LIGHT MOTOR CARS AND VOITURETTES
By JOHN HENRY KNIGHT

published in 1902 by Iliffe & Sons of London.

Being written just a few years after the introduction of motors to the UK, this book not only includes some interesting technical information on early cars (Benz, the De Dion Voiturette and Stanley Steam cars to name but a few), but also offers some insight into how the early motor car, and drivers, fitted in with other users of the highway of the day.

John Henry Knight (21 January 1847 – 22 September 1917), from Farnham, was a wealthy engineer, landowner and inventor.(see more about him at Wikipedia)

To appreciate motoring of 1902, one should remember that the need for a man to walk in front of vechicles with a red flag had only been removed by the "Locomotives on Highways Act" in 1896 and the UK speed limit was still only 14 mph (23 km/h). This speed limit was raised to 20 mph (32 km/h) by the Motor Car Act 1903. In 1902, motor cars were still very few and far between and the vast majority of road traffic would have been horses, carts and carriages. Even the use of the term 'road' was not as we in the 21st centuary understand it; they would have tended to be a lot narrower and rougher, nothing like modern roads.

If you are wondering what a Voiturette is, "the term was first used by Léon Bollée in 1895 to describe his new motor tricycle and in the early years of the motor industry was used by many makers to describe their small cars. The word comes from the French word for "automobile", voiture." (from wikipedia.org).