RIKER ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILE, about 1 900 

 Gift of Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth in 1932 (USNM 310470) 



At the beginning of the twentieth century the electric 

 motor was a perfected machine as compared to the gaso- 

 line engine, with the result that electric vehicles were cor- 

 respondingly quieter, cleaner, and more dependable than 

 the early gasoline cars. This was reflected in the construc- 

 tion of luxurious closed vehicles, such as this one (fig. 53), 

 several years before closed bodies appeared generally on 

 gasoline automobiles. This vehicle was built by the Riker 

 Motor Vehicle Co., of Elizabethport, N. J. 



The frame of the vehicle consists of tubular front and 

 rear axles, connected by tubular side members, the whole 

 strengthened at its front corners by short tubular diagonal 

 members. The front wheels, 30 inches in diameter and 

 mounting solid rubber tires, are mounted on pivoted steer- 

 ing knuckles that are connected by a tubular tie rod. The 

 outside diameter of the front tires is now about 34 inches, 

 but some wear, of necessity, has taken place. The tire size 

 does not appear on the tires. The rear wheels are 36 

 inches in diameter. They mount solid rubber tires 41 

 inches in outside diameter and are marked 42 by 3V2. All 

 four wheels are of the artillery type, having wooden spokes 

 and felloes. 



A large electric motor made by the Electric Vehicle Co., 

 of Hartford, Conn., is mounted in front of each end of the 

 rear axle. Each motor is geared directly to a large spur 

 gear bolted to the spokes of its respective rear wheel. The 

 gear ratio from wheel to motor is approximately 10 to 1. 



Springs at the front and rear of the frame support the 

 body. The front springs consist of a transverse semielliptic 

 pair, the one mounted over the other so that the arch of 

 the inverted upper one is clamped to the arch of the lower 

 one. At the rear a transverse semielliptic spring is 

 attached to two %-elliptic springs, which are mounted in 

 a fore-and-aft direction over the rear wheels. The wheel- 

 base is 82 inches, the front tread 54 inches, and the rear 

 tread 65 inches. 



The enclosed wooden body, creating an impression of 

 great bulk, will accommodate four, two facing forward and 



70 



