Chapter VII of Percy Maxim’s memoir Horseless Carriage Days recounts Maxim’s role in the pioneering of the automobile, particularly:
pioneer days between the years 1893 and 1901, when a ride out into the country in a horseless carriage was an adventure; when that temperamental machine, the gasoline engine, was being tamed; when there were no good roads, no road signs, no road maps, no filling stations; when gasoline had to be purchased either in paint shops before dark or in drug stores; when there were no registration plates, no operator’s licenses, no protection against wind, rain, and cold; and when every horse on the road stood upon his hind legs and made a scene. (Maxim 1937, xi) Continue reading from Horseless Carriage Days