Electric Ford.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

This photo was posted on HAMB'S "Vintage shots from days gone by" by ehdubya.It was labeled as "Ford Motor Co. old electric". Has anybody heard of an early Ford electric?. It appears to have the steering lever as seen in other electrics and I don't see a crank which usually is on the right side but there doesn't seem to have enough room for batteries. Any opinions?

[Restorer32]

Pope-Waverly electric?

[Rusty_OToole]

It's an electric but not a Ford. Date of photo, mid 1920s. Date of car, 1905 - 1910. It appears someone found an old car in a garage or warehouse and shoved it outside for a snap shot. Other than the bent fender and missing tire, appears to be complete and in decent shape. Probably typical of a 10 - 20 year old car that had been stored inside.

My guess is the car was on its way to the junkyard as they were cleaning out the building. Someone had a Kodak handy and snapped a pic of the funny old car for laughs.

Should be possible to make out more details if you had the original photo and a magnifying glass.

[BMW1939]

What a great photo. I don't believe the fender is bent. The fender framework retains its proper shape and it is the patent leather covering that has given out and hangs down. The dash appears to be leather as well.

I don't think this was a "Kodak Moment". Whoever took the photo went to some effort. I say this because it appears that the camera which was used captured the image on a glass plate negative. Those tripod mounted cameras were a bit more involved than aim and shoot. If you look at the edges of the print you can see slight crazing and even some loss of the image. These are problems found in some older glass negatives. As the photographic emulsion ages and if the plate has not been stored carefully, it (the emulsion) tends to shrink (which causes the crazing) and flake off. So, it seems to me the real story lies in why the effort was made to photograph this wonderful little electric which was so outdated.