This is a popular subject on some other forums I am one, so I thought we could try it here.
I will start:
September 24, 1899 Vancouver gets its first car, a Stanley Steamer. It was owned by William Henry Armstrong.
From the Vancouver Sun:
Chuck Davis
Vancouver Sun
Monday, September 24, 2007
Vancouver's first automobile ran on steam. The date was Sept. 24, 1899 -- 108 years ago today -- and the vehicle was a Stanley Steamer.
It was a tiller-steered vehicle, and the motorist was William Henry Armstrong, a Vancouver contractor. (His firm built, among other things, the first Granville Street and Main Street bridges.) Shortly after he got the car, Armstrong took Mayor James Garden for a ride.
"The beautiful horseless carriage," wrote a contemporary reporter, "answered the steering gear to a hair's breadth as with rubber tires it noiselessly rolled along the asphalt with a motor power entirely hidden from view like some graceful animal curving its way in and out of the traffic."
The Stanley Steamer's life was short, but significant. They sold well at first, but gas-powered cars outnumbered them by 1909. They were still making the Steamer in the 1920s, but 1924 was their last year. It would be interesting to know where that 1899 Vancouver car ended up.
Speaking of steam, today is the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Gastown Steam Clock.
OK, what is on for tomorrow?
