That is really cool! This one was owned by Lillian Reeves. There is a lot of argument around the first electrical car, technically the first, even though it wasn’t practical was a Scottish inventor named Robert Davidson in 1839 who made an electric powered carriage.

I’m all for the bug based diet.

It’s a damn shame we didn’t have the foresight. But that could be said about so many things. Best thing we can do is move forward responsibly with the knowledge we have now. Unfortunately the greedy few will always prioritize their pockets over the well-being of the planet and it’s inhabitants. That’s the true fight.

While the means of storing energy has changed dramatically since that time, a DC battery is still a DC battery so aesthetically there will never really be much of a difference I suppose. 6V’s is the same power wether it comes from lead acid or lithium.

These batteries are old, but are not original as the car was used in shows and demonstrations for quite awhile before retiring here.

Originally they were manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio but the company moved to Massachusetts in 1920.

That is a fantastic point and also heavily influenced it I’m sure.

I work at a Victorian home museum and we have this Rauch & Lang electric car from 1922. It was powered by 14 DC batteries and had a top speed of about 25 mph. It was marketed as a “women’s car” and was driven from the backseat with a tiller. Everyone considers electric vehicles to be futuristic but shortly after the turn of the century, there were more electric vehicles on the road than internal combustion vehicles. Gas powered cars obviously took off though due to them being cheaper and easier to manufacture, as well as their being more money to be made in fossil fuels in general.