Bikkers Steam Car

It looks like a fire engine, but it is a cleaning vehicle. It is the oldest surviving commercial vehicle in the Netherlands that has served in government service.

It looks like a fire engine, but it is a cleaning vehicle. It is the oldest surviving commercial vehicle in the Netherlands that has served in government service. In the early twentieth century this Bikkers Steam Car was used by the Municipality of Amsterdam to clean facades, advertising columns and other street furniture. The steam engine not only provides propulsion, but also drives a high pressure steam sprayer. It is a typical work vehicle. No consideration has been given to comfort. The occupants are hardly protected against the elements. There is no windscreen and no roof. The car has solid tires; the front wheels are discs, built up from wooden sections. Nevertheless, it was a fire engine manufacturer that made this vehicle: A. Bikkers & Zn. from Rotterdam, a company with a history dating back to 1783. At the end of the 19th century Bikkers could even call itself purveyor to the court. In 1905 the company was responsible for the first motorized fire engine in the Netherlands, also a steam powered vehicle. In 1983, two hundred years after its founding, Bikkers ceased to exist.