468 



MOTOR CARRIAGES. 



by several serious motor-carriage accidents. The 

 result was the passage of a parliamentary act im- 

 posing such onerous conditions upon the operation 

 of road carriages as practically to prohibit their 

 utili/ation. This was a serious setback to motor- 

 carriage progress in England, and it remained with- 

 out repeal or modification until 1896. 



Continuous experiments up to the present time 

 have been conducted with steam as a motive power, 

 and have resulted in the development of practical 

 types of heavy steam vans, trucks, omnibuses, and 

 vehicles for heavy work and low speed, and these 

 have been comnionly used in France, and to a 

 limited extent in England, since 1850. Although 

 the principle of the gas engine was understood as 

 early as 1794, when a patent on this form of motor 

 was granted to Robert Street in England, and from 

 this time engaged the attention of such men as 

 Wright, Barnett, and Lenoir, not until the subse- 

 quent improvements by Dr. Otto, of Germany, in 

 1867, did steam have any competition as a motive 

 power; but the ability to construct a practical and 

 reliable explosion engine, and the feasibility of sub- 

 stituting hydrocarbon oils for gas and carrying a 

 very condensed fuel, such as naphtha, seemed at once ' 

 to solve the question of an automatic vehicle motor. 



Among the first to appreciate this fact, and to 

 set about constructing a practical vehicle, was Gott- 

 lieb Daimler, of the Otto Gas-Engine Works, in 

 Kolu, Germany. Contemporaneous with Daimler, 

 large numbers of experimenters appeared in France, 

 England, and the United States, and at present 

 (is 1 ,)!)), while it can not be said that the gasoline 

 carriage has reached the state of perfection neces- 

 sary to warrant its general use, its future seems to 

 promise a wide field. 



The first public demonstration of what was being 

 done was a contest of "automobile vehicles" held 

 in Paris in the summer of 1894. This event marks 

 an epoch in the history of trackless transportation. 

 It was instituted by " Le Petit Journal of Paris, 

 and consisted of a trial of speed from Paris to 

 Rouen and back. One hundred and two vehicles 

 registered their intention to participate. Of these, 

 15 appeared at the start on the day of the race, 2 

 being steam vehicles and 13 propelled in various 

 ways by the exploding of gasoline or naphtha. The 

 winner was a vehicle propelled by a Daimler gaso- 

 line motor, which covered the 75 miles of the course 

 in five hours and forty minutes. 



In June, 1895, a race from Paris to Bordeaux and 

 back was arranged. Twenty-eight vehicles appeared 

 at the start. The contest was to be one of speed and 

 endurance from Paris to Bordeaux and return, a dis- 

 tance of 705 miles. Twelve vehicles reached Bor- 

 deaux, and 9 made the complete trip. The time of 

 the winner was forty-eight hours and forty-eight 

 minutes, and again a vehicle propelled by a Daim- 

 ler gasoline explosion motor finished ahead. Of the 

 9 vehicles completing the course but 1 was steam, 

 and that was an excessively heavy and cumbersome 

 affair. In these contests, vehicles propelled by elec- 

 tric storage batteries had appeared, but in every 

 case had failed to make any important showing in 

 a field which is now recognized not to have been 

 theirs. 



In November, 1895, in Chicago, the " Times-Her- 

 ald " of that city inaugurated a contest for moto- 

 cycles, as they were termed. This was to consist of 

 a trial of speed and practicability between Chicago 

 and Milwaukee, 100 miles. On Nov. 2, the day set 

 for the contest, but 2 vehicles were prepared to 

 start, and it was postponed until Nov. 28. On this 

 date 15 vehicles appeared. Of these, 7 were gaso- 

 line-propelled, 1 steam, and 7 electric. On the day 

 of the start Chicago was covered with a deep fall of 

 snow, and the route had been changed to Evanston 



and return, 54 miles. At the final start only G 

 vehicles were prepared to compete, 4 gasoline and 

 2 electric, and of these but 2 finished, both gasoline. 

 The winner was an American motor vehicle, con- 

 structed by Charles Duryea, of Springfield, Mas<. 

 The other finisher was A. Mueller, in a German 

 vehicle built by Benz, of Mannheim, Germany. 

 Duryea's time for the 54 miles was ten hours and 

 twenty-three minutes. 



This contest, though of little intrinsic worth, was 

 the beginning of the horseless-vehicle epoch in the 

 United States, and was largely instrumental in 

 attracting the attention of inventors and capital- 

 ists to this new art, which has since grown to 

 enormous proportions, and is fairly started upon 

 a career of economic usefulness. From this time. 

 contests and races of all descriptions have followed 

 one another with great frequency, the principal of 

 which have been the " London Engineer " contest 

 of 1896, to celebrate the modification of the odious 

 English road laws, a race from Paris to Marseilles 

 and return, a trial of heavy vehicles at Liverpool 

 in the summer of 1898, and a contest of passenger- 

 carrying cabs in Paris in 1898, upon the results of 

 which was based the decision to transform the 

 entire Paris cab service from horse-drawn vehicles 

 to electric automobiles. London and New York 

 have large and well-equipped electric-cab stations, 

 and the utility of the electric carriage for thin 

 branch of service has passed all expectations and 

 greatly stimulated the interest of producers of elec- 

 tricity. 



General Construction. The construction ol 

 motor vehicles has been very much aided and sim- 

 plified by the results of the development of the bi- 

 cycle with its improved tires, and especially is this 

 the case with the lighter forms of road carriage 

 where it has been possible to combine speed, strength, 

 and comfort through the use of ball bearings, bicy- 

 cle construction, and pneumatic tires. Motor-car- 

 riage construction, of course, exhibits great differ- 

 ences of detail, besides variations necessary through 

 the difference in the conditions of service imposed. 



For vehicles of light construction, intended for 

 high speeds, steel rims and tangential steel-wir 

 spokes are employed in the better class, and the 

 wheels are usually fitted with large pneumatic tires 

 made with a very thick outer shell. For the heavier 

 class of vehicles wooden wheels are found preferable, 

 and for hard roads the solid-rubber tire is used by 

 the majority of makers. Nearly all builders concur 

 in the advisability of using ball bearings on the 

 lighter vehicles. For the heavier variety, ball bear- 

 ings, plain, and roller bearings are all used. 



One feature employed by nearly all carriag3 

 builders is a balance or compensating gear. Th3 

 driving gears then are not keyed to the same axle, 

 but are connected through this compensating gear, 

 whose construction is such as to admit of thai 

 wheels revolving at different rates of speed whei 

 turning corners, thereby avoiding the injurious 

 slipping of the outer wheel which would result 

 were the wheels rigidly connected. The same results 

 is sometimes attained in electric carriages without 

 mechanical means, but through the use of two ir- 

 dependent driving motors, one attached to eacii 

 wheel, electrically connected in such a way as to 

 give the proper increment to the outer wheel ii 

 turning; or, again, through the use of a peculiarly 

 constructed motor, the field of which, capable ( f 

 rotation, is geared to one driving wheel throng i 

 an internal gear, while the armature is gean-'l 

 through an external gear to the other driving 

 wheel. This object is accomplished in a great va- 

 riety of ways, but the purpose is exactly the same. 

 in each case, as the device used on the tricycles of 

 fifteen years ago. 



