1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



557 



with incredible velocit3\ The Scientific 

 American replied, however, that, althoug-h 

 man}' experiments had been made to pro- 

 duce an eng'ine moved by the explosive 

 force of g-unpowder, there were very great 

 objections, not only in the way of danger of 

 such an apparatus, but the accumulation 

 of soot and acids that would rust and cor- 

 rode the machine. After the discovery of 

 kerosene, however, and the low price at 

 which gasoline and benzine were produced 

 as b3'-products, the matter of producing- 

 mechanical power by "explosion" was re- 

 vived. In 1876, at the Centennial Exposi- 

 tion in Philadelphia, I saw an engine moved 

 by exploding a mixture of common coal gas 

 and atmospheric air. The explosion lifted a 

 great chunk of cast iron two or three feet 

 high. In falling it moved a balance-wheel; 

 and when it came opposite a point near the 

 bottom, another explosion gave it another 

 hoist, etc. It was a great curiosity to a 

 great manj' people besides myself. I was 

 then 36 years old. From that time to this, 

 inventors have been at work on gas-engines. 

 If a little gasoline is allowed to evaporate 

 in a close room, and the gas thoroughly 

 mixed with air in the room in just the right 

 proportion, it will blow up the room like a 

 charge of gunpowder. But while the gun- 

 powder would leave a lot of foul smoke, the 

 gasoline mixture leaves almost nothing. In 

 view of the many accidents and deaths re- 

 sulting from explosions of this kind, the 

 world at large can not be told too often of 

 this matter. Scarcely a day passes but 

 that we read of somebody who smells es- 

 caping gas in the dark, and then lights a 

 tnatch to see where the leak is. 



Well, friends, you all know more or less 

 b}' this time about gas-engines. That first 

 machine in Philadelphia was constructed 

 with the idea that, after the explosion, it 

 would take a little time, say a quarter or 

 half a minute, to get up some more explo- 

 sive compound and touch it off. Our gas- 

 engines now fill the cylinder with just the 

 right proportion of air and gasoline, and 

 touch it off by means of an electric spark a 

 thousand times a minute, if I have made no 

 mistake. Why, these little motors fairly 

 hum until the sound of the repeated explo- 

 sions almost makes a musical note. 



A few days ago it was my pleasure to 

 visit Cleveland in order to see a new auto- 

 mobile that was sold at only S375. I took 

 my seat beside the operator on the public 

 square, right in the heart of the great city. 

 It was in the middle of the afternoon, and 

 the streets were filled with electric cars 

 and vehicles of every description. Mj' com- 

 panion made his little machine (for it looked 

 little beside the big vehicles of its class) 

 dart in and out in front of street-cars, right 

 before horses going .t a rapid rate. He 

 turned corners so abruptly that I had to 

 cling to the seat to prevent being thrown 

 out. Then he stopped so suddenlj' I had 

 to cling in a like manner for fear of being 

 flung over the dashboard. Come to think 

 of it, however, there was not any dash- 



board, for it was a " buckboard " automo- 

 bile. Then when he got a little out of the 

 crowd, in the suburbs of the city, he began 

 letting the thing go, for it seemed like a 

 spirited young colt that only wanted to be 

 let loose. All this was done with the gas- 

 oline-engine I have been describing. 



At one point, when we were going at a 

 pretty good speed, something needed both 

 of his hands for adjustment, and he asked 

 me to take the steering-lever for a minute. 

 Perhaps he thought I was used to handling 

 such a machine; but I believe it was the 

 first time in my life I ever " held the reins" 

 of an automobile. In an instant, almost, 

 the machine threatened to go into the ditch; 

 but I brought it around in time, and, as 

 might be expected, in my eagerness and 

 fright to avoid the ditch I whirled it around 

 so abruptly that it looked as if I might go 

 into one on the opposite side. Pretty soon 

 I got the hang of the thing a little, and 

 made it go straight in the middle of the 

 pavement. A city ordinance forbids run- 

 ning faster than 15 miles an hour; so each 

 driver has to watch and see that he doesn't 

 go faster than a quarter of a mile in a min- 

 ute. My companion said he could easily go 

 30 miles an hour if the city would permit it. 

 And now I am coming to the point of my 

 story. 



I said to my friend, " What do you sup- 

 pose would happen if a drunken man, or a 

 man partly drunken, would get hold of an 

 automobile? " 



" Well, we have had some such cases; 

 and if there did not happen to be a police- 

 man to arrest him promptly, he might be 

 the means of destroying property, and per- 

 haps many human lives, in just a second or 

 two." 



It is a bad thing, friends, for a drunken 

 man to get hold of a high-spirited horse; 

 but it would be ever so much worse with an 

 automobile. When I had hold of that lever 

 for just a few minutes I had a vivid concep- 

 tion of the way one feels when he not only 

 guides one of these machines, but when he 

 feels that almost unlimited power and speed 

 are ready to do his bidding. In the Ara- 

 bian Nights we are told of the powerful ge- 

 nii that were ready to perform herculean 

 tasks at a simple wave of the hand of the 

 possessor of the magic lamp. For centu- 

 ries people have laughed at these idle tales, 

 but now it seems as if they were coming to 

 pass. This new mechanical force of many 

 horsepower is untiring. When we have a 

 long journey to make with a horse, we 

 watch him to see how he is standing the 

 journey; and every good man and woman 

 is very careful not to task him beyond his 

 strength. Toward the close of the trip we 

 say, " That horse is too much used up. He 

 ought not to go another mile to-daj'." Now, 

 it is hard to get over this feeling when you 

 are riding in an automobile. You can 

 hardly comprehend that, so long as the 

 tank contains gasoline, the machine is as 

 ready to bound ahead in response to the 

 movement of the lever, after it has run one 



