I'd forgotten all about them. I wasn't even aware there were other electric delivery vehicles back in the day.
It is wonderful but I can see the same snags as the electric bike. The steamer isn't towing a fuel tender so how far would you get before you have to pull into a Tesco service station for another bag of anthracite? And how long do you have to wait for the lumps of fossilised tree fern to be converted into horsepower? Hmmm... Maybe lecky power isn't such a great leap forward after all. Still, at least you wouldn't need a bath after fuelling the Lightening and the steam bike does look like it might be almost as top heavy as a Honda Crosstourer.
Good points about typewriters, early mobile phones and computers. Only 25 years ago, your computer would have something like a 20 Mb disc drive. The first Mac "portable" came in a large case and weighed a ton. It had about 256 kb of RAM, and a noddy black and white LCD display. It also cost a fortune. Only 25 years ago, folks. About the same time the 851 came out. Think about it. Your smartphone which lives in your pocket would knock the early portable computers into a cocked hat in computing terms. Imagine silent cities without all the traffic noise - brilliant if you live on a busy road where so many people do live. And no exhaust fumes. What's not to like? And renewable energy will come on in leaps and bounds. I'm really looking forward to the electricity-generating paint. Then you could just paint your house and plug your vehicle into it. We won't need anything like the amount of grid in the future; much electricity generation will be home-brewed. Petrol has to be brought from dangerous environments or unstable countries in tankers. There is pollution all along the line. Tankers burn vile sludge to get about and just chuck the sulphur into the air. Steam trains were romantic and make a fab noise, but it's probably best just to admire a few examples chuffing about for fun rather than have all that smoke and soot spewing into the atmosphere.
Turn every house into a power station. Electricity generating paint is a good one. Electricity generating roof tiles is another. There is a fair few hectares of roof space pointing to the sky.
Agree with thee above. Not a single acre of productive farmland should be lost to energy subsidy - sorry, solar - farms until every south facing roof slope has solar panels on it. The buildings are already connected to the grid and roof tops are dead space which can be put to use generating electricity at zero cost to land resources. Photovoltaic roof tiles already exist (as do non-reflective anti-glare cells) and should be fitted to every suitable new building and their use encouraged through tax breaks when re-roofing existing buildings.
I know of one guy who has a patent on a rooftop electricity generator linked to battery storage. Fingers crossed it comes through for him and every new build will have one. He's certainly talking to the right people about it.
I like your thinking Gimlet. There is little of mainland UK that can be called natural. Agriculture and industry have deforested and regimented the landscape for human need and human greed. Even so, I don't think there is a view that has been improved by the addition of a wind farm. I think they are a blight on the landscape. Whatever it is environmentalists had in mind, surely it can't be that. Is it a case of be careful what you wish for, I wonder. I don't know much about the economics of wind farms or how efficient or cost effective they are, but someone is making a lot of money out of them. I just hope that they didn't bend the truth too much in order to secure that profit.
