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The tow hitch suggests a small trailer, perhaps to help transfer their trunks when they went off for a fortnight to a distant relative's estate. Trunks for two people! Barbara & I travel for weeks with carry-on luggage only.

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The trailer contents would be much more technical and interesting than luggage and are linked to the strange format of the vehicle. In France but probably not in the UK, would include a sack or two of silicon slag.

 

Wilson

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That suggests glass.

 

No not at all, something quite different. Glass comes from silicon dioxide. I said silicon :) I would have thought the steering wheel would have given the model away. It is very unique.

 

Wilson

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Silicon slag is used in the production of metals.... Maybe something to do with the railways?

 

Nope. It has another very interesting property when mixed with caustic soda. You should get it now I think. Ideally it should be silicon metal but this is an expensive product and I believe that the slag also works.

 

Wilson

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Nope. It has another very interesting property when mixed with caustic soda. You should get it now I think. Ideally it should be silicon metal but this is an expensive product and I believe that the slag also works.

 

 

 

Wilson

 

 

Paint stripper. It's a painters car. Or maybe a plasterer's car who wants to get rid of the paint first :)

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It would be a very rich painter or car mender who could afford this vehicle and take part in the activity it was designed for. I just checked on Google and the clue is there for caustic soda added to silicon but a little way down the page.

 

Wilson

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A balloon car? I have no idea of make or model. Rolls Royce, perhaps?

 

You got it. A Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Balloon car. The basket with the envelope inside, goes on the back deck of the car. It would have towed a trailer, with in the UK hydrogen cylinders to fill the balloon. In France, some weird regulation prevented the transport of hydrogen cylinders behind motor transport, so instead they used a hydrogen generator. Originally this would have involved pouring concentrated sulphuric acid onto iron filings. However the risks of transporting the horrible concentrated sulphuric acid in glass carboys was considerable, plus the hydrogen was contaminated with hydrogen sulphide (H₂S). Not only did this smell terrible but was very poisonous and rotted the envelope, less than desirable in a balloon. The French developed a new method in the early 1900’s called the Hydrogenite Process. This involved heating up a saturated solution of caustic soda (NaOH) and pouring it onto silicon slag, a by-product of making silicon metal for alloying with aluminium. The hydrogen produced was much purer.

 

We are looking for a Ghost balloon car to replace our London to Edinburgh Ghost. The picture below is of the one in the Schlumpf Museum. By the wheels, I would guess it is a very early Ghost of about 1907-8. The later ones had Rudge-Whitworth wheels. The wheels are not damaged, I had to do some patch repairing to the image to remove a wire running across the front of the car.

 

Wilson

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How about this one. I doubt anyone has seen it, but it won't be difficult to identify it.

 

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