The Electrobat was one of the first electric automobiles. It was designed and built in 1894 by mechanical engineer Henry G. Morris and chemist Pedro G. Salom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [1] [2]
The Electrobat was one of the first electric automobiles. It was designed and built in 1894 by mechanical engineer Henry G. Morris and chemist Pedro G. Salom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [1] [2]
Morris and Salom had backgrounds in battery-powered streetcars and, as the battery streetcar business was fading, they teamed up to make battery road vehicles. Their Electrobat received a patent on August 31, 1894. Built like a small version of a battery streetcar, it was a slow, heavy, impractical vehicle with steel tires to support its immense, 1,600-pound lead battery. [3] An improved version, the Electrobat II, entered production in 1895.
In 1896, the pair founded the Morris & Salom Electric Carriage and Wagon Company. [4] [1]
Subsequent versions were lighter and had pneumatic tires, with bodies built at the Caffrey Carriage Company in Camden, New Jersey. These cars steered by their rear wheels and had two 1.5- horsepower (1.1 kW) motors that propelled them 25 miles (40 km) per charge at 20 mph (32 km/h). [1] Morris and Salom went on to build about a dozen Hansom cabs based on this vehicle, to compete with the horse-drawn cabs then in service in New York City; they operated in New York, Boston, and elsewhere. [4]
In 1897, they sold the cabs and their concept to Isaac L. Rice, who reincorporated the enterprise as the Electric Vehicle Company, which later became part of Albert Augustus Pope's empire. [4]
A railcar is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach, with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors".
A hackney or hackney carriage is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common sight on the streets of London. The hackney carriages carry a roof sign TAXI that can be illuminated to indicate their availability for passengers.
Checker Motors Corporation was an vehicle manufacturer, and later an automotive subcontractor, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company was established by Morris Markin in 1922, created by a merger of the firms Commonwealth Motors and Markin Automobile Body, and was initially named the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. The manufacturer was originally based in Chicago, before moving to Kalamazoo in 1923. The company was renamed Checker Motors in 1958.
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered tram or streetcar.
The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. The TRC was also a manufacturer of streetcars and rail work vehicles, a few of which were built for other streetcar and radial operators.
Electric Vehicle Company was an American holding company that operated from 1897 to 1907 and was an early manufacturer of battery-powered automobiles.
Columbia was an American brand of automobiles produced by a group of companies in the United States. They included the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, the Electric Vehicle Company, and an entity of brief existence in 1899, the Columbia Automobile Company.
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The TX4 is a purpose-built taxicab manufactured by The London Taxi Company, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile of China. From 2007 until their liquidation in 2013 it was manufactured by LTI. It is the latest in a long line of purpose-built taxis produced by The London Taxi Company and various predecessor entities. The design has evolved via several mutations from the Austin FX3 of the 1950s. TX4's immediate predecessor is the TXII.
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice. This differs from public transport where the pick-up and drop-off locations are decided by the service provider, not by the customers, although demand responsive transport and share taxis provide a hybrid bus/taxi mode.
The Chicago Times-Herald race was the first automobile race held in the United States. Sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald, the race was held in Chicago in 1895 among six motorized vehicles: four cars and two motorcycles. It was won by Frank Duryea's Motorized Wagon. The race created considerable publicity for the motocycle, which had been introduced in the United States only two years earlier.
The Nissan NV200 is a light commercial and leisure activity, 4/5-door van designed and produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan since 2009.
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Rétrospectives Automobiles Miniatures was a French manufacturing company that made diecast scale model collector vehicles mostly of classic French automobiles in 1:43 scale. The acronym was seen on packaging without the periods between the letters of the acronym, but on some of the vehicle bases with the punctuation. "J.M.K." was a further acronym that stood for the three founding members of the company: M. Jarry, Henri Malartre and M. Koch. Though the models were often known simply as RAMI, the full name of the company was RAMI by J.M.K.
The Jardin d'Acclimatation railway is a 500 mm minimum gauge park railway, located in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It was opened in 1878 and connects Porte Maillot and the Jardin d'Acclimatation, 800 meters apart. It was the first passenger-carrying narrow gauge railway of France.
The Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, erroneously called Porsche P1, is an electric vehicle built by Egger-Lohner. It is the first vehicle that Ferdinand Porsche somewhat contributed to. The vehicle resembles a horse-drawn carriage with an electrical motor attached to it. Approximately 4 were built.
The Kia Niro is a compact crossover SUV (C-segment) manufactured by Kia since 2016. It is an electrification-focused vehicle, offering three versions: hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric variants.
The LEVC TX is a purpose-built hackney carriage manufactured by the British commercial vehicle maker London EV Company (LEVC), a subsidiary of the Chinese carmaker Geely. It is the latest in a succession of purpose-built hackney carriages produced by LEVC and various predecessor entities. The LEVC TX is a plug-in hybrid range-extender electric vehicle.
The Bersey Electric Cab was an early electric-powered vehicle and the first electric taxi cab in London. Developed by Walter Bersey, the vehicles reportedly had a top speed of 12 mph (19 km/h) and could carry two passengers. An initial service of 12 cabs began on 19 August 1897 and a total of 77 were built, with a maximum of 75 in service at once. They were initially popular and were nicknamed "hummingbirds" for the sound they made and their distinctive livery. The vehicles suffered badly from wear in service owing to their heavy weight. This damaged the batteries and tyres, which were expensive to replace, and made their operation unprofitable. The cabs were withdrawn in August 1899 and electric cabs did not return to the streets of London until the Nissan Dynamo was introduced in October 2019.
Walter Charles Bersey was a British electrical engineer who developed electric-driven vehicles in the late 19th-century. He developed a new form of dry battery that enabled him to build, in 1888, an electric bus that he ran successfully for at least 3,000 miles (4,800 km). In March 1894 he built an electric parcel van that was used in central London and later developed electric private cars. Bersey also developed an electric cab design, 75 of which were built and used by the London Electrical Cab Company to run a service between 1897 and 1899. They were not financially successful owing to noise and vibration leading to excessive damage to tyres and batteries. In his later career Bersey developed designs for internal combustion engine cars and during the First World War served with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force.
