Vintage dealerships

That’s slightly racist. I’ve seen a lot of Muslim repair shops but never a dealership

 

What an amazing time period. It strikes me sometimes just how revolutionary the internal combustion engine was.
In just a few short years it went from a novelty to powering automobiles to tractors and everything in between. I wonder if we will ever witness anything like this (transportation wise) again?

 

I think motors had been around a good while before being applied to automobiles. Industrial revolution began sometime in the late 1700’s. It wasn’t until a good 100 + years later that SOME automobile inventors began using internal combustion engines. There were lots of steam and electric cars too. Here’s a fun fact: some time in the 1890’s Paris had some 2-300 electric taxi cabs. The model t wasn’t made until 20 or so years later. I feel that the electric car is going to take over and the internal combustion will be ancient history. But I do think that your right in the sense that the automobile itself no matter what the power source has had a major affect on transportation and it’s hard to imagine anything that could replace it.

 

That's all true Grizz.
I think that it's hilarious that folks these days think the electric car is a "new" thing.

I didn't articulate my thought very well, I suppose in an attempt not to be long-winded. To clarify, I think it is amazing that in a very short period of time Humanity went from mostly horse drawn transportation for individuals and for most farm work to gas powered transportation and farm machinery. Yes steam and electric power were available, mostly for mass transit, for years and gas engines were around long before they were ever placed in an automobile. But when the gas engines took hold as a very real, very viable option it changed the world. It must have been astonishing to see farming and personal transportation change from the way it had been for thousands of years to what has become the new normal in a very, very short time span.

An individual could have been looking at the Ford Agency, seeing all of the motorcars and tractors and remember a recent time in their life when those things didn't even exist. That's what I find fascinating. I know there will continue to be advances in technology and that as time goes on the time between advancements gets shorter and shorter. But I can't even imagine a scenario where we experience such a dramatic, revolutionary change as when the world transitioned from horses to engines.

As far as electric cars taking over goes, I'd say don't believe the hype.
I doubt I will see electric cars replace gasoline powered cars in my lifetime. The infrastructure doesn't exist to support it and the US government can't afford to create the infrastructure. That right there will keep it from happening.
Battery life will improve, the distance you can travel on a single charge will improve, the amount of time it takes to charge an electric car will improve. Everything about electric cars themselves will improve, but the infrastructure wont. They'll continue to be a novelty and will have a niche, but won't ever be considered a replacement for internal combustion.
Just my two cents.

 

I beg your pardon.
An entirely electric-powered vehicle seems impractical. Especially, when the vehicle isn't getting heated in winter with combustion waste, rather than battery energy which is otherwise rationed for propulsion.
However, hybrids consisting of combustion engines of some type, running on a variety of fuels which include deepfryer oil and woodgas combined with an electric- generator and motor could be the best way out. In that case, the electric motors could be switched to windfall generator mode for simultaneous battery-charging through braking

 

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/overview-of-early-electric-cars.html