Automobiles or Horseless Carriages. 47 



latter is of no small importance in crowded thoroughfares. 

 3, It does not tire. 4. Its power for speed is quite double that 

 of the horse. 5. It does not eat, and requires no attention 

 unless while working, and when it is working costs about half 

 as much as live horse-power. The engine chiefly used for 

 carriages is the Daimler, a two-cylinder vertical engine, working 

 on the Otto cycle and using benzoline. It runs at about 700 

 revolutions per minute. The speed of the carriage is reduced 

 and varied at will by gearing under the control of the driver. 

 In the great race from Paris to Bordeaux and back, in which 

 forty-six carriages entered for prizes value ;^2,68o, the first four 

 carriages to arrive were propelled by Daimler engines, much to 

 the chagrin of the French, who had hoped much from their 

 native steam and electric carriages, the Daimler being of 

 German origin. The fastest of the four was a carriage for two 

 persons, and covered the 744 miles in 48h. 47m., or at the rate 

 of over 15:^ miles per hour for the whole journey. Among the 

 others several were propelled by steam and one by electricity. 

 This last, however, met with an accident and did^not complete 

 the course. It is sometimes popularly supposed that electricity 

 should be the power par excellence for such carriages. It is 

 forgotten, however, that, firstly, the electric motor is of itself a 

 heavy machine ; and, secondly, one cannot buy electricity by 

 the pint at the wayside shops as 'one can buy petroleum oil. 

 One must carry all one wants, and the means of doing so, the 

 electric accumulators, are also extremely heavy. The accumu- 

 lator for the carriage referred to, which was built by 

 Jeantaud, of Paris, weighed 17I cwt., the 7-h.p. motor 4^ cwt., 

 and the whole carriage 3 tons 3 cwt. The speed was 7 to 15 

 miles per hour, according to the quality of the road. Numerous 

 limelight views were shown, including carriages of all kinds 

 from a Pennington bicycle, said to run a mile in one minute, 

 to an immense coach with over a dozen passengers. Mr. 

 Brown's own carriage, which arrived from St. Omer on the 6th 

 March last, and is believed to be the first automobile imported 

 into this country, was shown with its engine running, so as to 



