Originally Posted by Beav
I didn't realize cars had enough mojo to go-go and generate enough electricity to provide heat at the same time at that early date. Wouldn't it have been simpler to pipe the exhaust through a cast iron heat exchanger? They didn't have electric lights (acetylene lamps were high tech then) and the electric starter didn't show up until the 1912 Cadillac. I wonder why they chose electricity when there was no other use for it on a car then?
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The first electric head and tail lamps were introduced on the 1898 Columbia Electric Car.

a Columbia Mark LX (1904) electric runabout was made by the Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, Connecticut. That company had its roots in the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company and the Pope Motor Carriage Company, part of the Pope Manufacturing Company, a successful bicycle manufacturer. Pope, like a number of other bicycle manufacturers, got into the car business in the late 1890s.



Err.... hmmm.... quick history overview of electric cars:

A brief history of electric cars
Story and photo by Bill Vance
Read whole article: http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/bv/electric.htm

Self-contained electric vehicles (powered by on-board batteries, not overhead wires) ran as early as the 1830s. Thomas Davenport, a Brandon, Vermont blacksmith, built and operated a small electric vehicle in about 1834. In 1839 Scotsman Robert Davidson built an electric locomotive and operated it successfully, before it was destroyed by Luddite steam locomotive engineers.

The emergence of the automobile at the turn of the century saw three power sources vying for supremacy: the external combustion steam engine; the battery powered electric motor; and the internal combustion gasoline engine. Steam, with the longest history, held some 40 percent of the U.S. car market in 1900.

Electricity, however, had a very promising position with sales almost equal to steam's, dominated by the Columbia car out of Hartford, Connecticut. Others included the Indianapolis-built Waverley. Gasoline held the remaining 20 percent.

The three were quite different. Steamers were powerful and fast, but needed time to generate steam, and required a skilled operator. Gasoline engines were still cranky, temperamental and noisy. The electric, however, was silent and simple to drive, making it a particular favourite with women.

Automobile type electrics had arrived at about the same time as gasoline powered cars. Philip Pratt of Boston demonstrated an electrically powered three-wheel carriage in 1888.

Canada came quite early to the electric scene; its first electric automobile was constructed in Toronto in 1893 for patent attorney Frederick Featherstonhaugh. Designed by transplanted English electrician William Still, and built by carriage maker John Dixon, it was displayed at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition in 1893, and was used for many years by Mr. Featherstonhaugh as his personal transportation.

Electrics distinguished themselves in early speed contests. In a French hillclimb in 1898 an electric entered by Belgian, Camille Jenatzy averaged 18 mph (29 km/h), beating 56 gasoline and steam cars over the 1.8 km (1.1 mile) route.

This led to fierce competition between Jenatzy and another electric car driver, Count de Chasseloup-Laubat of France. It resulted in an electric car setting the world's first land speed record, established by Chasseloup-Laubat's Jeantaud electric at 39.3 mph (63.3 km/h) on December 18, 1898.

Jenatzy and Chasseloup-Laubat met in a challenge race on January 17, 1899. Jenatzy achieved a speed of 41.4 mph (66.6 km/h), briefly setting a new record, until Chasseloup-Laubat upped it to 43.7 (70.4). Jenatzy and Chasseloup-Laubat traded the record back and forth until Jenatzy's bullet-shaped electric finally triumphed with a mark of 65.8 mph (106 km/h) in Nice, France on March 29, 1899. It was the first car to cover a mile in under one minute....