Back to the future
Is looking to the past a good way to deal with current energy problems? Dan Carrier makes the case for a few history lessons
A horse-drawn delivery van of the London, Midland and Scottish railway in Bloomsbury, 1943
JANUARY 7, 2030. You step out of your home on a cold winter’s morning, and unplug your electric three-person bicycle buggy from the lamppost it has been charging from all night.
The power stored in its super-lightweight batteries, which will zip you to work and back, has been generated from a source beneath your feet that for centuries had helped other Londoners go about their daily business.