In the small New England town of Millville, Mass. — on Quaker Street, to be exact — lived engineer and inventor Robert Aldrich, a man from a long line of engineers within a family that arrived in America during 1636. Millville today has not changed much in the 100-plus years since Robert Aldrich lived there. In fact, Aldrich’s home with his workshop still stands as it did in the 1890s and earlier.
Aldrich, like many of the inventors of his time, received Horseless Age Magazine, the first American publication devoted to self-propelled vehicles. This included every type of vehicle, including flying machines, boats, locomotives and, of course, the horseless carriage. Inventors from around the world read this magazine. Aldrich was greatly influenced by those who shared the same dream, and he connected to them through the publication. Many of these dreams were just that: dreams.
Every type of fuel was used to propel the horseless carriages of the day: gunpowder, compressed air, ether, compressed gas, acids of all types and, in the case of Aldrich’s car, what we today call white gas (think Coleman lantern fuel). Many early car owners, as well as stationary gasoline engine owners, used white gas, because it has no harmful additives like modern gasoline. It also does not leave residue in the fuel tank like modern fuel. It does evaporate and is costly with a price of nearly $9 per gallon. (I have used white gas in all of my engines as it is not as destructive as modern fuel and it still works well.)
During Aldrich’s lifetime, he received several patents, most notably for a wrench and a carburetor in 1901. The 1901 carburetor was a great improvement over his carburetor design of 1897, yet it was probably the greatest reason why the Aldrich was lost in the passing parade of time.
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