1896 was a busy year: Queen Victoria became the nation's longest-serving monarch, X-rays were discovered, MDCCCXCVl occurred, and the Toyota Prius was pre-empted by a young electrician from the Black Country.

Whilst Ferdinand Porsche was dabbling with series hybrids, Mr H J Dowsing developed what was arguably the world's first parallel hybrid, when he fitted an Arnold car with a so-called dynamotor that served both as an electric starter and as a means of propulsion. And when it wasn't doing that, it charged the battery...

... Mr Dowsing's Arnold was built by Walter Arnold of East Peckham in Kent, who was probably the first man in Britain to collect a speeding ticket. Magistrates in Dartford fined him one guinea (£1.05) for exceeding what was then the speed limit for horseless carriages - two miles an hour. The arresting officer, Constable Ernest Gatso, told the magistrate: "The defendant's car 'ad two engines, M'Lud. If 'e thinks 'e can get away with it, 'e's got another think coming." Shame another think took a hundred years or more.

Prius T Spirit Self Park