Inside the E.C. Anthony Electric Car Exhibit

WHAT YOU DON’T SEE AT THE PETERSEN

By Newcomb

As one moves into the Petersen Museum exhibit, the car’s high, road clearance allows the visitor to view the under-carriage. Here we see the steering linkage, drive chains and an unidentified leather case, Boot, under the driver’s side of the seat. This became a point of interest. We will take you there.

We are impressed with the many hand made parts, the reinforcing plates, the braces, the linkages. As the wagon became an electric car, it became complicated and heavy. Even more so as the batteries were brought on board and the electric motor moved into place.

E.C. has transposed the bike sprockets. The small, wheel sprocket now is on the drive shaft and the large crank sprocket turns the wheel. This allows the motor to turn faster and to develop its torque. Large wheels are better suited for heavy loads and rougher roads. (Think of the spokes as levers prying the hub forward.)

The spokes literally, ‘take turns’ propping up the axel. A wheel, with a larger radius, yields a longer footprint that averages the irregularity of the roadbed.

When we click to enlarge the picture, we can move about for more detail. Notice the original square nuts used on the wagon and the newer hex nuts added later.

The wood of the wagon bed is sandwiched between the top mounted motor and the large metal plates below.

We can inspect the blacksmith welds. See the handwork forming both ends of the tie bar. We can follow the steering linkage from the hand lever to the front wheels. See the many, ball peen, hammer marks, made as the metal was shaped and bent for use.

The braces for the rear wheels show that E.C. knew it was a needed item. I think that he would have also braced the front wheel forks if they didn’t have to rotate. (Steer) This detail flawed the whole car*

Note: There are several items here that seem to indicate that the present vehicle is not in as good a condition as when EC first drove it. Logic is satisfied with more than one explanation: Either the re-builders were limited in time/ money to completely restore the car, or it has suffered damage in the following fifty years.

The most easily seen damage is the misalignment of the front wheels. Less so are the tie-rods and some link rods that are not completely straightened. We can see where the steering has scarred an arc under the wagon bed. This shows the action of the bent, misaligned, metal.

(The Electric Runabout was not restored to be operational. The original motor is not displayed with the car or in the car. There is no evidence of any battery surviving or a replica of one.)

I expect that all the autos on display have their batteries removed, or disconnected. Hundreds of batteries present a hazard to the museum and the cars.

One must keep in mind some of the constraints under which re- builders and museums must work. We notice that the car is well covered with dust. (75 years of regular, house type cleaning would have damaged the car. To open the stiff leather case, would be to destroy it! We will show that the old stitching is falling away, (as much as a foot long.) (The museum does not replace it or cut it off!)

There are also constraints on the visitor.

Even with permission from the Museum’s Curator, One is not permitted to touch, move, open or physically inspect any part of an exhibit. That means not even parts that were designed to be moved!

We would like, very much to see inside the leather case, but wouldn’t want it badly damaged or a new one installed.

Instead we will show you extreme detail and add an educated guess as to what it is, does and contains. And the gentle reader can guess too! Let’s look now at the leather’s shape, wear points, mounting location and position under the driver’s seat.

As we view these several pictures, also notice the steering lever, its pivot point and linkage.

I think that young EC adapted this iron lever (photo A) to use for steering. This was the Brake lever, at the driver’s right, used to ‘drag’ the right rear wheel.

This was to keep the wagon from running into the horse, and to slow and park the wagon. There was a ratchet to ‘set’ the brake.

This drag, brake had acted against the flat, iron rim of the wooden wagon wheel.

The brake shoe was removed when EC changed out the wheels for rubber tired, bike wheels. (It appears that EC did not install another mechanical brake.)

One can see such a hand brake in action at the Disney Towne Square. When the horse stops, the coach rolls on, and then the driver applies the brake.

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I think that the wooden control lever extends down below the wagon bed, into the leather sheath. This is the small, added, lever inside the right edge of the seat.

Look now, at the side view of the leather sheath. Notice its unusual shape, size and position under the wagon bed. The warp of age reveals its content. (To some extent). Obviously, EC had this custom made for his purpose. Logic is that the content has nearly the same shape (fits) as the leather cover. The content was shielded from the spatter of mud and stuff kicked up off the road. The content was also kept dry.

It is an electric car. The control lever must control electricity. We see no electric wire to the motor, batteries or the control. This leather box is also protecting any and all wiring, switches etc.

Please notice the white wear-points along the arc of the leather bottom. These seem to be regularly spaced as if the bag covered a rotary switch! (I think that it does!) There is probably a hard wood box that holds the leather‘s shape. Its flat sides support the semi-circle of copper, switch points.

The length of the wooden lever is pivoted to sweep the bottom arc as the handle is moved forward and back to vertical. * * (Because it stops at the vertical end of the leather sheath.) This was a purpose in design. This is un-expected! Here was the opportunity to include a reverse. The dimension of the wooden, control lever fits the flat sides of the box so as to move smoothly and not to move from side to side.

Wiring Diagram

This hand made, stepping switch is much like those shown elsewhere on marble panels. The panel is the insulator and the body of the switch. The contacts are the heads of the copper bolts used to attach the wires from the batteries. These have made the white spots on the side of the sheath. Only one wire moves with the lever, where it is attached to the end contact, and runs back to the batteries.

This is a simple, low voltage, series DC circuit. Much like a doorbell. The switch button, the bell and the battery. The button is pressed and the bell rings. (A return wire connects the other terminal of the battery in both instances.)

This much must be in there to make the switch; motor and battery move the car.

EC may have reversed the car in some other way, used some of the stepping contacts to reverse the motor. Here, the off position would probably be three steps from vertical. (Where the forward motion was slowest.)

**We would expect the control lever to move back and forth! <Off> would be the center, upright position. Pushing the lever forward would move the car forward in progressive speeds.

Pulling back the lever from the vertical stop would reverse the car. Probably, reverse would be only one or two slow speed positions. (This would have required that the leather sheath be curved at both ends of travel.)

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We might see that the moving lever separated double contacts. Its moving contact bridging these pairs to close the series circuit. EC would then have also added a semi-circle of contacts to the other side of the hardwood box.

What do you think EC really put into that leather sheath? An X ray could end the speculations. (The switch may now be too damaged to move. It is now bent from its original vertical, mount.)

I think that 17 year-old Earle C. Anthony was interested in Going, not stopping or backing up.

This was the way he spent the rest of his successful life.

Read the story of the CRASH of this car and why it was rebuilt. Please see Earle C. Anthony’s First Car. Posted on this site.

Perhaps young EC had just tested his car as it climbed Bunker Hill (This would have been, and still is, a challenge to hybrid electric cars.

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NOTE: Signal Hill, Long Beach was unofficially named CRANKSHAFT HILL!

This is where cars were tested for their available power. Even today (2007) car clubs climb up here to be photographed in our Promontory, cul de sac.

(If EC climbed Bunker Hill, the disastrous, ride down was because he had successfully, made the climb!). How well did the ½ HP motor power the car? Did he need to try more than once? Finding the proper low gear ratio, and an adequate battery supply?

Did Young E.C. ‘help’ his car ‘make it’? Did he walk along the right side, steering with the external lever? E.C. and his car at a slow walk, climbing the hill together.

Imagine his emotional swing! The flush of success as he crested the steep hill for the first time. The despair at the total disaster of the descent!

Note: Beaudry Hill, Bunker Hill and Angle Flight were/are one and the same. Over the years, extensive grading has groomed the hill.

To Read More about this car, & view pictures of Anthony’s electric motor, Click on Barry Mishkind's "Old Radio" Website.

“We do not know that the ECA hill climb ever happened.”

nw