Petrol pioneers- New Plymouth's first car

Driving a very early car was a real challenge but Taranaki had a doctor who loved challenges. He brought the first petrol driven car to New Plymouth and what a magnificent specimen it was. Two forward gears and one reverse and an engine noise that horses hated.

The year was 1903 and the only wheelies people did were on bikes and horse drawn vehicles. When Dr Leatham drove to town in his horseless carriage horses looked down their noses and snorted. Some people did too.

This week we read the tale of New Plymouth's first car.

Rewind

What do you know about New Zealand's first motor vehicles? Did the events below really happen? You decide by answering true or false. You can check your choices at the end of this week's TreasureLink.
 
It's 1900, the turn of the century.

1. Horses are a luxury for most town people. They are more likely to ride a bicycle.
2. Signposts and roads improve because of the bicycle, not the car.
3. A Wellington man brings the first car to New Zealand but the car scene really takes off in Christchurch because Wellington is a bit hilly.
4. The most popular early cars are British and European made ones.
5. Speed limits for cars are set before New Plymouth gets its first petrol driven car.

Word watch

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose the best meaning, check your answer when you read the story and then find the answers at the end of this week's TreasureLink.

1. reprehensible (a) blameworthy-should be told off or (b) trustworthy
2. fraught with problems (a) filled up with problems or (b) so many problems it's frightening!
3. extinguished (a) snuffed out or (b) dried up
4. a tad hazardous (a) without any real danger or (b) a little bit dangerous
5. skittish horse (a) flighty horse or (b) special breed of horse a little bigger than a Shetland pony
6. humdinger (a) incredibly boring or (b) extraordinary
7. repair kits of gargantuan proportions (a) outdated repair kits or (b) enormous repair kits
8. pneumatic (a) rubber like or (b) filled with air
9. albeit (a) although or (b)  in addition to
10. cantankerous (a) grumpy and bad tempered or (b) aching all over

Bikes really were the big wheelers when cars came on the scene. More people rode bikes than horses. The reason air filled tyres were around was because of bikes and some roads were sealed because of bikes. Bikes were right up there. To have a car in the early 1900s was quite unusual.

Think like an ancestor. It's 1903. Find a good, a bad and an ugly for each form of wheeled transport- the horse drawn carriage, the bike and the weird new cars. (An ugly is something really bad.)

Think, pair and share your ideas.

Just who did invent the car?

Many history books say that the car was invented by either Gottlieb Daimler or Karl Benz. They both invented very successful petrol powered vehicles that looked and worked like the cars we use today.

Petrol engines power cars like this:

1. They use the explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston within a cylinder.
2. The piston's movement turns a crankshaft
3. The crankshaft turns the car wheels via a chain or a drive shaft.

These internal combustion engines can use petrol, diesel or gasoline for their fuel. Daimler and Benz didn't invent the petrol engine but they did improve them.

Look here for a picture of the Benz three wheeler.

So, who would you credit with inventing the car? Daimler and Benz or Nicholas Cugnot? Talk it over with a classmate.

Petrol in, steam out

Read the first part of this week's story and see what has to say about Taranaki's first steam cars.

Steam then was on the way out when the first petrol driven car came to New Plymouth but in 1899 and 1900 they had outsold petrol cars.

Look at the advantages and disadvantages below and then choose the main reason behind petrol cars becoming more popular than steam ones.

Advantages of steam powered cars.

1. They were nearly silent except for a hiss when accelerating.
2. There was hardly any vibration, unlike petrol driven cars.
3. There was no gearbox which made it easy to drive.

Disadvatages of the steam car.

1. Starting a steam car was very complicated. It could take up to 45 minutes.
2. A very careful watch had to kept on the pressure otherwise it would run out of steam on a hill. If that happened it would take 10 minutes to build up speed again.
3. The fuel tank had to be filled about every 30 kilometres so you had to drive near water all the time.

I say, I say, I say!

The article about the new car, written in the Taranaki Herald in October 1903 probably led to a few letters to the editor.

Try writing the last parts of the letters below. One is a negative opinion while the other is more positive.

Dear Sir,
It is a pity that the motor car unloaded on the New Plymouth wharf didn't fall into the sea. Why decent, law abiding townsfolk have to put up with this dirty and dangerous monster is beyond me. Most citizens of our fine young town require nothing more than the humble bicycle though I must say I have been disappointed to see this machine replace the noble horse.

I can only see trouble ahead for the motor car. Women and children could easily…

Dear Sir,
What a wonderful machine the motor car seems to be. The day it takes to the streets of New Plymouth should be celebrated with balloons and bunting. Smelly, flighty horses will be soon be banished to the farms they belong on and our boots will no longer carry the stench of dung.

I can see a day when every family of our fine young town will…

First off the assembly line

A lot of people think Henry Ford invented the assembly line but Ransome Eli Olds did. 425 Curved Dash Oldsmobiles rolled off his assembly line in 1901 and by 1903 this figure jumped to nearly 4,000. New Plymouth's first car was from a Ransome assembly line.

Read First assembly line car and then team up with a classmate to see if you can work out what Henry Ford did to speed up car production on his assembly lines.

When you have done that look here for a picture of Ransome's assembly line and the reason why Henry Ford could produce his cars so much faster.

Adventurous driving hits the headlines

Read Adventurous driving and then check out the headlines below that could have appeared in the Taranaki Herald.

This car was big news so the news reporters must have been on the lookout for some good stories.

Choose one of the headlines and work out some questions the reporter may have asked witnesses to get the story.

Test your questions on a classmate and see if he or she can answer them.

"Exciting but slow," says doctor's passenger

Horseless carriage attacks hills the wrong way around

Horse pulled fire engine needed for horseless carriage

Fine doctor becomes menace in a motor car

Car causes crying over spilt milk

Repair time

Bring your own repair kit tells you about some of the problems with these old cars.

Read on and then see if it really took more time then to repair a puncture than it does now. Estimate the time it would take you for each of the eight tasks below then add the times to get a total.

The Oldsmobile

1. Jack up the car.
2. Remove the wheel.
3. Find the puncture.
4. Find the right sized plug.
5. Plug the hole.
6. Pump up the tyre.
7. Attach the wheel.
8. Lower the car.

A car today

1. Remove the spare wheel from where it is stored.
2. Jack up the car.
3. Remove the wheel.
4. Attach the spare.
5. Lower the car.
6. Drive to a garage or tyre centre.
7. Wait for repair of spare wheel.
8. Pay for the repair job.

Compare speeds

Finish the story now by reading A new car, a new record.

Six and a half hour for a drive around the mountain wasn't too bad because the roads were not sealed and the driver had to fix his own punctures.

Let's say they took the long route from New Plymouth to Hawera and back to New Plymouth via Stratford and Inglewood. That's about 160 kilometres.

Work out the average speed for the trip if it took 6.5 hours.

Work out how long the same trip would take today at an average speed of 70kph.

(You have to slow to 50kph when you come to towns so you can't average 100kph.You might have to slow for the odd herd of cows as well.)

Road rules 1904

There were some road rules by the time Dr Leatham's car came to New Plymouth but not very many. In 1902 Parliament passed rules about speed and driving in the dark.  At the same time a new law was made about storing petrol.

What if you were the Minister in charge of new road rules in the early days of cars? Try this with a classmate. Make up a 1904 road rule for each of the problems below.

1. Horses are getting jumpy every time a car drives by.
2. Brakes on cars don't seem to be very reliable.
3. There have been five accidents at the crossroads in Devon Street in the last month.
4. Cars are cutting up winter roads and making them difficult for cyclists to ride on.
5. There have been several near misses outside schools because children have misjudged the car's speed when crossing the road.

Fast forward to today

Hybrid cars today are a little bit like the cars that first came to New Plymouth.

Back then:

1. Not many people had one.
2. Most people moved around in or on something else.
3. They were very expensive.
4. People were starting to think they might own one, one day.
5. The technology was brand new.
6. People were not used to them.

So what is a Hybrid?

It's any vehicle that combines two types of power. The mo-ped bike combines the power of a petrol engine with pedal power. The hybrid car combines the power of a petrol engine and electric power.

Hybrid cars are powered by internal combustion engines but also have batteries that are recharged while driving. They have an electric motor to assist with power.

Look here for a diagram of a petrol powered car and another of an electric car. Use your mouse to see how they work and then move to the next page for a diagram of a hybrid.

Fascinating facts

1. 81% more hybrid cars were sold in the USA this year compared to last year.
2. 17 million new cars were sold in the US last year but only 1% were hybrids.
3. The big car makers like Honda and Toyota plan to make about twelve different models of hybrids over the next few years.