Some of us can remember when petrol cost 5 shillings a gallon ( 25p) and now it is 5 Pounds a gallon. All sorts of political shenanigans dictate what we have to pay for our fuel and the Bubble and Squeek Annual cover shows a delightful 1950 cartoon ( by George Moreno and staff) of four characters hell-bent on snatching their next can of petrol which is so essential to their mobility.
Many of us will jump in our cars today and drive to a favourite watering-hole to celebrate the start of the new year with fellow motorists, but what if there was no petrol? Then what would we do?
Jean-Marie Michel Liebeaux ( known as Mich) was a successful French artist in the early 1900's and produced a charming series of cartoons of 'Charley' trying a variety of ways to propel his machine without using petrol. He tried magnet-power, he tried wind-power with his 'Cyclone' and then his 'Light Zephir' . Boys love their pets, so he roped in his dog, his rat-catching cat, his poor old rabbit ( we like the foot-operated gong to spur him on) and even his caterpillars. Of course, he found a way to use his Dad's rifle too! There were two others which we will leave you to discover.
We like this whimsical 1950's trompe l'oeil by Rowland Emett depicting a car powered by the gas from a becalmed gas balloon and the caption says, "...well I was a victim of the fuel position, and he was at the mercy of every wind that blows..."
Whichever way you choose to power your car today, we wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year and hope the powers-that-be keep supplying us with - if not petrol - with combustible liquids to keep our metal moving for generations to come.
Text and Charley pictures Robin Batchelor, Bubble and Squeek courtesy Horwitz Collection.