The Heritage Center: When a ‘horseless carriage’ burned down a garage

Over 130 years ago in 1886, Dr. Linus Russell, a Springfield surgeon, and mechanic, Henry Voll, drove Russell’s newly-patented, steam-driven “horseless carriage” out of the Voll’s barn machine shop.

According to newspaper, ladies fainted, the children cheered, and the men exclaimed “this will never go,” as the engine belched black smoke as it rolled down the street at 25-miles an hour.