Hola MaHigh-School - September 2020

The land boat was, astonishingly,
a rowboat-shaped cart with
wheels operated by two oarlike
levers. Who built it or why is
unclear, but needless to say, it
didn’t catch on (it seems unlikely
that more than six land boats ever
existed at one time). This is unfortunate,
because the land boat was
demonstrably superior to walking
-- a single pull on the levers could
“propel the car the distance of
several strides,” enhancing your
afternoon constitutionals with
the joy of tugging on giant metal
switches like a trolley car driver.
Admittedly, the 50s saw a fantastic focus on everything ‘nuclear-powered’.
But a nuclear powered car? Yes, indeed. I give you the Ford Nucleon.
Wiki says: The Ford
Nucleon is a concept
car developed by Ford
in 1957 designed as a
future nuclear-powered
car. The concept was
only demonstrated as a
scale model. The vehicle
was to be powered by a
small nuclear reactor in
the rear of the vehicle. The car was to use a steam engine powered by
uranium fission similar to those found in nuclear submarines.
It was proclaimed to be much safer (!) than petrol cars.
Nobody said anything about an accident.
Chernobyl on wheels!