Go Back   EcoModder Forum > EcoModding > Fossil Fuel Free
Register Now
 Register Now
 

Reply  Post New Thread
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 08-14-2008, 10:58 AM   #1 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Family friend's 1901 pic: NYC Hotel Bartholdi 20 passenger electric sightseeing bus

I had the chance to drive a 94 year old family friend in my electric car yesterday - her first ride in one. ("It's so quiet!", "It runs only on electricity from the batteries?", "How far can you drive?")

When we got to her home, she pointed to a picture on the wall: "That's my mother riding in an electric car in New York City".



Click for medium size (139 kb); large size (490 kb) of this image.

The story:
Quote:
"This picture was taken in New York in 1901 when my mother Flora Belle Asselstine was visiting her sister Ethel who was a nurse in New York - at National Chemical Bank. They are the two ladies in the second row. Flora Belle on the outside & Ethel beside her."
The picture shows an appropriately named, open 20 passenger (plus driver) sight-seeing bus with what appears to be direct chain drive from an electric motor to the right rear double wheel (solid tires):


Click for medium size (76 kb); large size (310 kb) of this image.


There's what looks like a large battery compartment below the floorboards, between the front & rear wheels.

Written on the side of the bus:
Green Car Sight Seeing Service
B-way & 23rd St.
Hotel Bartholdi
I was surprised to see there's also a swastika painted smack between "B-way" and "23rd St" on the side. Recall that the picture was taken well before the icon was co-opted by the Nazis.

Printed on the back of the photo is a drawing showing the Stock Exchange (Looking North on Broad Street, below Wall Street), the Sailors & Soldiers Memorial (Riverside Drive), and the words:
ALL TOURS START FROM
HOTEL BARTHOLDI
Broadway and Twenty-Third Street
"The Green Cars"
A web search turned up nothing about this vehicle.

Google search of "Hotel Bartholdi"

__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Alt Today
Popular topics

Other popular topics in this forum...

   
Old 08-14-2008, 04:59 PM   #2 (permalink)
EcoModding Apprentice
 
greenitup's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: connecticut
Posts: 129

Truck - '97 Ford Ranger
90 day: 30.32 mpg (US)
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
sweet, where can i get one?
bet it is really slow.
__________________
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2008, 10:33 PM   #3 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
It *was* electric.

An Ottawa EV Association member with better search skills than mine found these:

There is another photo of one like it (same company) at
Connecticut History Online : Item Viewer

and yet another from the fleet at

OLD PHOTO c1915 NYC BARTHOLDI SIGHTSEEING CAR, BROADWAY

also on e-bay look up item # 150245997260
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2008, 10:34 PM   #4 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
greenitup: bet you're right!
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-14-2008, 11:32 PM   #5 (permalink)
EV test pilot
 
bennelson's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 17
Thanked 663 Times in 388 Posts
Great photo and info! Thanks for posting that!


Other bits of info

1. In 1901, there were MORE electric cars than gasoline powered.

2. The first Taxi cab in New York City to get a speeding ticket was electric.

3. The swastika is a very old symbol for good luck and prosperity going back to the Babylonians, only later being used by the Christians in the form of the cross, and later still as the symbol of the National Socialist party. (rotated 1/8 turn from the version you see on the car)

4. I love that it says "Green" right on this electric car!
__________________


300mpg.org Learn how to BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR CHEAP
My YouTube Videos
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2008, 12:01 AM   #6 (permalink)
Depends on the Day
 
RH77's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Kansas City Area
Posts: 1,761

Teggy - '98 Acura Integra LS
Sports Cars
90 day: 32.74 mpg (US)

IMA - '10 Honda Insight EX
Team Honda
90 day: 34.76 mpg (US)

Tessie - '06 Acura TSX Base
90 day: 28.2 mpg (US)
Thanks: 31
Thanked 41 Times in 35 Posts
You can't put a price on "living history". I bet she has seen some changes over the years.

Mr. Nelson is correct -- for example, the first LA Auto Show (1907) featured several electrics.

But on the West Coast (and Cambridge, Mass) in North America, you'll often find the latest generation of those electric buses -- just with a couple tethers...

Called "Trolleybuses", the twin cantilever design allows lane changes, turns, and superior propulsion in hilly terrain.


San Francisco Electric Bus and Cable System

Several years ago, I had a chance to ride a similar bus in San Francisco. What a quiet ride, and super clean. It did require the driver to reset the cantilevers using a the rope/pulley mechanism when one pulled loose. Otherwise, slick and regenerative.

Most older folks will tell stories of riding the "streetcar". Many cities had these but sadly were tossed aside for vehicle lanes. Toronto still has a nice line (I also had the chance to ride one a few years ago)


A classic, restored 1920 Toronto electric streetcar

Light rail has replaced some, but many cities like mine gave up on efficient mass transit decades ago...

RH77
__________________
“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research” ― Albert Einstein

_
_
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2008, 12:08 AM   #7 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 27

Ghost Prius - '08 Toyota Prius Package 2
90 day: 54.08 mpg (US)
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Wow, Athens, Greece has those tether buses in downtown. Smooth and quiet
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2008, 12:42 AM   #8 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Earth
Posts: 5,209
Thanks: 225
Thanked 811 Times in 594 Posts
Lots of European cities use the overhead electric bus systems. Used to ride one occasionally when I lived in Lausanne (near Geneva, Switzerland). The entire Swiss railway system runs the same way, too.
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2008, 08:01 AM   #9 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Good reminder, Rick. When I was a kid, Toronto still had its electric trolley buses, but they're gone now. I remember riding on a couple of them, and remember the driver needing to get out and reset the tethers once in a while when they popped off the wires. Ridden on the streetcar lots - used to live very close to the Queen Street line.
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-15-2008, 08:08 AM   #10 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts


Gallery: Transit Toronto - Content: The Toronto Trolley Bus Photo Gallery

Hmmm - wonder if I could get a set of tethers to get the ForkenSwift on the Queen St line...

__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Reply  Post New Thread


Thread Tools




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com