Lorries: 1890s to 1970s

In 1910 it was not clear whether steam, electric or petrol commercial vehicles would replace horses; it was the tens of thousands of petrol lorries used in the First World War that tipped the balance and ensured the dominance of the latter. For the heaviest loads diesel made inroads from 1930, by which time cabs were fully enclosed, all wheels had brakes, and solid tyres were a thing of the past. Nick Baldwin looks at these early developments and traces the lorry through to the 1970s, with ...