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Horse-drawn Cars to Electric Cars: Transportation of Tomorrow

Horse-drawn Cars to Electric Cars: Transportation of Tomorrow

In the 1890s, the major cities of the Western world faced a major problem. Horse-drawn carriages have been used in these cities for thousands of years.
 
It was difficult to imagine life without them. But as the number of horse-drawn carriages increased in the late nineteenth century, the problem of horse use in densely populated cities became more apparent.

It was impossible not to notice the pile of horses dung especially on the streets as well as the stench. By the 1890s, an estimated 300,000 horses were working on the streets of London, with more than 1.5 million in New York City.
 
Each horse used to make an average of 10 kg of dung daily as well as approximately 10 liters of urine. The work of collecting and removing thousands of tonnes of waste from stables and roads becomes increasingly difficult at an increased rate.

The problem had been brewing for decades. In 1857, the editor of a New York newspaper said, "Except for a few ways, all the other roads are filled with stinking, annoying stench. Somewhere the horse waste is accumulating so high that it has become almost impossible to cross the car."

In addition to filling the atmosphere with a foul smell, the excessive horse's veins turn the road into a muddy mall when it rains.

An eyewitness in London in the 1890s described the "mud" (a favorite analogy of the super-Victorians) as one of the city's main street strands because of the thick pea soup.

If the spray-trousers or skirts had not been interrupted by the speeding car, it would have been placed directly in front of the house and shop opposite the pavement. Dung collected from the road was piled up in scattered dumps in different cities and towns. The huge mounds of rivers around the stables provide an attractive environment for flies.

All this was detrimental to public health. The New York Times reported in 1894 that New York City health statisticians had noticed an increase in the number of infectious diseases "in homes and schools within 50 feet of stables rather than in remote areas." Towards the end of the century, 20,000 New Yorkers are said to have died of "dust-floating diseases" every year.

Being dependent on horses is a clear sign of health risks. To make matters worse, if the horses died due to overwork, the carcasses would often be left on the road for several days and then removed after cutting. This would have increased the health risks. In the 1808s, 15,000 dead horses were removed from New York City each year.

Ironically, the problem of steam locomotives and intercity railway connectivity indicated in the 1830s makes the problem even more dangerous. 

More and more horse-drawn vehicles are needed as faster and more efficient transport systems demand faster transportation of people and goods within different cities. 'Our dependence on horses has increased with a reliance on steam power,' noted an observer in 1872. 

The result is more horses, more dung, and continued deteriorating traffic jams. In 1870, an observer wrote that Manhattan's Broadway day became "almost inaccessible" sometimes. When the carriage comes to a standstill, the horse's metal hoof and steel-edge wheels are locked in the ears on the bumpy path.

Many times outside the hospital they tried to reduce the noise by sprinkling hay in front of the horse carriages.

Pollution, clutter, and noise were actually manifestations of deeper fearlessness. When all horses and mules became paralyzed in 1872 in North America due to a form of horse flu, it became a clear reminder of society's dependence on animal power.

The New York Times reported that trucks, vans, express wagons, and ordinary cars' had disappeared from the streets. "The sudden demise of the ongoing epidemic of horse labor has brought our society and business to the brink of a shocking reality of complete disarray," the Nation noted.

In the context of horses and stables, the magazine mentions, "The wheel of our great social system, it's coming to a halt, means the loss of all classes of people, trade, agriculture, business, and social life."

A Detroit electric automobile charging in 1919
A Detroit electric automobile charging in 1919

Nevertheless, societies on both sides of the Atlantic Sea were becoming dependent on horses. Between 1870-1900, the number of horses in American cities quadrupled. On the other hand, the population increases almost double. 

At the beginning of the century, there was only one horse for every 10 people in Britain, while in the United States there was one in four. People's food production land was reduced as oats and straw had to be cultivated in large areas to feed horses. 

A total of one-third of cultivable land was needed to feed 20 million horses in the United States, while Britain's 3.5 million horses were dependent on straw imported long ago.

Horses become essential and unstable on one side. The solution was clear in the eyes of newly emerged techies: to bring a self-propelling motor vehicle known as a horseless carriage slot instead of horses. Today we call them cars.

In recent years, this change has been cited as an example of the power of innovation and the coming out of easy technical solutions to unsolved problems in times of need. So there is no reason to worry about climate change. 

This should be seen as a cautionary tale in other areas: what seems to be an immediate solution today could lead to far-reaching and unexplored consequences tomorrow. 

The car unexpectedly changed the world, from the geographical conditions of different cities to changing oil geopolitics and creating its own problems, as it might seem, was not a perfect and timely technical solution.

There was a lot of excitement about automobiles in the beginning because of the promise to solve problems related to horse-drawn carriages, including noise, traffic jams, and accidents. 

But in every case, the reason for enduring the failure of the car is the pollution, and the most notable of which is the horse's dung, which had blocked the city's roads for hundreds of years. So the car came up with a lot more benefits including removing this waste.

But to solve a kind of environmental problem, the car created a lot of new problems, which gradually became clear. Their radiation pollution is difficult to see in the eyes compared to the horse's river, but not less problematic. 

These include ash-like objects emitted by car smoke: these can penetrate deep into the lungs; Volatile chemical compounds that cause respiratory problems and are associated with several types of cancer; Nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and greenhouse gases, which play a role in climate change, are essentially carbon dioxide. 

Cars, trucks, and buses are collectively making up 17% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The world's dependence on Middle Eastern oil in the 20th century also had a far-reaching geopolitical impact on fossil fuels like petrol and diesel.

None of this could have been predicted at the beginning of the automobile era. Or was it? Some have questioned the reliability of non-renewable fossil fuels to power vehicles and the availability of such fuels. 

Today, renewable-powered electric vehicles are seen as a logical solution to these concerns. But the controversy over the benefits of electric vehicles is as old as the automobile controversy itself. One of the best-selling vehicles in the United States in 1897 was the electric vehicle: the Columbia Motor Carriage of The Pope Manufacturing Company. 

Sales of electric models were outdoing the sales of steam and petrol-powered cars. By 1990, steam vehicles were slightly ahead: 1681 steam vehicles, 1575 electric vehicles, and 936 petrol-powered vehicles were sold that year. 

Petrol-powered vehicles came to the front queue for the first time only after the launch of Olds Motor Works' curved dash Oldsmobile.

Perhaps the story of the short-developed electric taxi cab 'Electrobat' in the 1890s is a remarkable example of how differently the situation can work in electric vehicles: In 1894, two scientist-investors, Pedro Salome and Henry Morris created electrobats in Philadelphia.

Both of them were enthusiastic proponents of electric vehicles. In a speech in 1895, Salome mocked 'numerous chains of gasoline vehicles, belts, pulleys, pipes, valves and stoppers of exceptionally complex driving gear...'Numerous things..., so the possibility of one thing or the other failing cannot be ruled out all the time. '

The two of them repeatedly changed the design to make a carriage-type vehicle. The driver sitting on the back high seat will control it. Passengers will sit on the broad seats in front. 

In 1897, Morris and Salome launched a taxi service in Manhattan with dozens of vehicles and served 1,000 passengers in their first month. But cabs were short-range, taking a lot of time to charge the battery. 

So Morris and Salome merged with another company called Electric Battery Company. In 1884, engineers at a Broadway depot invented a clever battery replacement system to replace empty batteries with fully charged batteries in seconds. This could have allowed the electrobat to run all day.

In 1899, the promising business caught the eye of New York-based politician and financier William Whitney. Whitney, who benefited greatly from investing in electric streetcars or trams, dreamed of establishing a monopoly business in urban transport. 

He imagined providing a cleaner, quieter alternative to horse-drawn cars by operating electric cabs in big cities around the world. Then the people of the city will use electric taxis to move around instead of buying cars that are out of reach. 

But realizing that electrobats had to be built on a bigger scale, Whitney and his friends teamed up with the pope, the maker of the best-selling Columbia Electric Vehicle. They formed a new company called Electric Vehicle Company and joined the ambitious expansion plan. 

THE EVC opened offices in Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, and New Port intending to create thousands of electric cabs. It was the largest short-term institution in the United States in 1899.

Discards from various bike-sharing services in Wuhan, China in 2018
Discards from various bike-sharing services in Wuhan, China in 2018

But the company failed to make money as taxi operations outside New York were badly run. The EVC was widely accused of financial fraud due to repeated restructuring and fresh capital raising. 

A powerful supporter of petrol-powered vehicles, The Horseless Age, an industrial magazine, attacked the company as a would-be monopoly and found electric vehicles bound to fail. The share price fell from $30 to $0.75 in no time when news of the EVC's fraudulent borrowing came out. 

The institute was forced to close regional offices. The Horseless Age enjoys this fall and cheers on the failure to impose electric cars on the 'stupid world'.

In the years that followed, people buy private cars at a higher rate, and electric vehicles get a new status: these are women's cars. This is because they are short-range, local travel-friendly, don't have to change hand cranking or gear to get started.

They were very reliable because of the simple design. In 1910, an ad for The Babbok Electric Vehicles noted, 'There is no fear of women driving a Babbak Electric car.' This meant that women who failed to keep pace with the complexity of driving petrol-powered vehicles should buy electric cars. 

On the contrary, men have been considered skilled mechanics who have a strong, masculine petrol-powered vehicle with superior skills and scales as a joint alternative to greater complexity and less dependence.

In 1912, two manufacturers, Detroit Electric and Waverley Electric demanded that a new design model be launched to meet women's needs. Being an electric vehicle, they were driven from the back seat, the driver used to sit in the opposite seat facing the passengers sitting on the opposite side, but it would have made it difficult to see the road. 

The steering wheel was replaced by an old kevlar tiller. It required less energy but was much less skillful and dangerous.

Henry Ford bought his wife Cara a Detroit electric instead of his own model. A man's choice of a short-range electric vehicle meant that the freedom given to their driver was very limited.

With a small minority of drivers, such as 15% of Los Angeles drivers in 1914 and 5% of Tusan's women, electric vehicle producers were acknowledging their inability to compete with petrol-powered cars in the larger market.

Henry Ford confirmed the construction of a less expensive electric car that year with Thomas Edison. 'So far the problem was the creation of a lightweight storage battery that travels long distances without a recharge,' he told the New York Times, referring to the main weakness of the electric vehicle. 

But the advent of the vehicle was repeatedly delayed as Edison Failed to discover an alternative to the heavy, large-sized lead-acid battery used in electric cars. In the end, the entire project was silently canceled.

The failure of electric cars in the early 20th century and the advent of internal composition engines as a powerful form of propulsion have to do with liquid fuels that provide more energy per single object than lead-acid batteries. 

But the explanation is not entirely technical. And there is also the mind¡side of it. Private car buyers, as they are now, still did not want to think of the limited cover of electric cars and the limitations in the uncertainty of their recharge.

In the words of historian Gees Mom, private cars of this time were mainly considered 'adventure machines' to give their owners the freedom and electric cars gave less freedom than petrol-powered alternatives. 

'Owning a car meant being obsessed with a kind of desire to travel far and wide,' wrote an enthusiastic city dweller in 1903. Electric car sales reached their highest peak in the 1910s. As the internal composition became more dependent on the engine, the electric car was forced to roll in the dust.

But the dramatic rise in car ownership in the 20th century also proved to have other costs of dependence on oil. By the 1960s, average American cars were quarter-and-a-half tons heavier than those made in Europe and Japan. 

Their V-8 engines had twice as much engine power as four-cylinder engines elsewhere. As a result, they ate a lot of oil. A growing portion of this fuel came from imported oil. By 1973, 27% of the total US supply was mainly oil imported from the Middle East.

In December that year, OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) stopped oil exports to the United States in protest against supporting Israel in the Battle of Kippur.

Rationing began as oil prices skyrocketed and petrol prices rose due to the sudden ebb of supply. Long lines appeared at various gas stations.

For the first time, American drivers realize that they can't assume the supply of petrol for sure. The oil shock forced the government to cap the speed limit across the country at 55 miles per hour. In addition, in an energy-efficient economy, U.S. carmakers had to ensure an average fuel saving of 18 miles per hour in 1978 and 27.5 miles in 1985 for their overall products.

But American car manufacturers have not changed their products. In the late 70s, 70% of American-made cars had V-8 engines. In 1979, the second round of oil surges disrupted the supplies from the Middle East. 

This time due to the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Iran-Iraq war barrier snag the following year. Even if the actual production of oil does not come down much, the price rises, it appears to be a terror. This second oil shock incites demand for small cars.

Electric cars may have been expected to take advantage of concerns over the stability of fuel-consuming vehicles.

But electric car technology has not progressed much since the 1920s. The battery remains the biggest problem: The lead-acid battery was still heavy and large, unable to hold more power than per unit weight. 

Newly manufactured Tesla electric cars at the docks in Southampton
Newly manufactured Tesla electric cars at the docks in Southampton

The non-rechargeable battery was powered as the four-wheeled lunar rovers that ran American astronauts on the moon, the most famous electric car of the 1970s, had to work for just a few hours.

Until the advent of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in the 90s, attempts to revive electric cars as commercial products on earth did not see the light of the day.

By 2003, two electric car lovers, Alan Coconi and Tom Gage built a 250-mile-long 250-mile-long car driven by a 6,800 camcorder battery, capable of reaching speeds from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds. Tesla was established to commercialize this technology.

Lithium-ion batteries make changes possible in electric cars, but the change now seems inevitable due to strict restrictions on composition-powered vehicles to tackle the problem of climate change.

Partly, automobiles indicated to deal with pollution have caused another type of pollution: carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

To what extent will the electrification of road vehicles solve the climate issue? Global transportation (including land, sea, and airspace) is responsible for 24% of carbon dioxide emissions due to fossil fuel burning. 

The responsibility for the discharge of road vehicles is 17% for global total pollution. An estimated one-third of these emissions are made mainly from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (such as trucks and buses) and two-thirds from light, petrol-powered vehicles (such as cars and vans).

Thus, the change in electric vehicles will lead to a major cut in global emissions, although the challenge of changing from fossil fuels to large-scale trucks, ships, and planes will remain. 

But it will not eliminate traffic congestion associated with cars, road accidental deaths, or the use of one tonne of vehicles to deliver only one person to the shop.

Just as the rise of automobiles raised concerns about stability and the geopolitical consequences of dependence on oil, electric cars have also raised equal concerns. 

Lithium and cobalt are needed to build batteries and rare earth elements needed to build electric cars have already started raising environmental and geopolitical questions.

There is a supply of lithium but no cobalt. The Republic of Congo is its main source. There, one-fourth of the total production is completed using shovels and torches. 

The condition of the miners is pathetic. The industry has been accused of corruption and the use of child labor. Cobalt is mainly refined in China after being lifted from the mine. 

China again enjoys ownership of the bulk of global lithium-ion battery production as well as controlling the production of Rare Earth Elements.

Geopolitical tensions have already sparked disputes between China and Western countries over the supply of computer chips and related manufacturing equipment. 

So it is not difficult to imagine a difference of opinion on the minerals and parts required for the construction of electric cars. (This is where tesla's agreement with giant mining firm Gencor is explained to keep the cobalt supply running and its own battery factories swayed inside and outside China. Here is also an explanation of the deep sea excavation efforts of various companies as alternatives to cobalt.)

Moreover, history says that despite the change from one type of propulsion to another, it would be clumsy to assume that everything else will remain the same.

When the horse-drawn car was replaced by a car, it didn't happen. Some say it is time to rethink not only the propulsion that strengthens the car but also the idea of car ownership.

The future of urban transport will depend not on specific technologies, but on the mix of a closely woven diverse transport system in smartphone technology. 

Overall, ride-hailing, micromobility, and on-demand-car rentals are giving rise to new ideas to help private cars get benefits, without owning up to a growing part of the journey.

Technology analyst Horace Dediu is referring to 'car freeing' as a cheaper, faster, and more convenient option, gradually weakening the argument for huge car ownership.

The ability to integrate these different modes of transport to create a kind of 'Internet Motion' means that smartphones are the real successors of cars instead of a specific mode of transport. 

The speedy internet is paving the way for escape from the vibrant monoculture in various car-based cities. 

It should be welcomed as it is known that it would be wrong to replace one transport monoculture with another from the experience of the 20th century. The single transport monoculture is less relaxed, its unexplored consequences easily become difficult and make the solution difficult.

With the departure of combustion engines, emissions will no longer be a problem once cars, trains, and other ground transport become electric. (When powered from a zero-carbon grid to renewable energy, electric transport will be truly emission-free.) 

But the transportation system will have other potentially problematic consequences: data. In particular, it will give birth to innumerable data about who went where, when, how, who went with whom. That has already begun to happen.

In a notorious 2012 blog post called Rides of Glory, Uber, let's say, analyzes the behavior of passengers to determine the city and the day in case of a one-night stay. The post created a lot of noise. 

At that time, it was seen as a sign of the unhealthy 'take-bro' culture that existed at Uber. But it's making another big deal. Shared bikes and e-scooters also track who went where and when in the interest of billing.

Companies that run mobility services are passionate about keeping their data to themselves: It helps them estimate their future needs, can be useful in introducing new services, and can be useful in creating profiles of passengers and setting advertising goals. 

Different cities want to track the location and use of shared bicycles and e-scooters to check the resource adjustment of bike lanes, low income, and high-income mohalla usage rates, whether cars are being used in unwanted places. 

So dozens of cities around the world have adopted a system called Mobility Data Specification (MDS). Now MDS is only catering to bicycles and e-scooters, although it can be expanded to ride-hailing, car sharing, and autonomous taxi service cover in the future.

But mobility services and privacy groups are concerned that MDS is allowing different cities to monitor individuals. 

For example, it can give the police a chance to identify individuals who participate in various protests or go somewhere special. 

They are also concerned that the MDS caretaker foundation will not store data safely. It is not difficult to imagine what an authorized ruler can do with such data.

These are about personal mobility becoming a flashpoint of data in the future. This may seem like a serious problem, but the same can be said about the release of carbon dioxide that was similarly present at the beginning of the automobile age. 

And like the people of that time who are using the new mobility service today, they have the opportunity to address such concerns before it is too late.


Author: Shawkat Hossain

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