I have written before of my inability to resist the lure of following a seemingly irrelevant by-way, wasting time when I should follow the disciplined path of research. Sometimes the unexpected brings a real pleasure of discovery to my simple mind.
And so this week I have spent a few hours finding out that the first sighting of the motor car, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was in the New England Magazine of October 1888, but it was a railway, not road, vehicle.
What we now call a motor car made its first appearance in English law in 1896. A very short Bill, just 12 clauses long, attempted the first definition of what at that time they decided to call a light locomotive. Any such vehicle would be free to travel on the highways, not banned from doing so under the Locomotives Acts of 1861 & 1865, or by the Thames Embankment Act of 1862. This became the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896.
A light locomotive could travel on the road if it was
- Propelled by mechanical power
- Weighed less than 3 tons
- Was not drawing more than 1 other vehicle (in which case the combined weight limit for the two together was 4 tons)
- Emitted no smoke or visible vapour (except temporarily or in an accident)
The weight of any water, fuel or accumulator used for propulsion did not count against the allowed weight.
To protect the populace against these alarming new things, each was required to carry a light & a bell (or other instrument) & must never travel at more than 14 miles an hour.
The OED tells us that the term motor car had already been put forward, as reported by the Daily Chronicle of 29 October 1895 for example: “A name has not yet been found for horseless carriages... The latest suggestion we have had is ‘motor car’. Mr. F. R. Simms, who is responsible for it …” The Times obituary of Simms, who died in 1944, repeats that he was said to have coined the name.
By 1903 motor car was in such common use, both linguistic & corporeal, that a new, longer Act of Parliament was required; this one was called the Motor Car Act 1903, & also decreed that the Locomotives on Highways Act should henceforth be cited as the Motor Car Act of 1896.
In law, ‘motor car’ now had the same meaning as the expression of ‘light locomotive’, excluding any vehicle being drawn by a motor car. These did not have to be registered & so caravanners could tour the highways free of additional bureaucracy. The maximum speed limit was raised to 20 mph.
The most lasting & influential provisions of the 1903 Motor Car Act are probably the systems of driver & vehicle licensing & the requirement to display a registration plate on the vehicle.
However the irritation & exasperation of those who drafted the law is apparent in the very first section, which defines ‘dangerous driving’ & makes it absolutely plain that any police constable who witnessed such antisocial behaviour could apprehend the culprit immediately without a warrant. It also makes it clear that the miscreant MUST give his correct name & address to the constable.
The figure of the arrogant motorist exercising the right of an Englishman to the freedom of the road, who considered himself, by virtue of being able to afford a motor car, to have demonstrated his superiority to peasant & plod alike, had to be told firmly how to behave.
By 1909 the Automobile Association was offering free legal defence to any of its members who had had the misfortune to be charged with any offence under this dratted Motor Car Act
Related post
Medical foresight
