Andrew Carnegie’s Electric Cars

[n2doc]

By RICHARD S. CHANG
You might’ve missed it, but a couple of weeks ago Christopher Gray wrote a really wonderful story in Streetscapes about the former Manhattan garages of several wealthy Americans. One of them was Andrew Carnegie.

While Carnegie’s home was at 91st Street and Fifth Avenue (now the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum), his three-level Georgian-style “automobile house” (as it is described in the building application) was at 55 East 90th Street.

“Designed by Whitfield & King, the completed garage had space for five electric cars, with three charging panels, and a lift at the rear to allow the removal and replacement of the batteries,” wrote Mr. Gray. “The 1910 census found eight people living there, including a footman and four chauffeurs. Five of the eight were of Scottish birth, like Carnegie, and one of these was 26-year-old James Hill.”

ive electric cars. Mr. Gray left it at that — the story was about the garages — but I couldn’t. I wanted to find out more about the cars and the charge stations. Which led me to this book: “Garages and Motor Boat Houses,” by William Phillips Comstock. In the chapter Private City Garages, Mr. Comstock describes Carnegie’s garage in a bit more detail:


At the front of the building on the right of the main entrance door is a telephone alcove and the desk of the chauffeur in charge. On the opposite side of the entrance is a vestibule leading to the stairs. The entire floor is paved throughout with white vitrified tiles and the walls are lined to the ceiling with semi glazed brick. The charging room is at the rear of this floor and is shut off from the main room by a fire wall and sliding door. At the rear of this another door opens into the yard. The charging room contains a working pit and a hydraulic lift for removing batteries from the vehicles. In this room there are two battery charging switchboards with accompanying rheostats. There is another charging switchboard located in the storage room near the washing stand so that vehicles may be charged and cleaned at the same time.


more:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/andrew-carnegies-electric-cars/

[RandomThoughts]

1. In 1910?

Might be a history rewrite. Could be untrue.

If it is true, then I would ask why did he not push the tech forward. The only answer is that the last 100 years of pollution from automobiles was of no concern. Nor was the logical conclusion that oil would eventually run out.

Reading quickly on Andrew Carnegie, and from memory of other things read, I can agree the guy did some good things, his support for libraries, and building the railroad infrastructure was important.

However even a person that gives all there fortunes to charity still poses a question for society. Should the charitable contributions of society be decided by a few individuals or a larger number of society through representative system, or some mix of both.

[n2doc]

2. Electric cars were part of the mix back then

However, battery tech wasn't good enough to provide the distance that people needed for them to be useful. And then Ford's model T brought the price down and killed off the non-internal combustion alternatives. We can look back with 20/20 hindsight and say we should have done more to progress battery tech, but jeez, we had no idea about climate change, the greenhouse effect, carcinogens, etc in 1910! Gas was cheap and seemingly inexhaustable, pollution controls were nil, and the world appeared much larger than we see it today.


Carnegie was an interesting man. Did many good things, did many bad things.

[RandomThoughts]

3. I agree with your post.

Although the tone of the article, although it might have just been my view of it, was that they were some how saying he was pro electric car before anyone else.

Might have been my bias.

[n2doc]

4. I think you're right

I suspect Carnegie saw these things as toys, and had the money to make a really nice toyhouse to put them in. They did have the advantage of being quiet and non stinky. Probably just the thing to impress the other opera goers in 1910....

[pnorman]

5. Electric cars would be critically dependent on the rechargable battery technology then. No surprise.

Around that time, Edison had a battery (Edison Cell) that was greatly superior to the lead-acid ones. It was Nickel-Iron based, and had an alkaline electrolyte. It was apparently very similar in characteristics to the modern Nickel Cadmium battery. Willard Battery (lead-acid) was alleged to have used monopolistic pressure to keep the Edison battery out of the rapidly expanding personal car market, and that may have helped give the decisive edge to the internal combustion engine.

I recall reading about that many years ago. It sounds about right, but will have to be Googled for confirmation. (Later, not now!)

pnorman

[IDemo]

6. Electric cars were actually pretty popular a century ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/automobiles/05BAKER.html

Jay Leno behind the steering tiller of his 1909 Baker Electric

[RandomThoughts]

7. Well the first subs had battery power, so I guess rechargeable

Batteries were available around that time. And their were fleets of WW1 Subs out in about by 1914. So I guess electric cars back then make sense.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. Electric cars back then were a rich man's hobby

and some of them are still... ie: Tessler

[IDemo]

9. True

The most popular model - The Detroit Electric, cost around 4 times what a Model T went for. Still, they were quite popular with two groups: doctors and women.

Kind of ironic that it was Edison who convinced Ford to continue with gasoline powered cars and forget the electrics.

Now, if I could get a Tesla, or even a Think, for the price of a Detroit Electric..

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

10. TH!NK city is cute