Milburn Wagon Company

Yesterday they opened the Asian Games here in Doha. Amazingly, it rained (more accurately poured) on the first day. Fortunately it cleared in the evening and the opening celebration seemed to go well. I watched it on TV for a while but got tired and fell asleep before it finished.

The theme seemed to be technology oriented and while I wasn’t paying close attention appeared to be about a Qatari pearl diver who got blown off course and discovered Asia. He had a magic astrolabe and completed part of his journey with the help of a golden falcon who carried him when the seas got too rough. Don’t ask me what this has to do with sports. Then he came back, got married, had a son, and glimpsed the future including the oil and gas wealth that is in Qatar today.

It was all done in a theatric style that kind of reminded me of a circus because there were acrobats and dancers representing various countries. It was very high tech with lasers and multi-sensory projections and sounds and such. One thing that I found interesting about it was the quick history they gave of technology development. They hit it kind of high level (gross understatement) but it got me to thinking, especially about energy.

If you look at energy use today, it is very difficult to understand how solar, wind, etc. are going to make much of a difference. It takes too many wind mills. Nobody really likes nuclear although I think it will be back some day. Conservation could make a big difference. Anyway, I got to thinking about cars – especially hybrid cars. I did an internet search and that is when I made an interesting discovery. Hybrid cars have been around a long time.

And this was a surprise - at one time, the largest wagon making company in the world was the Milburn Wagon Company of Toldedo, Ohio. With the demise of the horse drawn wagon, they made an attempt to go into automobiles. And their platform of choice was electric, including at least some vehicles that had a small gasoline engine to charge the batteries. Electric cars were essentially no longer being manufactured by the early ‘20s and the plant was sold to GM to make Buicks. You can read more at http://www.milburn.us/history.htm. Maybe my next car will be a hybrid, although to be honest I had been thinking more like getting a Corvette.