{"id":418,"date":"2011-04-28T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T21:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2012-11-28T02:31:18","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T10:31:18","slug":"in-1899-ninety-percent-of-new-york-citys-taxi-cabs-were-electric-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/in-1899-ninety-percent-of-new-york-citys-taxi-cabs-were-electric-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1899 Ninety Percent of New York City\u2019s Taxi Cabs Were Electric Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Edison<\/a>Today I found out<\/a> in 1899 ninety percent of New York City’s taxi cabs were electric vehicles.\u00a0 This fleet of electric cars was built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia.\u00a0 Not only that, but in 1899 and 1900, electric cars outsold all other types of cars, such as gas and steam powered vehicles.\u00a0 In 1902 an electric car, the Baker Torpedo, became the first car to have an aerodynamic body that enclosed both the driver and the platform.\u00a0 This car at one point reached 80 mph in a speed test before crashing and killing two spectators.\u00a0 It was later clocked as high as 120 mph, but with spectators not invited this time. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Electric cars got their start in the early 1800s.\u00a0 Early efforts were more or less “proof of concept” inventions with limited speed and range as well as using non-rechargeable batteries.\u00a0\u00a0 However, in 1842, two inventors separately created the first practical electric cars with rechargeable batteries.\u00a0 The inventors were American, Thomas Davenport, and a Scotsman, Robert Davidson.\u00a0 Over time, improvements were made by various inventors, improving charge capacity of the cars, making better electric motors, and things of this nature.<\/p>\n

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What really eventually\u00a0 jump started the popularity of electric cars was in 1880 when Thomas Edison was awarded the patent for the carbon filament vacuum tube (a practical light bulb).\u00a0 As these light bulbs became increasingly popular over the next couple decades, so did the widespread distribution of electricity, providing the infrastructure needed for the electric car to be viable for the general public.<\/p>\n

At the time, the advantages of the electric car over the other popular types (gas and steam) were significant.\u00a0 The electric cars had no vibrations from the engine and were extremely quiet compared to its competitors.\u00a0 They also didn’t emit smoke or backfire frequently as did gas powered cars.\u00a0 They were also ready to go right when you sat in the car, unlike gas powered cars that needed to be cranked by hand to start; this was not only difficult, but also could be dangerous.<\/p>\n

Steam powered cars, on the other hand, at the time took up to 45 minutes to get going on cold days.\u00a0 The other large advantage with electric cars was not having to change gears, which was a hard thing to do in early cars, but something that wasn’t necessary in electric cars. \u00a0\u00a0 The only real advantage that gas powered cars had at this time were the long ranges they were capable of with larger tanks and the ability to fill up quickly when the tank was empty.\u00a0 However, because at the time there weren’t a lot of well developed roads for cars to drive on safely, most people only drove cars in cities anyways, rarely traveling long distances for normal usage of cars.<\/p>\n

Notable popular electric cars of the early 1900s were the:<\/p>\n