One hundred years ago
IT IS alleged that the problem of apply- ing an electric motor to a wheeled vehi- cle has at last been solved, and that the electric parcels-van which has been driv- ing about the streets of London for the past few days, is not a toy like former electric carriages, but a practical suc- cess. It looks like an ordinary two-horse van without shafts, it is worked by accu- mulators which will drive it for fifty miles without recharge, and it can go any speed up to ten miles an hour. The steering is easy, and the inside is lighted by two electric lamps. The cost is said to be half that of a horse-van of the same size and power. If there is no flaw in these statements, they mean that in a few years there will not be a horse in the streets of London. The result will be good in every way. Not only will loco- motion and transport be cheaper (we shall have sixpenny cab-fares), but the block in the steets will be greatly decreased. The horses take up no less or even more room than the vehicles they draw. For a driving-tour, there will be nothing like an electric trap, for it will never be laid up by a bad stable. Lastly, if the demand for horses is greatly reduced, riding, the healthiest of all exercises, will once more be possible for the "working gentleman."
The Spectator 10 March 1894
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