMOBILE
Electric      Steam      The image “http://www.users.bigpond.com/rileyclubvictoria/1898.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Gasoline
Columbia Phaeton 1899            Stanley Steamer 1898               Riley Motor Car 1898      

Introduction

In the beginning there was steam power, electric power and the internal combustion engine.
The way some historians talk about the early days of the automobile you would think that there were no other choices then gasoline at the very beginning. It may surprise you that the most popular cars at the beginning of the previous century were electric vehicles, and that not until the 1920s did internal combustion engines become dominant in personal transportation. Steam powered vehicles were very sophisticated machines by 1906 and electric vehicles were the most practical vehicle on the road; being quiet, not requiring cranking or warm up, not overheating or requiring water, not smelling bad and much more. Internal combustion engines vehicles were noisy, vibrated terribly, produced noxious fumes and smoky exhaust, they could brake your arm with the hand crank, they overheated and broke down so often that they required a mechanic to ride along if you wanted to get anywhere. Internal combustion engines did not win in the market place because it was superior technology, because it was not. So why did gasoline win out?

Historically, the ICE was a difficult technology, not ready for prime time as steam and electricity were.  True improvements did not arrive until 1904. Even those improvements still made ICE cars just passable as a most basic personal mode of transportation. In this study I explore the real reasons for dominance of the internal combustion engine over its seemingly superior electric competition.


 

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