See also: An alternative Denver A to Z exhibit to replace History Colorado's snoozer
When the A to Z exhibit opened in early 2013, a cardboard cutout of the electric car played stand-in. And today, after many months of repair work and restoration, the original Fritchle electric car was delivered to History Colorado, where it took its rightful place by the Barrel Man.Oliver Parker Fritchle had moved to Denver in 1899 to become chief chemist for the Henry E. Wood Company. In 1903, though, he was granted his first battery patent, and he established the O. P. Fritchle Garage Company, which later morphed into the Fritchle Automobile & Battery Company. By 1905, he'd produced his first Fritchle electric car, and within two years, there were a couple dozen of the automobiles on the streets of Denver.
In 1908, on the twentieth anniversary of the electric car, Fritchle entered a new model, the Victoria Phaeton, in a cross-country automotive endurance run, the AAA National Reliability Tour. He drove the 1,800 miles in 29 days.Other fun facts about the Fritchle:
-- The Fritchel battery system permitted a driving range of 100 miles or more between overnight charges. Batteries generally lasted more than 10,000 miles and could be replaced for $208.
-- In 1909, a Victoria Phaeton sold for $2,000.
-- The Fritchle factory was located in what today is the Fillmore Auditorium.
-- Margaret Brown (later known as the Unsinkable Molly) had a Fritchle. And in one of A to Z's Disneyesque takes on history, the "K is for Knock-Out" display has a cartoon Molly Brown racing Mary Elitch, who's riding an ostrich. The ostrich, which could go 60 mph, wins; the Fritchle could only go 25 mpg.
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