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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 9/20/23: Shoulda Gone Electric [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-20
130 years ago today, the Duryea brothers cranked up the first gas-powered car. Charles & Frank were, like the Wright brothers, initially bicycle makers.
On September 21, 1893, the Duryea brothers road-tested the first-ever, working American gasoline-powered automobile on the Howard Bemis farm in Chicopee, Massachusetts.[5] The Duryea's "motor wagon" was a used horse drawn buggy that the brothers had purchased for $70 and into which they had installed a 4 HP, single cylinder gasoline engine. The car (buggy) had a friction transmission, spray carburetor and low tension ignition.[6] Frank Duryea test drove it again on November 10[6] — this time in a prominent location: past their garage at 47 Taylor Street in Springfield. The next day it was reported[6] by The Republican newspaper with great fanfare.[4] This particular car was put into storage in 1894 and stayed there until 1920, when it was rescued by a former Duryea engineer Inglis M. Uppercu[7] and presented to the United States National Museum.[6]
They started building cars and made pretty good money. Of course, people didn’t know how to drive back then.
A Duryea car was involved in America's first known auto accident.[14] New York City motorist Henry Wells hit a bicyclist with his new Duryea. The rider suffered a broken leg, Wells spent a night in jail and the nation's first traffic accident was recorded.[14] In 1913, George Vanderbilt purchased and drove a Stevens-Duryea, but was one of few people in the United States who could afford one. His 1913 Duryea is Vanderbilt's only original car kept at his Biltmore Estate.[15] Duryea ceased manufacturing in 1917.[12]
The rest is history. It also began a series of events that necessitated this 126 years to the day later.
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