EVLN(Simmons goes Electric all around)

[brucedp@dog.com]

EVLN(Simmons goes Electric all around)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV informational
 purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
 --- {EVangel}
COMMENTARY From an electric car to an electric wheelchair, Bill
Simmons gets around Jack Brubaker 08/29/2000 Lancaster New Era 
Lancaster, PA A-10 (Copyright 2000 Lancaster Newspapers)

If you spend much time driving the Harrisburg Pike, you may have
noticed a fellow cheerfully smoking a pipe while trying to smoke the
tires of his electrified wheelchair.
[...]
About a year after he was born in the summer of 1909, polio hit
Simmons' limbs. [...] Simmons eventually walked with crutches, but
preferred his first mechanical conveyance: a wagon made of boards and
baby carriage wheels, with a steering mechanism he made himself.

That simple device launched Simmons' search for unusual wheeled
vehicles with unusual occupations to match.
[...]
In 1955 he decided he needed a vehicle to make house calls. He was
watching TV one night when Arthur Godfrey transported his guests
around the stage in an Autoette, an electric vehicle made in Long
Beach, Calif.

Simmons quickly purchased an Autoette
[ http://vintagecars.about.com/autos/vintagecars/library/weekly/aa121497.htm ]
-- the first and, so far as he knows, only electric car ever used
regularly on Lancaster's streets. The compact vehicle required four
six-volt batteries to power it at a cruising speed of 20 mph.

[...] "It was actually a forerunner of the golf cart." Simmons
eventually traded in the Autoette for a BMW Isetta, 
[ http://www.cybercomm.nl/~wim/isetta/isetta.html ] 
one of those tiny cars with one door opening from the front.
[...]
Simmons moved on to a series of Volvos and, during the past decade, a
Dodge van. When he wants to go farther afield than the Harrisburg
Pike, Simmons steers his wheelchair into the modified van and a driver
transports him around town.

On most days, however, Bill Simmons is happy to spend several hours
tooling along the Harrisburg Pike in his wheelchair.
[...] PHOTO;Photo: Marty Heisey
 ...
 http://www.lancnews.com/
Lancaster Newspapers
 ---
% RE for your EV %  BruceDP@iname.com  http://members.aol.com/brucedp
  ____               EV List Editor  http://crest.org/ev-list-archive
~/__|o\__         EAA San Jose EVents Officer  http://eaaev.org/sjeaa
'@----- @'---(= Get Amp'd   'Electric cruis'n the Santa Clara Valley'
Renewable Energy (RE) News Editor           EV & AE List sysop

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