HISTORY * UK - Electrobuses
What is this that roareth thus? = A cautionary technological tale from the pastLondon,UK -Economist -July 10th 2007: -- On Monday July 15th 1907 an unusual bus picked up its first passengers at London's Victoria Station before gliding smoothly off to Liverpool Street. It was the beginning of what was then the world's biggest trial of battery-powered buses. The London Electrobus Company had high hopes that this quiet and fume-free form of transport would replace the horse. At its peak, the company had a fleet of 20 buses. But despite being popular with passengers the service collapsed in 1909. The history books imply that the collapse was caused by technical drawbacks and a price war. It was not. The untold story is that the collapse was caused by systematic fraud that set back the cause of battery buses by a hundred years... The London Electrobus Company paid the Electric Vehicle Company more than £31,000 in advance for 50 buses. Only 20 were ever delivered. The buses were extortionately overpriced—each one cost about £300 more than a motor bus... Whether the fraud was truly a tipping point for electric vehicles is, of course, impossible to say. But it is a commonplace of innovation—from railway gauges to semiconductors to software—that the “best” technology is not always the most successful one. Once an industry standard has been established, it is hard to displace. If Lehwess and Martigny had not pulled their scam when they did, modern cities might be an awful lot cleaner than they actually are...
Labels: electrobuses
posted by Unknown @ 10:03 AM
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