Showing posts with label Cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cars. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, August 12, 1901. Driving up Pikes Peak.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, August 12, 1901. Driving up Pikes Peak.: Driver William B. Felker, Jr. and mechanic Charles A. Yont drove a steam-powered Locomobile along a treacherous road used for horse-drawn ca...

Monday, August 12, 1901. Driving up Pikes Peak.

Driver William B. Felker, Jr. and mechanic Charles A. Yont drove a steam-powered Locomobile along a treacherous road used for horse-drawn carriages, up Pikes Peak, the first people to do so by automobile.

1900 model Locomobile.

No one would attempt this again for the following decade.

Locomobiles were introduced as steam powered cars in 1899.  In 1903 production was switched to internal combustion engines.  The company was purchased by Durant motors in 1922, and production ceased in 1929.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 10, 1901. France out of China.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Not a truck at all. . .


 but just something you don't see that much any more.  Hotrodded bug.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, March 22, 1944. Rationing

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, March 22, 1944. German defeat in the B...: 

Wednesday, March 22, 1944. German defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic.


Sarah Sundin's excellent blog on daily events in World War Two, whose feed updates are no longer working, notes this item:

In US, “A” gas rationing cards (basic passenger car ration) are cut from three gallons per week to two gallons. 





Two gallons per week.

Could you get by on two gallons per week?  Most days I drive a 1/4 ton Utility Truck, which is better known as a Jeep, and while it's small, it gets terrible mileage.  I know that I use more than two gallons per week, but I would if I was driving my fuel efficient diesel truck as well.  If I was limited to two gallons per week, I'd have to make major life changes.

Should I be pondering this as Congress, through the neglect of Ukraine, pushes us ever closer to a war with Russia, should she invade the Balkans?

During World War Two I know that my grandfather had a different class of ration ticket as his vehicle was used for business.  His car was a "business coupe", which is about all I know about it.


I know it had a gasoline personnel heater, which probably provides a clue, but I still don't know who made it.

I had a 1954 Chevrolet at one time, and it got really good mileage.  Interestingly, a 1973 Mercury Comet, with a really powerful V8 engine we had, also did.  According to one site about older cars, the business couple should be something like this:

My '38 gets around 17-18 MPG @ 50 MPH. It drops to around 12-14 @ 60. She just doesn't like being pushed that hard.

My 54, and the 73, got much better mileage than that.

Whatever mileage the business coupĂ© got, my father sort of brushed gasoline rationing off when I asked him about it, due to the other category of ticket.  I don't know what that really meant, however.

Of course, for most long travel of any kind, people took the train.  Something that we might want to consider as potentially being something that may very well return.  High speed rail, for that matter, may be coming to Wyoming.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 21, 1944. Dear John.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, June 21, 1923. Dawn of the advertising ...

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, June 21, 1923. Dawn of the advertising ...: 

Thursday, June 21, 1923. Dawn of the advertising age. Somewhere West Of Laramie.

The modern advertising age dawned on this day in 1921 with an ad for the Jordan Playboy automobile:

Today In Wyoming's History: June 21: 1923   This advertisement first ran in the Saturday Evening Post:


The advertisement is the most famous car ad of all time, and the ad itself revolutionized advertising.  Based on the recollection of the Jordan Motor Car Company's founder in seeing a striking mounted girl outside of Laramie, while he was traveling by train, the advertisement is all image, revealing next to nothing about the actual product.  While the Jordan Motor Car Company did not survive the Great Depression, the revolution in advertising was permanent.

Anyway you look at it, it's still a great ad.

This, by the way, is the print date.  The actual issue of the magazine would be a few days later.

Vintage Welding Truck.

 Ford flatbed being used as a welding truck.  I'd place the truck itself as one built in the early 1960s.