Nanny on the move!

By Michael E Ware: Today we are being encouraged to buy electric cars and councils are contemplating erecting plug-in charging points for them. The slightly eccentric William Dunkley from Birmingham was a maker of prams, hobby horse tricycles and pedal tricycles for children. In 1896 he manufactured a very strange looking car to run on coal gas. In 1900 he made a second, this time a conventional looking tiller steered car. There was an on-board compressor which would give the car a greater mileage capability. His idea was that alongside some street gas lamps there would be coin operated gas meters as can be seen in this photograph. It did not catch on, neither did his attempts later to make the Alvechurch light car or the most bizarre Dunkley Pramotor, a motorised platform which propelled nanny and pram along. Such motorised devices were not allowed on the pavements!
(photos courtesy Motoring Picture Library, Beaulieu)
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