Amedee Bollee Sr. inherited a bell foundry in Le Mans France. Working with his foundry machine shop, he built several steam carriages that were remarkable in their craftsmanship. His 1873 steam carriage L'Obeissante (the Obedient One) had a roof with windows and curtains, sat 12 passengers, had a cruising speed of 30 km/ hr, and a top speed of 40 km/hr. It burned coal to fire the steam boiler, and used 50 kilos of coal per hour. It was built very solid, and weighed in at 5 tons!!
It’s great that more people are focusing on making better environmental choices. Plus technology is making it more economical now, and that’s what people really notice. Wind energy, solar power, hybrids and zap EV’s, our choices are good. There are now electric cars being sold everyday, you just plug it into a regular power outlet. When people test drive them they say it’s far more fun to drive an EV.
Posted by: Web | March 24, 2008 at 05:41 PM
Does anyone what happened to the company Enginion? They were a spinoff from Volkswagon. the auto industry was not ready for their steam engine, so they were going to use it for a stationary auxilary power plant. That was 3 or 4 years ago and I have not heard anything more.
Posted by: Tim Conner | October 07, 2009 at 08:05 PM