The Dutch Elon Musk...

Sibrand Stratingh was born on April 9, 1785 in Adorp, north of the city of Groningen, where his father was a pastor. Sibrand’s father,  Everhardus, came from a family of pharmacists. Sibrand's mother was Margaretha Cleveringa, daughter of Bronno Cleveringa, who was mayor of Appingedam. Also his mother came from a prominent family. Her brother was Rudolf Pabus Cleveringa, who was a judge in Loppersum and Wirdum and had quite a few possessions in the province. Her sister Cornelia was married to Johannes Bebingh, also judge, later lawyer and finally mayor of Stedum. When Sibrand was only two and a half years old, he was placed with his childless uncle Laurens Stratingh, who was a pharmacist in the city of Groningen, where Sibrand could get a better education.

Sibrand went to school in Groningen. He turned out to be a good and fast learner. At primary or preparatory school he was declared finished learning at the age of eight, after which he could go to the Latin school relatively young. He was also one of the best students there and won prizes and premiums. It was also there that he met Theodorus van Swinderen, with whom a lifelong friendship developed. Five and a half years later, when Stratingh was only thirteen, he had also finished school in Latin. On December 18, 1798, as an aptitude test, he delivered a speech in Latin on the Patriotic Love. The content is unknown, but the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands had meanwhile become the Batavian Republic and Uncle Laurens was a fierce patriot, so Sibrand's patriotism must have been clear. Sibrand was only 14 when he went to the Academy in Groningen. He took classes in the expectation that he would become a pharmacist like his uncle.

"Gloom and mournful was the outward appearance of the city. Its streets, otherwise lively and merry, were empty and dead. Every one who was not called by duty or charity, hesitated to approach its walls, as if it had been attacked by the plague." This quote from the annual report of the Province of Groningen gives a dramatic picture of the city. Groningen in 1826 at the height of what has gone down in the history books as the Groningen disease. About ten percent of the population of the city of Groningen died as a result of this disease. But in Groningen new methods were also tried to combat this disease and Stratingh would not have been Stratingh if he had not tried to find a cure in this case too. The fact that about 10% of the population died from the Groningen disease in 1826 was only part of the misery. Not only was the final number of deaths even higher, because in 1827 the mortality was considerably higher than normal, but the people who were lucky enough to survive were also badly affected.

Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau (24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was the first king of the Netherlands from the House of Orange-Nassau. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, he was inaugurated as 'sovereign prince' of the United Netherlands. On March 16, 1815, he proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg, after which he was inaugurated as King on September 21, 1815 in Brussels. In the same year, at the Congress of Vienna, the European powers decided to promote the Duchy of Luxembourg to Grand Duchy and to recognize William as the first Grand Duke, confirming the royal title. This formally recognized the second monarchy of the Netherlands within Europe. The kingdom acted as a buffer for both France and the United Kingdom. His abdication took place in 1840. During his reign, the king remained in contact with Sibrand Stratingh, through letters. The king wanted to be updated regarding improvements. The king went even as far to provide Stratingh with personal funding.

"Today in the early morning the first trial run was taken with a steam carriage manufactured by Messrs. Stratingh and Becker, which has traveled through the city on sloping and descending streets and over arches, which journey has been crowned with such an initial good result that it is flattered that, with further finishing and completion of this tool, such a carriage will not only be useful on the newer smooth stone roads, but will also be able to withstand the impact of the more uneven clay roads and can also be used on them." This short message in the Groninger Courant of 25 March 1834 describes an important historical event, namely the first ride of the first car made in the Netherlands, if we can at least use the definition given by Van Dale for a car: "steerable vehicle on 3 or more wheels, propelled by an engine in or on it." As far as is known, no motor-driven vehicle has previously driven on a road in the Netherlands. Not even on a railway, because the first Dutch railway was only put into use in 1839.

When Moritz von Jacobi made the first electric motor in 1834, Stratingh immediately thought he could make a better one and with a useful application. Just that year, he and instrument maker Becker built a steam car, with which they had made a sensational test drive through the city of Groningen. What could be more logical than to also use the electric motor to propel a vehicle? At the end of 1834, Stratingh and Becker presented to the Physics and Chemistry Society a cart that was propelled by an electric motor, probably the very first electric cart. The first version has been lost but the second version from 1835 has been preserved. Although Stratingh and Becker's cart was only a scale model, it drove stably and at a reasonable speed. Both the makers and the members of the Physics and Chemistry Society saw no reason why this should not also be possible on a larger scale.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, letters and parcels were transported by stagecoach. Stagecoaches drove fixed routes. The arrival of a stagecoach was a real event. The postman blew his horn on arrival, letting the people of the city know that the mail had arrived. They (or their servants) still had to come and collect themselves. The organization of the postal service in the Netherlands was in the hands of the city councils. In 1799, a national postal service was founded, following the French example, which came into the hands of the state. Postal delivery is an important condition for state formation. It is in a government's interest to have good means of communication. The systematic postal services made it also possible for scientists to keep in touch with one another, even if they lived in different countries. Besides the postal services, was there also the possibility to use more private ways to get a message across. In the 19th century there were numerous individuals employed as "travellers". This was, usually, a friend/colleague who would travel to a certain location, for unrelated business, and asked to personally hand over a letter on behalf of someone else.