AUTOMOBILE RACES. 597 



over the mile course. It was towed to the course, towed luick to the 

 starting- point after the trial, and charged its batteries immediatelj'^ 

 before its trial run from an adjoining electric car. B}' a special rheo- 

 stat, with which he has fitted his racing machine, Mr. Riker is enabled 

 to divert part of the current from the held coils to the armature, after 

 speeding up, so that the rotary speed of the armature shaft is consid- 

 erably increased. Since the racing macliines of Fournier and Keene 

 have already been illustrated in these columns, we have pictured only 

 the carriage used by Mr. Riker. 



The arrangements for timing the contestants seem to have been 

 somewhat unusual. The timers at the finish were informed by the 

 click of a telegraph instrument that a machine had started. An 

 instant later an *"0. K." signal was given to confirm the start. The 

 timers consequently started their watches with the first click and 

 caught the machines as they whirled past the finish line. If no 

 "O. K."" signal was given, the watches were turned back for the next 

 signal. As a result of this arrangement some machines ran over 

 the course without being timed, no additional signal having been 

 given. Foxhall P. Keene was one of those who suffered. His first 

 trial was credited w^ith a speed of one minute and twenty-one and two- 

 fifths seconds, which was clearly an error. S. T. Davis, who made 

 the mile in one minute and fifteen seconds in a steam carriage, and 

 thus broke the previous steam carriage record of one minute and 

 thirty-nine seconds, was also mistimed in one of his attempts. 



These are the most remarkable contests ever run on a public high- 

 way. They have shown that only a specially built locomotive engine 

 running on steel rails can beat a modern racing automobile. 



III. — THE PARIS-BORDEAUX RACE. '^ 



The classic race between Paris and Bordeaux is practically a history 

 of progress in the automobile industry, since it is in this great event 

 that we are able to see the new developments in motors and carriages, 

 and the rivalry of new firms who take advantage of this exceptional 

 opportunity' to prove what their vehicles are capable of doing. Noth- 

 ing is more eloquent of the marvelous advance of the industry- than a 

 comparison between the race of 1895, when Levassor astonished the 

 world by driving a -i-horsepower car between Paris and the capital of 

 the Gironde in a little more than twenty-two hours, and the race on 

 Wednesda}' of last week, when a 20-horsepower Mors reduced this 

 time to six hours, and covered the 327i miles at the average speed of 

 53.3 miles an hour. Six years ago the racing car was fitted with a 

 motor of 6 horsepower, but last week there were several vehicles of 

 28 nominal horsepower, while in one or two cases they were said to 



"Reprinted from the Autocar, London and Coventry, England, \o\. VI, No. 293, 

 Junes, 1901. 



