English-born American actress Julia Marlowe and her dog try out the Columbia Electric Coach, circa 1910.
—————————————————-
Electric Coach Columbia USA
—————————————————-
1899 44-cell battery 2 bhp/1.49 kW unknown 15 mph/24 kph
“By 1899, the statistics of the Columbia Automobile Company of Hartford, Connecticut, were bold enough even before they began mass-producing one of the first American electric cars. The factory was spread under an enormous 17-acre (68,800 sq m) roof, and the company employed in excess of 10,000 people. In 1898 it produced America’s first chainless bicycle, and in 1899 it was producing hundreds of cars a year at a time when most carmakers in the United State were making only dozens.
The Columbia Electric Coach was powered by four sets of batteries — totaling forty-four cells — that produced almost 2 bhp (1.49 kW) and offered a range of about 30 miles (48 km). But for those who could afford it, the novelty of not having to walk or take a buggy proved irresistible. The coachwork was not unlike that of a traditional horse-drawn stagecoach, with similar joints and methods of reinforcement, a healthy lacquered oak frame, and goatskin upholstery. The vehicle’s most exceptional feature, however, was its rubber pneumatic tires, capable of running for 3,500 miles (5,633 km) on every change, and even more “if the roads are good and free from mud.”
Columbia Electric Coaches were sold to the New York City Transit Authority for transporting dignitaries from Grand Central Station to offices throughout Manhattan.
Company brochures promised costumes a vehicle as close to perfection as the time would allow: “No consideration of the cost of production,” it read, “has been permitted to interfere with making perfect every part and piece of every model.” In 2011 one of the surviving “perfect” Columbia Electrics sold at auction in the United States for $550,000 (£354,300).” BS
————————————————————————
#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001andmore #1transcribedtext #repo_sts
Site1001beforeyoudiecollection 