AUTOMOBILE RACES. 595 



I, however, am not among those who believe that that will be done — at 

 least not soon. 



An automobile service carrying passengers throughout the city for 

 5 cents would have many advantages. The vehicles, not being limited 

 to tracks, could not be blocked as the}' now are, and an accident to one 

 of the 5,000 or 6,00<> which would be necessary to the service would 

 have no effect upon the others. 



However, the automobile surface car to take the place of the trolley 

 is still so far in the future that it can safely be left for future 

 discussion. 



In war the auto would not cut much of a figure so far as this coun- 

 try is concerned, though it might be of considerable service in Europe, 

 where they have such perfect roads. America's lack of military high- 

 ways would place the machine at great disadvantage as compared with 

 a horse 



There has been some suggestion of Held guns carried about by auto- 

 mobiles, but I feel sure that they would not do at all. Field guns have 

 to go through very rough places, plowed fields, for instance, and they 

 need a pull from the front, such as the horse gives, in order to get 

 them along. 



The power of the automobile is applied directly to the wheels and 

 does not pull the machine at all. Thus, in a plowed field the wheels 

 would revolve quickly enough, but they would only make a hole in the 

 ground, while the machine stood still. 



This same reason would also prevent the auto from doing much for 

 the farmer. 



On the other hand, in countries like France and Germany, where 

 there are many good roads, I believe that the automobile could be of 

 the greatest service for moving ammunition and provisions, as well as 

 for carrying scouts, dispatch bearers, or generals, or even the convey- 

 ance of troops. 



II. — NEW AUTOMOBILE SPEED RECORDS.* 



Twenty-live thousand persons lined Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, for 

 a distance of 2i miles on Saturday, November 16, 1901, and saw the 

 most sensational automobile 1-mile speed tests ever made on either 

 side of the Atlantic. A mile a minute on the highway is no longer an 

 automobile dream; for no less than three of the contestants finished 

 within that time. Fournier, the winner of the Paris- Berlin race, twice 

 broke the world's record, and was closely followed by Foxhall P. 

 Keene, A. C. Bostwick, and A. L. Riker. The course was a specially 

 prepared dirt strip of the old Coney Island Boulevard, having a slight 

 down grade. The contestants went over the course singly, their time 

 being taken at the start and at the finish by members of the Second 



a Reprinted, by permission, from the Scientific American, November 30, 1901. 



