re: #217 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie

That was a major selling point for electrics back in the horseless carriage days. An IC car had to be cranked to start, which could be downright dangerous if the engine backfired and twisted the crank back on an inattentive driver. They were also cantankerous, smelly, and prone to breakdowns. In the electric, you just turned a switch and drove away. The electric’s range, typically 25 miles, was as much as many IC cars were likely to manage before they broke down. For a while it looked like either one, IC or electric, could become dominant in the future. Then IC technology began to advance by leaps and bounds, while electric remained stagnant for the best part of a hundred years.

My Grandfather, born in 1890 on a Missouri farm and who became an engineer for Massey Ferguson in the 1920’s and 1930’s, mentioned that issue to me at one point.

After living through two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Robber Barons, he did not have a lot of respect for the ruling corporate elite. And his view was that the migration to internal combustion engine rather than all electric was a fix by big oil.