FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 



fore, stood as a performance in a class by itself. But 

 that is something that interests only the specialist. 

 For the general public it suffices that an automobile 

 propelled by a gasoline engine covered a mile in 343- 

 seconds, or at the rate of one hundred and five miles 

 an hour. 



This record was made on Wednesday, January 25, 

 1905. A little earlier on the same day the previous 

 automobile record of a mile in thirty-nine seconds — 

 made at Ormonde by Mr. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., 

 in 1904 — had been twice broken; first by Mr. Louis 

 Ross, who made the mile in his 40 horse-power steam 

 auto of "freak" construction in thirty-eight seconds; 

 and by Mr. Arthur McDonald, driving a 90 horse- 

 power car belonging to Mr. S. F. Edge. Mr. Mc- 

 Donald's record was a mile in 34^ seconds, and this 

 stood for a time as the new record for cars of regula- 

 tion weight. 



It thus appears that Mr. Vanderbilt's record was 

 reduced first by one second, then by 4^ seconds, and 

 finally by 4I seconds on the same day. Obviously the 

 conditions were peculiarly favorable on that day, or 

 else a very marked improvement in the construction 

 of racing automobiles had taken place within a single 

 year. The latter is doubtless the true explanation, 

 since, according to all reports, the conditions at Or- 

 monde Beach that year were not peculiarly favorable, 

 but rather the reverse. The fact, too, that the five- 

 mile record was reduced to the low figure of three 

 minutes seventeen seconds — this also by Mr. Arthur 

 McDonald — on the day preceding that on which the 



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