12 BULLETIN 198, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



gasoline engine with mechanically operated exhaust valve and auto- 

 matic intake valve has a gear on its crankshaft extension meshing 

 directly with the ring gear of the differential. No gear changes are 

 provided. A clutch located on the crankshaft extension between the 

 engine and the driving gear, and a band brake on the drum of the 

 clutch, are operated by a single hand lever. 



No throttle is provided, but speed of the engine was varied by means 

 of a spark-advance lever. A fuel-flow regulator is provided on the 

 exhaust-heated, gasoline vaporizer. The main exhaust pipe leads into 

 a small muffler. The gasoline tank is located in the frame beneath 

 the saddle, and the high-tension coil and batteries are in a box far- 

 ther forward in the frame. 



Bicycle pedals, with the usual sprockets and chain, enabled the rider 

 to start the engine, or in the event of an emergency to pedal the ve- 

 hicle. An overrunning clutch is built into this gearing so that the 

 pedals are not driven by the engine while the tricycle is in motion. 



The three wire-spoked, bicycle-type wheels mount 2G-by-2i/^-inch 

 single-tube pneumatic tires, of which, Mr. Clarke states, the front one 

 is one of the original three and has never been off the wheel since its 

 installation. The front wheel is supported in a fork and is steered 

 by handle bars. 



The saddle, the handle-bar grips, the spark plug, a spark coil of 

 about 1904, the two rear tires, and a relief pipe and valve on the crank- 

 case of the engine are not original. 



OLDS GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE, 1897 



U. S. N. M. No. 286567; original; gift of the Olds Motor Works in 1915; 

 photograph No. 38580 ; plate 7, a. 



Ransom E. Olds, builder of this machine, recalls that it is one of 

 four constructed at Lansing, Mich., in 1897, by the then newly formed 

 firm, the Olds Motor Vehicle Co., of which Mr. Olds was manager. 

 The machine was successfully operated that year at a speed of about 

 10 miles an hour with four passengers. 



The car is equipped with a 6-horsepower, 1-cylinder, water-cooled 

 engine placed horizontally beneath the body to the rear of the vehicle, 

 with the vertical flywheel in the center of the car so that the trans- 

 verse crankshaft is located about midway between the front and rear 

 axles. 



Speed selection is provided by three friction clutches controlled 

 by a system of cams and levers at the lower end of a vertical post 

 located to the right of the driver. The clutches are mounted on 

 extensions of the crankshaft on both sides of the flywheel. Two 

 clutches on the left, each engaging a chain sprocket on the crankshaft, 



