I’m dissatisfied with that “letter” from President McKinley. Not only was the “white house” not officially called the White House under McKinley, I’m almost certain that those quadricycles that Ford created were powered by pure ethanol, not gasoline, as the letter says. That would make the puzzle’s solving both historical and automotive, rather than quasi-automotive. And, of course, it would mean that there are multiple answers. Anyone know more about those quads?
The letter in the puzzler originated from the office of the President, not Henry Ford, so it’s entirely conceivable that the President, or whoever would have written the letter for him, made the mistake of assuming or confusing the engine to be gasoline powered. I think that’s a reasonable explanation; there is no such explanation for the “White House” stationery before it was ever called that.
However, these entries, including one from the Ford corporate website, and one from the Henry Ford Museum, indicate that the engine was gasoline-powered:
http://www.fi.edu/learn/case-files/ford/quad.html
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/specs.html
In the future, I would suggest doing a little researching beyond Wikipedia. You are aware that any imbecile can write whatever they want on there, right?
In the future, I would suggest doing a little researching beyond Wikipedia. You are aware that any imbecile can write whatever they want on there, right?
When Sara Palin screwed up the story of Paul Revere…Her dedicated idiot followers tried to get on Wikipedia to change the story of Paul Revere to match what Sara Palin said. Wikipedia had to put a stop to it before they screwed up ALL of history.
Mike is correct, of course.
Thank goodness for our nation that Ms. Palin’s pecuniary motivation outweighed her political ambition.
And, needless to say, all of her motivations and ambitions outweigh her intellect.
http://www.fuel-testers.com/ethanol_fuel_history.html
http://www.fueltestkit.com/ethanol_fuel_history.html
http://www.gpreinc.com/Ethanol-Timeline
The last link is from The University of Illinois Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research. If anything, it seems like he built them both ways, the first one being ethanol-powered. So, maybe Wikipedia isn’t as terrible as we’d like to think.
So, maybe Wikipedia isn’t as terrible as we’d like to think.
Use Wikipedia as ONE source…but don’t rely on it completely. It may be accurate…but it’s been known to have some MAJOR flaws. Anyone any every one can contribute to Wikipedia. Some people may actually know what they’re talking about…others (aka Sara Palin) haven’t a clue. My daughters professors at MIT could easily tell when a student relied entirely on Wikipedia. In fact they would purposely give them assignments that they knew Wikipedia had completely WRONG.
Interestingly, according to the U of I, he not only built his first car to run on pure ethanol but also built the Model T as a flex-fuel vehicle.
@Conno4: this is covered ground. How is “historical and automotive” not “quasi-automotive”? I’m pleased and embarrassed that I failed to solve this one. Pleased because I got the automotive part, embarrassed because I didn’t get the historical part.
@VDCDriver: “Mike is correct, of course.” Reasonable people can disagree on the “of course” part. 
I’m much more disappointed in this one:
“The reason the motel owners put him on the second floor all the time is so they could see the extension cord that the salesman had run from his motel room to his car. He was trying to sneak some electricity! But being annoyed at the salesman’s petty electrical theft, the motel owners would unplug the extension cord in the middle of the night. So, if you were a salesperson plying your trade at that time, you often got unplugged.”
If you know he’s going to run an extension cord, you don’t have to see it. You know what room he’s in because it’s your motel, so you go to his room and follow the extension cord to the car and disconnect it. The puzzler was totally bogus.
Yeah, I think they’re stretching. In Northern Minnesota it is quite common for hotels to provide plugs to plug cars in. Not so much anymore with fuel injected engines.