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OverviewIn the late 1890s, at the dawn of the automobile era, steam, gasoline, and electric cars all competed to become the dominant automotive technology. By the early 1900s, the battle was over and internal combustion had won. Was the electric car ever a viable competitor? What characteristics of late nineteenth-century American society led to the choice of internal combustion over its steam and electric competitors? And might not other factors, under slightly differing initial conditions, have led to the adoption of one of the other motive powers as the technological standard for the American automobile? David A. Kirsch examines the relationship of technology, society, and environment to choice, policy, and outcome in the history of American transportation. He takes the history of the Electric Vehicle Company as a starting point for a vision of an “alternative” automotive system in which gasoline and electric vehicles would have each been used to supply different kinds of transport services. Kirsch examines both the support—and lack thereof—for electric vehicles by the electric utility industry. Turning to the history of the electric truck, he explores the demise of the idea that different forms of transportation technology might coexist, each in its own distinct sphere of service. A main argument throughout Kirsch’s book is that technological superiority cannot be determined devoid of social context. In the case of the automobile, technological superiority ultimately was located in the hearts and minds of engineers, consumers and drivers; it was not programmed inexorably into the chemical bonds of a gallon of refined petroleum. Finally, Kirsch connects the historic choice of internal combustion over electricity to current debates about the social and environmental impacts of the automobile, the introduction of new hybrid vehicles, and the continuing evolution of the American transportation system. Full Product DetailsAuthor: David A KirschPublisher: Rutgers University Press Imprint: Rutgers University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.539kg ISBN: 9780813528090ISBN 10: 0813528097 Pages: 312 Publication Date: 01 July 2000 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Awaiting stock  The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you. Table of ContentsRescuing the alternatives to internal combustion: large technical systems, technological comptetition, and the burden of history William C. Whitney, Albert A. Pope, Richard W. Meade, and the Electric Vehicle Company: semi-public electric vehicle transportation service, 1897-1912 Central stations and the electric vehicle industry: organizing to support electric vehicles, 1900-1925 The electric truck and the rise and fall of appropriate spheres Infrastructure automobile touring, and the dynamics of automotive systems choice Excursus: the accidents that never happened The burden of history: expectations past and imperfect Technological hybrids and the automobile system: from the electrified gas car to the electrification of the automobile Industrial ecology and the future of the automobile: large-scale technological systems, technological choice, and public policyReviewsAuthor InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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