TL;DR
In the early 1900s, electric cars competed with steam and gasoline vehicles, and some makers marketed them to women because they were easy to start and produced no exhaust. The story of Fannie Goodnow’s 1908 Bailey electric car also shows the limits of the technology: its battery could take about 12 hours to charge, and range depended on the battery fitted.
Early electric-car makers marketed their vehicles to women in the early 1900s, presenting them as quiet, clean and easy to start alternatives to gasoline cars that required hand cranking and produced exhaust. An IEEE Spectrum report traces that pitch through Fannie Goodnow, who owned a 1908 Bailey Victoria Phaeton and charged it with a General Electric mercury-arc rectifier.
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Electric cars were one of several competing technologies at the start of the automobile industry. The report says the United States had about 50 carmakers in 1898, with the number increasing fivefold over the next decade. Production rose from 7,000 vehicles in 1901 to 181,000 in 1910. Electric, steam and gasoline vehicles all had drawbacks, and the eventual dominance of gasoline cars was not yet settled.
Before electric starters arrived in 1911, gasoline engines had to be started with a hand crank. Once running, they were loud and gave off fumes. Electric vehicles could be started by switching on the battery, and they had no tailpipe exhaust. According to the report, manufacturers used those qualities to position electric cars as suitable for women. They also marketed them to doctors, who could make night calls without disturbing neighbors.
General Electric promoted chargers with advertisements showing stylishly dressed women plugging in their cars. Goodnow was among the early electric-car owners: she drove an open, two-seat 1908 Bailey Victoria Phaeton. The report says the car used a 30-cell lead-acid battery in a wooden box beneath the chassis. A standard battery offered a stated range of about 64 to 80 kilometers; a larger battery with 50 percent more capacity was available at extra cost.
Charging was a substantial constraint. The mercury-arc rectifier used for charging converted alternating current from the power grid into the direct current required by the battery. The device used mercury vapor to allow current to flow in one direction. The report says the unit took about 12 hours to charge a drained battery, making advance planning important, especially when charging options were limited.
The Limits Behind the Sales Pitch
The history complicates the idea that early electric cars were simply a novelty. They offered practical advantages over crank-started gasoline vehicles, particularly for short local journeys, but their charging time and limited range placed demands on owners that gasoline vehicles could partly avoid. A can of fuel could be carried; charging required access to power and time.
The gendered marketing also shows how companies tried to make a new technology appealing by tying it to ideas about who would use it and why. Ads highlighted ease of operation and cleanliness rather than long-distance performance. That framing is part of the commercial history of the automobile, but it does not establish that women were the only, or even the main, users of electric cars. The report also identifies doctors as a target market.
For readers following today’s electric-vehicle market, the episode is a reminder that electric cars competed with other powertrains long before modern batteries and charging networks. Their early advantages were real, but so were the practical constraints. The reasons gasoline cars later prevailed cannot be reduced to one battery problem or one advertising strategy.
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Bailey’s Shift From Carriages
The Bailey company’s move into electric vehicles came as automobiles began displacing horse-drawn carriages. Samuel Robinson Bailey had built a carriage business after entering the trade as a teenager and later became known for vehicle design and manufacturing. In December 1906, S.R. Bailey & Co. announced it was entering electric-car production, according to the IEEE Spectrum report.
Bailey’s first Victoria Phaeton used an alkaline battery developed by Thomas Edison. Edison had pursued a lighter and more powerful battery for years and announced a breakthrough in 1903, but the battery used by Bailey and other manufacturers reportedly leaked and failed to hold a charge. Edison returned to development, and by 1910 a better version was in production. By then, Henry Ford’s Model T was helping set the market on a course toward gasoline-powered cars.
Bailey switched to batteries supplied by Gould Storage Battery Co. The report describes Goodnow’s car as using Gould’s lead-acid battery. It does not establish why she chose an electric vehicle, and the author says records explaining her decision could not be found. Her ownership documents one woman’s use of the technology; the advertisements show how companies tried to sell it to women.
““Fully electric vehicles, by contrast, were easy to start.””
— IEEE Spectrum report
What Goodnow’s Choice Cannot Tell Us
The report does not explain why Goodnow chose an electric car, how often she drove it, or what charging access she had beyond the rectifier. Her ownership alone cannot show how common electric cars were among women or whether the advertising reached its intended audience. The cited range is given for the standard battery, but the report does not specify the conditions under which that range was measured.
The account also does not settle why electric cars lost ground to gasoline vehicles. It describes battery trouble, charging demands and the emergence of the Model T, but these details do not amount to a complete explanation of the market’s shift. Claims about what women generally preferred or how they used cars should not be inferred from a single owner and period advertisements.
The Historical Record Remains
This is a historical report rather than a developing announcement, so no next corporate or regulatory milestone is identified. The next step for readers seeking more detail is to consult the IEEE Spectrum account and the cited historical collections, including material held by Heritage Museums & Gardens and the miSci Museum of Innovation and Science.
Further archival evidence could clarify how many Bailey electrics were built, how widely women bought them, and what daily charging looked like for owners. Until such evidence is presented, the supported conclusion is narrower: early manufacturers promoted electric cars to women, and at least one woman, Fannie Goodnow, owned and charged a Bailey electric vehicle.
Key Questions
Why were early electric cars marketed to women?
Manufacturers emphasized that electric cars were easy to start and had no foul exhaust, unlike crank-started gasoline cars. The report says those traits were used to position electric vehicles as suitable for women, though it does not show that women were their only customers.
Who was Fannie Goodnow?
Goodnow was an early electric-car owner who drove a 1908 Bailey Victoria Phaeton. The report says she used a General Electric mercury-arc rectifier to charge the vehicle, but it could not establish why she selected an electric car.
How long did an early electric car take to charge?
The mercury-arc rectifier described in the report took about 12 hours to charge a drained battery. Charging time and access to electricity were practical limits for early owners.
How far could Goodnow’s Bailey travel?
The report gives a range of about 64 to 80 kilometers for the standard battery. A larger battery with 50 percent more capacity was offered at an additional cost; the report does not give a separate range figure for it.
Why did gasoline cars become dominant?
The report points to battery problems, charging demands and Henry Ford’s Model T as relevant developments, but it does not provide a complete account of why gasoline cars came to dominate. The historical outcome should not be attributed to one factor alone.
Source: spectrum.ieee.org
