Kutztown Folk Festival Blog

Todays car manufacturers are working hard to bring a cutting edge technology to the 21st century by developing an efficient electric or hybrid car, but, instead of looking to the future, they might take a look back to the 1800’s. That’s right, the 1800’s; electric cars and trucks were used extensively during the late 19th and early 20th century! And that cutting edge technology? Well, it hasn’t changed much and, like so many other innovations and technologies, the Pennsylvania Dutch were right at the forefront of its development. Electric vehicles were built in Philadelphia, Boyertown, and other places here in our own region.

The Boyertown Auto Body Works produced Boyertown Built Electric vehicles, better known as Battronic Truck Company. Boyertown Electric Bus, Himmelsberger Carriage Works, The Hahn Motor Company of Hamburg, and the Commercial Truck Co of Philadelphia were all producing electric vehicles during the 19th and early 20th centuries. But those early electric vehicles were small and simple things, right? Wrong! How about a 28,000 pound, high torque, powerful electric delivery truck built in Philadelphia? Or, the elegant electric passenger cars, stylishly copied after the Victorian horse drawn coaches that the Anderson Electric Car Company produced. These were much favored by fashionable ladies… they didn’t smoke or backfire, and they didn’t require cranking the motor over to get them to start. They were clean and simple… no clutch to break, no fuel problems or fiddling with the timing… just push on the throttle and go… in clean, quiet comfort. In fact, Thomas Edison gave Henry Ford’s wife a present of an Electric car. Any lady would rather ride in an elegant electric car than in her husband’s rather crude economy car, the Ford Model T.

So, what happened to electric powered cars? They were well on the way to becoming a mainstay of the American landscape, but cheap gas and oil prices made the electric vehicles less desirable and interest in them waned… Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? What would they look like today if we had kept that course? What if the electric car that Thomas Edison gifted to Henry Ford’s wife had been the prototype for the popular Ford Model T? Well, we can’t answer those questions but, at the Kutztown Folk Festival, you will have an opportunity to view many early electric vehicles and ask questions of the vehicle historians of the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles has one of the largest collections of antique electric vehicles in the country, as well as a solar powered motorcycle and a prototype electric car built in the 1980’s that will rival the most contemporary gasoline vehicle on acceleration, speed and economy. These vehicles will be on display at the Kutztown Folk Festival.

The Kutztown Folk Festival is the oldest folklife festival in America, and is known for its unusual and unique demonstrations and presentations of the Pennsylvania Dutch. This 9-day festival has been called “one of the most unique Festivals on the East coast” by the Washington Post, and with good reason.
This year is the 60th Anniversary for the Kutztown Folk Festival. The Festival runs from June 27 through July 5, 2009, and is held in Kutztown, PA. Please visit our website at www.kutztownfestival.com for more information.

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This entry was posted by Blogmaster on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 7:13 pm and is filed under The Kutztown Festival Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.