Britain's first electric car -- 1884

LONDON, April 24 (UPI) -- A British man has released a photograph of his great-grandfather, a 19th century inventor, sitting atop what is believed to be Britain's first electric car.

Graham Parker, 76, said his grandfather, Thomas Parker, created his electric car as early as 1884, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

"I don't think all that many were made because he was more interested in trams and tramways," Parker said.

Thomas Parker, who died in 1915, was a prolific inventor who is credited with electrifying the London Underground trains as well as overhead trains in the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham.

"He was into anything really," Graham Parker said. "Anything on four wheels was quite a novelty, people were terrified of the things and someone with a red flag had to walk in front of it. Electricity was even more terrifying because it was something you couldn't see or touch, there seemed to be quite a lot of resistance to it."