It’s Electric! 1912 C-T Electric Truck
There seems to be an overwhelming misunderstanding within the general public that hybrid and electric vehicle technology is a brand new, never before seen science. While industry leaders such as Elon Musk are revolutionizing the way we see and use electric vehicles, the concept is far from new. Electric vehicles first came into existence during the era of horseless carriages, but were eventually phased out as gasoline vehicles became more reliable. The early electric vehicles did not have long range, and thus were only good for in town use. This 1912 C-T truck was in use by the Curtis Publishing Company from 1912 until 1962 or 1963. Find it here on Craigslist in West Virginia with a $39,900 price tag. Thanks to Bill W. for sending this in!
From the ad, this truck is powered by four “85-Volt, 10-amp GE electric motors, one at each wheel.” Each of these motors produces 16 horsepower for a total of 64 horsepower! Laughable by today’s standards, 64 horsepower was respectable in 1912. The average speed of this truck is 10MPH, but based on period photos it looks like these trucks can haul some weight! There are 9 10-volt batteries weighing a total of 500+/- pounds. According to the ad, “Five (5) modern-day 12-Volt batteries may be substituted for each of the original 5-foot-long units (total: 45) which together produced 90 Volts, and the vehicle may easily be moved using only one, two or three modern 12-volt batteries.”
From the ad, “By daily use of interchangeable batteries, the Curtis Publishing Company kept these trucks in continuous operation from 1912 to 1964. Once the batteries were completely depleted (approximately 10 years), they were then rebuilt versus replaced.” The company used these on a regular basis for paper deliveries and setup relay systems to maximize efficiency. These trucks were configured in a variety of ways so that they could be utilized in various ways.
A plethora of information is provided in the ad, and far too much to list here! The story behind this truck is supported by several vintage photographs like the one above. This is a very unique vehicle with a great history. The fact that these were in use for 50 years straight is amazing in itself, let alone that this one is still functional and mostly in its original condition. Surely something like this will find its way to a collector or a museum, and I think it will bring the asking price as this is a piece of history.
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Comments
That’s quite the history lesson from the seller!
Worlds first C.O.E.? Really interesting truck, all wheel drive with redundancy. really beautiful details, you can see the blending of old carriage era technology with the new ideas. 220 mile range, that is amazing. This is really a Leno car, he would do a great segment on it.
Let’s hope it ends up in a museum. What a swell truck.
220 mile radius, and here we are more than 100 years later and the radius of electric vehicles is still the same…
Not quite, Tesla models go 400 miles and there is new technology that will go 5000 miles on newly designed batteries.
You are drinking the coolaid…….there has been no huge battery breakthrough. Total wishful thinking. There have off course been small improvements in battery technology but no breakthrough. With any luck, the Fed will quit subsidizing Tesla and they will die on the vine. The small improvements have come as a benefit of rare earth minerals that are difficult and expensive to obtain. Not a recipe for a long term soulition.
Tesla is the lower of the big three for government subsidies. I haul their cars and also toured their factory in Freemont CA. Unreal what they are doing.
Actually the same is true for aviation. It took 50 years from the Wright brothers to jet engines. and today’s rockets are still using the basic design from germany’s V2 rockets. Everything is computer controlled these days and more efficient but no big break through in these technologies
Hi Dave Wright nice to hear from you. I think there has been no break through because there is no break through to be had we’re at the end on this matter. However I still think that there are possibilities, I think the tech has been in front of our faces for decades. Why can’t we miniaturize what has been pulling train cars down the tracks for years. I think it is possible to pull a large truck down the road with a small gas or Diesel engine which would power a DC electric generator attached to a DC electric motor attached to a transmission. The trans would allow for a smaller motor both electric and combustion. If you can pull 200 rail cars 1 mile on $10.00 of diesel why not a pickup truck on pennies a mile. I could envision a 1 ton pickup being powered down the road by a 2 cylinder diesel getting a100 miles + pre gallon. JMHO.
Mark S, I am very familiar with that technology and I believe we should continue to research alternatives. Many of my tugs are diesel electric like locomotives. I am a huge Diesel proponent. The thing we forget in many of these equations is every time you change energy you loose some. That is why a perpetual motion machine doesn’t work. So to me, taking mechanical power (an engine) converting it to electrical power (via generator) and back to mechanical (to drive the wheels) seems counter productive. Hydraulics give us about the most efficient method of power transfer (as little as 1% loss) but we haven’t been able to make that work well in anything but industrial equipment. (Maby a hydraulic accumulator?) we need to continue research with new technologies. I frequently have a problem with how it is funded……we have become a grant driven society to a large extent (ie my issue with Tesla). It is way past time for our government to stop choosing winners and losers in the market (Does Solindra come to mind?) and allow the market to do it as it traditionally has. My recintly purchased VW Caddy pickup has been converted from Diesel to Electric, the batteries need replacing but it is cheeper to reconvert it back to the original (50mpg) diesel than buy the batteries. In the 40’s through the 60’s we used a lot of diesel electric in boats primarily because a DC electric motor was simpler to build than a gear that could handle the over 2000 hp engines. With DC, forward to reverse was very easy (just reverse polarity) they went out of favor for a few decades but most new cruise ships now use it again. The electronic switch gear has improved the reliability and reduced the maintenance required in practical operation. Everything old is new again……..just like this old truck. Nice to talk to you again Mark.
220 miles seems pretty suspect. I doubt it. But consider that this truck was very slow. That makes a big difference. Now, a Tesla will go 70 mph for more than 300 miles.
Li ion was the breakthrough. (Thanks to development in handheld devices) Development continues. Range keeps going up and cost keeps going down. Not rapidly though.
Wonder if the old batteries are still around or could be scrounged up? I’m assuming these would be nickle-iron “Edison Cells” and may have a chance at being refurbished. In the 90’s when I was living off grid these where highly sought-after for their longevity and ability to be serviced. A friend bought several that where in a ship that had set for over 20yrs, after a weekend of work he had a $5k set of batteries for the price of scrap and fresh electrolyte!
Shouldn’t be that difficult for a determined craftsman to make. A hard rubber box with separated cells, plates, some led contacts. Would be an interesting project.
Electrical horsepower is actually stronger than the same horsepower rating of an internal combustion engine. Cool truck if the ugly modern cab was removed and the truck returned to the original configuration. :-) Terry J
The peak torque of an electric motor is at zero rpm! That’s the main reason Tesla’s do so well at the drag strip, the engine doesn’t need to be cranking up and causing wheel spin while launching.
8 sec 1/4 with Tesla drive train.
I think it rear ended a rail speeder.
Really cool. When you said used until 1963 I was going to call BS, but inside a large wear house or printing opperation this would be perfect. Heck a large auto museum could still use it to move displays around.
I often hear about the “Clean Energy” non polluting wave of the future in electric cars. Can you imagine the pollution that would have existed in land fills if the battery powered electric vehicle had been the standard for the last 100 years?
It would make oil burners seem clean by comparison. :-) Terry J
Electric cars are worse for the environment than combustion engines. Look at the pollution that’s done when they mine rare elements for batteries, and then after 80k miles you’ve to replace batteries. Plugging your car in at the end of the day: where does that energy come from?
I heard that 1st responders are not trusting electric vehicles cause several people got already electrocuted when touching an electric car after a crash.
Wondering why that’s not something the mainstream media reports on….
Whenever I hear about “a story the mainstream media doesn’t cover” my truth alarms go off.
We are a tow company and have done a couple of major accidents with electric cars. I’m still here. LOL!!
@LAB3
and you just believe everything they tell you. The fast majority of the media is so much politically involved and they tell you only what they want you to know. Keep on dreaming LAB3.
Dairyman facts have little to do with belief or what’s loosely termed as truth. Knowing a few things about how electricity works backed up with first hand real world experience such as was already posted in this thread is where my information comes from, not entertainers that endorse my world view.
Here is an 1890 electric truck in the Greenfield Villiage Museum. Dearborn MI.
Info on the 1890 truck.
This (or its twin sister) was in the Car Corral at the AACA Fall Meet in Hershey a few years back.
Just based on what I know about car from years of working on them I can tell you that it is my opinion that the electric car is an environmental lie on more than one level. It starts when it is built to create the battaries has a high impact on the environment that is not there in a conventional car the next environmental impact is when you charge the batteries, which is done by burning coal to turn steam turbines to produce electricity which charges the battaries.how is that better it’s the main cause of acid rain. Lastly there is the problem of disposal since there is no viable use for spent lithium ion batteries they will pile up. Where you going to put them all, breaking them down to their base components is very expensive and not economically viable. There is also the fact that the components needed for lithium ion batteries are not an endless supply. I see that we are on a no stop trip to the electric car and we will finally ditch our internal combustion engines only to find that they were a better method of doing transportation all at the expense of the consumer. Finally the one thing I know about battaries is they lose about 40% of there storage capacity in sub 0 temperatures so countries like Canada will be a negative for electric cars.
The only practical item you listed there is nuclear. Everything else is eyewash only viable because of government intervention and tax schemes. Electric companies are required to pay a “premium” for electricity produced by alternative sources. That is why many alternative plants have been bought up by electric companies and shut down. There power is too expensive. The government requires they buy it and pay the price. Oil is the second most common fluid on earth and we are finding more every day. It needs to be handled cleanly and reserved for use in mobile equipment. Coal needs to be used for power generation where it can also be used cleanly. Simple answers that lefties don’t want to hear. The myth of C02 pollution needs to be quashed as well. C02 is the fuel used by plants to make 02. The co2 levels have been much higher than today when the planet had so much plant growth……it produced the oil and coal that our civilazition is based on.
Sorry Dave, but you are so wrong on so many points. I’m an environmental chemist with decades of experience. But (1) don’t call me a lefty or any of those other prejudice labels and (2) I’ll bow out because this is not a political forum.
Definitely one of the weirder ones. Here’s the saved ad http://www.craigslistadsaver.com/view.php?name=extension295
In today’s News:
In August, it was reported that there were 18 lithium-ion battery “gigafactories” being built or planned around the world.
Now, Tesla has announced that it is going to build a new gigafactory in Shanghai. That’s on top of Tesla’s gigafactory in Nevada and its other facility planned for Buffalo. This makes TWENTY-FOUR such gigafactories being built or planned around the world.