From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
John Brown's electric gondola: The inventive John Brown, having applied himself to the improvement of Irish roads in the years following his importation of the first car into Ireland in March 1896, had a novel "electric gondola" designed for himself by Professor Maurice F Fitzgerald of Queen's College, Belfast.
The principal aim of the new design was to lower the centre of gravity, achieving a long wheel-base and protection of the mechanism. Construction of the Electric Road Gondola, to give it its full title, was completed in 1902.
The rather strange appearance of this vehicle had the advantage of keeping dirt and dust off the passengers not unappreciated in the road conditions of 1902.
Power was provided by a 4.5 hp electric motor, the current for which was supplied by 42 Fuklman type cells. Two speeds were provided, controlled by magnetic clutches - each speed could be run at high or low, thereby increasing the available speeds to four.
The vertical steering wheel is reminiscent of a ship's wheel and looks in the accompanying photograph to have been adapted from a cycle wheel. Sadly, no record appears to exist regarding the success or otherwise of John Brown's Electric Road Gondola, or indeed its ultimate fate.
Where did they go? To the student of motoring history, the list of car manufacturers that existed in the years up to the first World War is a source of endless fascination. G R Doyle, author of the classic work, The World's Automobiles, calculated that in 1932 there were no fewer than 2,134 manufacturers who had engaged in production! By the time a new edition of the work appeared in 1957 the list had grown to 3,913 for the same period, while he calculated that only 500 were still in production.
So, what became of this vast proliferation of car makers? Many existed for only a short time in the heady days of the car's first flowering. Some never got beyond the production of a few prototypes, but the greatest number fell victim to the harsh economic winds that prevailed after the first World War.
Many had turned to the manufacturing capacity to contract production of munitions or aircraft during the war and had to abandon car production to survive the tardy payment for their war work. Forced to invest in plant and machinery to meet war needs, once the conflict had ended they simply could not sustain their increased overheads while awaiting payment for their wartime labours.
Among the many which failed were some who deserved to succeed. It's striking how many popular makes in the years leading up to 1914 were unable to succeed after the conflict. Some perished on peculiarities of their design which in the evolutionary onrush in the design of the motor car then taking place, they failed to appreciate were no longer what the public wanted. Some were simply over-ambitious and learned that enthusiasm is never a substitute or proper financing.
Still more simply failed to make any significant impact on their intended market at a time when word-of-mouth was the best advertising one could have.
There were but a handful of Irish attempts to start manufacture. Even allowing for the lack of an infrastructure of light engineering firms anywhere other than around the ship-building city of Belfast, this seems extraordinary. Perhaps, we Irish, with but a few notable exceptions, lacked the self-belief to begin such ventures at that time.
First Closed Circuit race: The Circuit des Ardennes was the world's first closed circuit race. Held for the first time in 1902, the year before the Irish Gordon Bennett Race for which this "first" is often claimed in error. A prestigious and often hard-fought test of man and machine, in 1907 Irishmen Moore-Brabazon and Algernon Guinness placed first and third respectively driving Belgian Minerva racing cars.