Arnold Bennett clearly liked electric cars. They must have been the coming thing and maybe they were also seen as a hint that the machine age could produce more than dark satanic mills. Here are a few quotes.
Advantages.
Richard’s car ran through the cutting — it was electrical, odourless, and almost noiseless.
Mounting
He crept back to his own car, found it unharmed in the deep shadow where he had left it, and mounted.
Dismounting
Richard directed the car gently through the gate and then stopped; they dismounted, and crossed the great field on foot.
Range
This vehicle, new and in beautiful order, and charged for a journey of a hundred and twenty miles, travelled in the most unexceptionable manner. The two and a half miles to the North-Western station at Dunstable were traversed in precisely five minutes, in spite of the fact that the distance included a full mile of climbing.
Teresa of Watling Street (1904)
Intimacy
The electric brougham was waiting. I gathered up my skirt and sprang in.
Oh, the exquisite dark intimacy of the interior of that smooth-rolling brougham!
Sacred and Profane Love (1905)
Notice the reference to a range of a hundred and twenty miles. There are a number of explanations as to why electric cars were ousted by the internal combustion engine after an auspicious start, but are any of them satisfactory?
All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.
No comments:
Post a Comment