Who Really Invented the Automobile?: Skulduggery at the Crossroads

The automobile was perfected in 1829 and ran well on English roads. Who prevented its development? Was it the railway entrepreneurs? Was it the landed interests? Was it the free-traders? The same interests prevented its development in Europe and in America. Beasley takes you from the beginning through these various factions into the railway and banking conflicts to the 1890's when the automobile is allowed to develop in France. Why was it developed as the petroleum car and why was the steam car discouraged? Along the way Beasley demonstrates a unique theory of invention.

About the Author :
David Richard Beasley lives in Simcoe Ontario. He has written over a score of books in all genres including the standard biography of Canada's first novelist, the only comprehensive story of the American Theater in its heyday, historical novels of WWII in Burma, escape from slavery in North America, child abuse in 1805, biographies of the great artist Clay Spohn and the major interpreter of art, the curator Douglas MacAgy, a trilogy of acclaimed detective novels, travels by donkey in Turkey and canoeing down a Canadian river, a political-economic study of the invention of the automobile, and light entertaining social novels and novellas. His Sarah's Journey, the story of a slave escaping to Upper Canada in 1820, won a literary prize and along with his creative nonfiction From Bloody Beginnings; Richard Beasley's Upper Canada won a Brag Medallion. He recently published Episodes and Vignettes; an Autobiography and Hypocrites and Other Stories. He was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his writings. Born Canadian he lived in Europe and Manhattan for 40 years, has a PhD in political economics, worked for years at the New York Public Research Libraries where he was the president of the union of library workers. He also published novels by Major John Richardson [Major John Richardson Newsletter is on his blog].

Review :
The author tells the story of the battle between the railway and the steam carriage in the l830s and 1890s in Great Britain and the battle between the steam and petroleum automobiles in France and Germany in the l880s and 1890s..... Beasley accomplishes his mission most engagingly. ... The opening chapter is a vivid account of an important trial run from London to Bath of a mixed convoy of three horse-drawn vehicles and a steam tug. The lead was taken by a two-horse phaeton carrying William Hanning, Sir Charles Dance, Will Bulnois, and a man named Davis. Dance will be familiar, as his enterprise in steam is recorded by many historians, but Beasley has probed a little deeper. Hanning had committed £700 in 1827 toward a London-Exeter route, and with a Lord Heathfield had built a new road and set up a steam stagecoach operation on it. The other two were friends of Dance, prospective investors. Next was Gurney's steam car, towing an elegant carriage. Last was a post chaise carrying the factory manager, David Dady, Thomas Martin, an assistant engineer, and two post boys. It also carried a load of coke in case fuel was lacking at any way station. The steamer itself carried enough fuel and water for six to eight miles. Gurney had been building steam carriages for six years, and this model was quite reliable. Space does not permit even a skimpy outline of their journey, but the story is superbly spun by the author. Beasley tells how Goldsworthy Gurney had seen Trevithick's steam vehicle in operation in Cornwall as a child, had entered into correspondence with the Cornish inventor, how his fascination with the subject was so compelling that he quit his medical practice, and, in 1823 lectures on chemical science, he laid the groundwork for an analytical study of the properties of steam. A chapter is devoted to the formation of his company, its financing, and its construction of steamers. His first buyer, in 1825, was laying out a line from London to Liverpool. William Augustus Dobbin contracted for eight carriages for a route from London to Bristol, and Hanning's contract has been spoken of. A quirk in English law made wealthy men reluctant to invest in novel enterprises, as the idea of limited liability was unknown and if a venture failed the investor not only lost his investment but might also be liable to the full extent of his fortune. Ingenious ways of avoiding risk were proposed, most of which left Gurney as the one fully accountable. Another drawback lay in British patent law. Gurney's work was protected by several patents, but as further improvements developed while operating on public roads such changes were unprotected, and any keen observer could make use of them. In other words, research and development were a free-for-all. Despite these handicaps, the growing operation reached surprising proportions, which alarmed the railway interests and others who saw their livelihoods threatened: horse traders, fodder dealers, and so on. Another chapter explores the actual balance sheet of the enterprise, and its mounting losses.... Moving on to the advent of the internal combustion engine car, the author looks at the emergence of the petroleum-extractive industries, with familiar tycoons John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the surprise information that the Nobels were an important presence. The story of the symbiosis between oil and automobiles is too complex for this review, but suffice it to say that only Deutsche de la Meurtha's connection to fuels is noted by the sporting press covering the rise of the French automobile industry. As a long-time student of that activity, I cannot but be impressed with the thoroughness of Beasley's research, and envious of some of the contacts he made in the course of his work, listed in his excellent bibliography.... Charles W. Bishop for SAH Journal