Watch what might be the world's oldest dashcam footage from 1926

Jonathon Ramsey — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:01:00 EST

The archives of the Fire Department of New York has released footage of a borough department responding to a fire in 1926. In the first of two silent videos, the camera is mounted on the car transporting Fire Chief John Kenlon from the Brooklyn Fire Department to a storage warehouse fire on East 123rd Street. Kenlon's name comes up frequently in the rise of the FDNY during the early part of the 20th century. The date of the video is given as April 24, 1926, and it was not only a remarkably snowy spring day, it could be the first dashcam video ever.

The second video takes us through the entire process of a fire call, from the fire alarm - placed in a box on the street - to the call going to the Manhattan Fire Alarm Telegraph Bureau and then being sent to the stations, and the department fighting the fire.

The low-res screencap above shows the hood of Kenlon's vehicle, with a clanging bell at the front, driving on the sidewalk among pedestrians to get to the fire. As you'll see in the videos below, the situation on the actual roads was just as chaotic as the driving. So is the footage playback itself, which repeats and plays upside down and backwards at times, but we think is worth every second.

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Watch what might be the world's oldest dashcam footage from 1926 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NYC fleet adds 70 plug-in vehicles, including Chevy Volt cop cars

Sebastian Blanco — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:01:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Minivan/Van, Truck, Work, Hatchback, Chevrolet, Ford, Police/Emergency, Electric

NYC Chevy Volt Police Car - Click above for high-res image gallery

As much as the average driver doesn't really have to worry about "range anxiety" during a normal driving day, we will grant you that an electric police car that could run out of juice during a car chase is a bad idea. That last scene in Blues Brothers wouldn't have been all that impressive and crash-y had all those cop cars shifted into limp mode at some point. On the other hand, pure EVs can work wonders in reducing a city fleet's fuel use, and so can most certainly find a home in urban areas. Yesterday, NYC's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced a best-of-both-worlds addition to his city's fleet:

50 Chevrolet Volt hatchbacks (some to be used as police vehicles)

10 all-electric Ford Transit Connect cargo vans

10 all-electric Navi-star "E-star" utility trucks

Part of PlaNYC, the plug-in vehicles will join 360 other EVs in the city's fleet as a component of an effort to reduce emissions and to have the Big Apple "lead by example," Bloomberg said. Nine different city departments - including FDNY, NYPD and the Department of Environmental Protection (see the whole list after the jump) - will use the vehicles, all in "non-emergency duties" for now. NYC's plug-in vehicle fleet now stands at 430 vehicles and is being called the "largest municipal electric vehicle fleet in the country." Hey, Chicago or Seattle or LA or whoever... step up, would ya?

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NYC fleet adds 70 plug-in vehicles, including Chevy Volt cop cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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