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diff --git a/41891-0.txt b/41891-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fa5510 --- /dev/null +++ b/41891-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4962 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41891 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 41891-h.htm or 41891-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41891/41891-h/41891-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41891/41891-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/automobilebiogra00weekrich + + + + + +AUTOMOBILE BIOGRAPHIES + +An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been +Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled +Vehicles on the Common Roads + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +New York +The Monograph Press + +Copyright, 1904 +by the Monograph Press +All Rights Reserved + + + + +FOREWORD + + +In a large sense the history of the rise of the automobile has been a +history of some of the foremost inventors, mechanical engineers, +manufacturers and active business men of more than a full century. The +subject of self-propelled vehicles on the common roads has enlisted the +faculties of many men whose minds have been engrossed with the study and +the solution of mechanical and engineering problems, purely from an +absorbing love of science; it has had the financial support of those whose +energies are constantly and forcefully exerted in the industrial and +commercial activities of the age; it has received the merited +consideration of those who regard as of paramount importance any addition +to the sum of successful human endeavor and any influence that contributes +to the further advance of modern civilization. + +Along these lines of thought this book of AUTOMOBILE BIOGRAPHIES has been +prepared. On its pages are sketches of the lives and the work of those who +have been most active in planning, inventing and perfecting the modern +horseless highway vehicle, in adapting it to the public needs for pleasure +or business and in promoting its usefulness and broadening the field of +its utility. + +Included herein are accounts of the pioneer inventors, the noted +investigators and the contemporaneous workers who have helped to make the +automobile in its many forms the most remarkable mechanical success of +to-day and the most valuable and epoch-making addition to the +conveniences of modern social, industrial and commercial life. These +sketches have been carefully prepared from the best sources of +information, works of reference, personal papers and so on, and are +believed to be thoroughly accurate and reliable. Much of the information +contained in them has been derived from exceedingly rare old volumes and +papers that are not generally accessible, and it comes with a full flavor +of newness. Much also has been acquired from original sources and has +never before been given to the public. + +The investigator into this subject will find, doubtless, to his very great +surprise, that the story of the pioneer inventors, who, in the early part +of the nineteenth century, experimented with the problems of the steam +road carriage, has been recorded voluminously and with much detail. It was +a notable movement, that absorbed the abundant attention of inventors, +manufacturers and the public at large at that time. + +Writers of that day recorded with a great deal of particularity the +experimenting with boilers, engines, machinery and carriages, and the +promoting of companies for the transportation of passengers and the +hauling of goods. Modern students and historians of this subject find +themselves greatly indebted to the writers of that epoch, like Gordon, +Herbert and others, who preserved, with such painstaking care, for future +generations, as well as for their own time, the account of the lives and +labors of such men as Watt, Trevithick, Maceroni, Hancock and others. +Every modern work upon this subject draws generously from those sources. + +Concerning the later period from the middle of the century that has just +ended, down to the present time, there is less concrete information, +readily available. With the cessation of public interest in the matter and +its general relegation into the background, by inventors, engineers and +those who had previously been financial backers of the experimenting, +writers ceased to give the subject the enthusiastic attention that they +had before bestowed upon it. Records of that period are scant, partly +because there was so little to record and partly because no one cared to +record even that little. + +Until comparatively recent times the historian of the self-propelled +vehicle, who was so much in evidence seventy-five years ago, had not +reappeared. Even now his work is generally of a desultory character, +voluminous, but largely ephemeral. It is widely scattered, not easily +accessible and already considerably forgotten from day to day. Especially +of the men of the last half century, who have made the present-day +automobile possible and are now contributing to its greater future, the +following pages present much that has never been brought together in this +form. It is both history and the material for history. + +It is believed that these sketches will be found peculiarly interesting +and permanently valuable. Individually they are clear presentations of the +achievements of some of the most distinguished engineers and inventors of +the last hundred years. Collectively they present a complete story of the +inception and gradual development of the automobile from the first clumsy +steam wagons of Cugnot, Trevithick, Evans and others to the perfected +carriage of to-day. + +The chapter on The Origin and Development of the Automobile is a careful +study and review of the conditions that attended the attempts to install +the first common road steam carriages, the tentative experimenting with +bicycles, tricycles and other vehicles in the middle of the last century +and the renaissance of the last two decades. Several of the illustrations +are from old and rare prints, and others are from photographs. + +It is not possible to set down here all the authorities that have been +consulted in the preparation of this work. Special acknowledgment, +however, must be made to The Engineering Magazine for permission to use +text and photographs, and to J. G. Pangborn for permission to use a great +deal of interesting information regarding the early steam inventors +contained in his work, The World's Railway, and to reproduce portrait +sketches of Trevithick, Murdoch, and Read, from the same valuable volume. + +LYMAN HORACE WEEKS. + +NEW YORK, January, 1905. + + + + +ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUTOMOBILE + + +STRANGE EARLY VEHICLES + +He who would fully acquaint himself with the history of the inception and +growth of the idea of travel by self-propelled vehicles on the public +highways must go further back in the annals of the past than he is likely +first to anticipate. Nearly three centuries ago men of mechanical and +scientific turns of mind were giving attention to the subject, although +their thoughts at that time were mostly confined to the realms of +imaginative speculation. Even before that philosophers occasionally +dreamed of what might be in some far off time. Roger Bacon, in the +thirteenth century, looking into the distant future, made this prediction: +"It will be possible to construct chariots so that without animals they +may be moved with incalculable speed." It was several hundred years before +men were ready to give practical attention to this idea, and about 1740 +good Bishop Berkeley could only make this as a prediction and not a +realization: "Mark me, ere long we shall see a pan of coals brought to use +in place of a feed of oats." + +But the ancients, in a way, anticipated even Roger Bacon and Bishop +Berkeley, for Heliodorus refers to a triumphal chariot at Athens that was +moved by slaves who worked the machinery, and Pancirollus also alludes to +such chariots. + + +HORSELESS WAGONS IN CHINA + +Approaching the seventeenth century the investigator finds that definite +examples are becoming more numerous, even if as yet not very practical. +China, which, like Egypt, seems to have known and buried many ideas +centuries before the rest of the world achieved them, had horseless +vehicles before 1600. These merit, at least, passing attention even though +they were not propelled by an engine, for the present automobile is the +outgrowth of that old idea to eliminate the horse as the means of travel. + +Matthieu Ricci, 1552-1610, a Jesuit missionary in China, told how in that +country a wagon not drawn by horses or other animals was in common use. In +an early collection of travels this vehicle was described as follows: +"This river is so cloyed with ships because it is not frozen in winter +that the way is stopped with multitude; which made Ricius exchange his way +by water into another (more strange to us) by waggon, if we may so call +it, which had but one wheel, so built that one might sit in the middle as +'twere on horseback, and on each side another, the waggoner putting 't +swiftly and safely forwards with levers or barres of wood (those waggons +driven by wind and gayle he mentions not.)" It was somewhat later than +this that China was indebted to that other famous Jesuit missionary, +Verbiest, for his steam carriage, which, however, was not much more than a +toy. + + +MANUALLY PROPELLED VEHICLES + +But in the seventeenth century most attention seems to have been given to +devising carriages that should be moved by the hand or foot power of man. +The auto car that was run in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany, by Johann +Hautsch, in 1649, was of this description, and that of Elié Richard, the +physician, of La Rochelle, France, about the same time, was of the same +class. + +Not long after this Potter, of England, came along in 1663 with a +mechanical cart designed to travel on legs, and in the same year the +celebrated Hooke presented to the Royal Society of England a plan for some +sort of a machine by which one could "walk upon the land or water with +swiftness, after the manner of a crane." It does not quite appear what +that cart and that machine were. One authority thinks that the Hooke +patent was for a one-wheel vehicle supposed to be propelled by a person +inside the wheel. Then, also, there was Beza, another French physician, +with a mechanical vehicle in 1710. + + +OTHER FRENCH AND ENGLISH EXPERIMENTS + +In fact, the interest in carriages worked by man power extended from the +seventeenth well into the nineteenth century. Soon after the time of Beza, +mechanical chariots, modeled after the Richard coach, were advertised to +be run in London, but it does not appear that they met with public favor. +Scientists and others gave much thought to the subject, both in England +and in France. John Vevers, master of the boarding-school at Ryegate, +Surrey, came out with a carriage that was evidently copied from that of +Richard. Other forms of carriages worked by hand or foot power of +man were described in the periodicals of the time. George Black, of +Berwick-on-the-Tweed, built a wagon to be run by hand power in 1768. In +England, John Ladd, of Trowbridge, Wilts, in 1757; John Beaumont, of +Ayrshire, in 1788, and in France, Thomas in 1703, Gerard in 1711, Ferry in +1770, and Maillard, Blanchard and Meurice, in 1779, and others, were most +active during this period. + +It was well into the nineteenth century before this idea was wholly +abandoned. Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the hand loom, contributed to +the experimenting, and the 1831 patent to Sir James C. Anderson was for a +very imposing vehicle rowed by twenty-four men. + + +COMPRESSED AIR POWER + +At the same time that the steam engineers in England were bringing out +their vehicles, 1800-35, others were at work on the problem of compressed +air carriages. Among these was W. Mann, of Brixton, who, in 1830, +published in London a pamphlet, entitled A Description of a New Method of +Propelling Locomotive Machines, and of Communicating Power and Motion to +All Other Kinds of Machinery, and it contained a lithograph of the +proposed carriage. Sir George Medhurst, of England, about 1800, with his +proposed regular line of coaches run by compressed air was, perhaps, the +most conspicuous experimenter into this method of propulsion. + + +SAILING CARRIAGES ON LAND + +Many men long speculated upon the possibility of wind propulsion on land +as well as upon the sea. The most ambitious attempt in that line was the +sailing chariot of Simon Stevin, of The Hague, in 1600. Vehicles of this +kind were built by others, and in 1695 Sir Humphrey Mackworth applied +sails to wagons on the tramways at his colliery at Neath, South Wales. The +Frenchman, Du Quet, in 1714, and the Swiss clergyman, Genevois, proposed +to get power from windmills mounted on their wagons. More curious even +than these was the carriage drawn by kites, the invention of George +Pocock, in 1826. + + +THE STEAM CARRIAGE PREDICTED + +But all these and other fantastic devices never got beyond the +experimental stage, and nothing of a substantial, practical character was +ever evolved from them. It remained for the latter part of the eighteenth +century to see the subject taken up seriously and considered in a way that +promised definite results. And it was steam that then brought the matter +strongly to the front. + +It is true that Sir Isaac Newton tentatively suggested the possibility of +carriage propulsion by steam about 1680, but his suggestion lay dormant +for nearly a century. Then the growing knowledge of the power of steam and +the possibilities in the new element turned men's thoughts again very +forcibly to this theme. The stationary engine had shown its usefulness, +and the consideration of making this stationary machine movable, and +therefore available for transportation, naturally followed. + +Dr. Erasmus Darwin is said to have urged James Watt and Matthew Boulton to +build a fiery chariot as early as 1765. In his poem, The Botanic Garden, +famous in that day, Dr. Darwin, like a prophet crying in the wilderness, +sang of the future of steam in these lines: + + "Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar + Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; + On, on wide waving wings, expanded bear + The flying chariot through the field of air; + Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, + Shall wave their fluttering 'kerchiefs as they move, + Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowds, + And armies shrink beneath the shadowy clouds." + +These lines may indeed be fairly interpreted as anticipating in prophetic +prediction the modern motor airship, as well as the motor car. + + +THE FIRST STEAM VEHICLES + +It was considerably later than this that the dream of Dr. Darwin +approached to realization at the hands of the steam engine inventors and +builders. Aside from Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, the French army officer who, +about 1769, constructed an artillery wagon propelled by a high-pressure +engine, those who first built successful self-propelled vehicles for +highway travel were the famous engineers of England and Scotland, who +harnessed steam and developed the high-pressure engine in the last half of +the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. James Watt +patented, in 1782, a double-acting engine, which he planned might be +"applied to give motion to wheel carriages," the engine to be portable; +but he never put the patent to trial. He was followed by George +Stephenson, Richard Trevithick, Walter Hancock, Goldsworthy Gurney, David +Gordon, William Brunton and others in England, and Oliver Evans, Nathan +Read and Thomas Blanchard in the United States, with two score or more +contemporaries. For more than half a century steam vehicles of various +types were invented by these engineers and many of them were brought into +practical use. + +Soon after the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century the +interest in steam carriages had assumed large proportions in England. In +1833 there were no less than twenty such vehicles, either completed or in +hand, around London, and a dozen corporations had been organized to build +and run them over stated routes. + +Alexander Gordon, the eminent engineer, wrote a book, entitled Treatise +Upon Elemental Locomotion, that went into three editions inside of four +years. He also brought out two special journals covering this field of +mechanics. The Mechanic's Magazine, and other publications, also gave much +attention to the subject, and the steam-carriage literature of the period +became very voluminous. + + +POPULAR PREJUDICE AROUSED + +For a time it looked as though the new vehicle was destined to a +permanency and to accomplish a revolution in the methods of travel on the +high-roads. But several things arose to determine otherwise. There sprang +up an unreasoning senseless hostility to any substitute for the horse as +the agent of vehicular traffic. The stage-coach drivers were afraid that +they would be thrown out of work. Breeders of horses foresaw the +destruction of their business, when horses should no longer be in demand. +Farmers were sure that with horses superseded by steam, they would never +be able to sell any more oats. This public animosity manifested itself +wherever the steam carriages went. The coaches were hooted at and stoned +amid cries of "down with machinery." Stones and other obstacles were +placed in the roads, trenches were dug to trap the unsuspicious driver and +stretches of roadway were dug up and made into quagmires to stall the +machines. Parliament was called upon and enacted excessive highway tolls, +especially directed at steam carriages. Another law that stood on the +statute books of Great Britain until within comparatively recent times +compelled every self-propelled vehicle moving on the highway to be +preceded by a man walking and carrying a red flag. + + +THE BEGINNING OF RAILROADS + +All this was undoubtedly due, in a large measure, if not wholly, to what +was then known as the Turn Pike Trusts, which, in conjunction with the +stage-line companies, in many cases, were owners of a thousand and more +horses. The latter, quite naturally, objected to the introduction of the +mechanical vehicle, while the former had such relations to them that both +their interests were identical. + +But above all things, the great art of railroading had already grown from +infant existence to a condition of great possibilities, which were now to +be finally determined by a success, not alone mechanical and in the eyes +of the inventor, but measured by the balance sheets of the companies of +individuals who had made possible the construction of the various +experimental locomotives or experimental lines then being operated in +England and elsewhere. Just at this time, in the thirties of the +nineteenth century, seems to have been the crucial point. The arguments of +the engineers on the question of sufficient traction of the iron-shod +wheels on iron or other hard railways, while given due consideration, were +not wholly convincing, at least to the people investing their money in the +enterprises; the profits were to tell in the final conclusion, and it +would seem that the great era of railroading might be considered to have +had its actual birth at this time, because: + +The first dividend was paid on one of the great railroad enterprises. + + +INFLUENCE OF THE FIRST DIVIDEND + +For the time being that seemed to sound the death knell of the common road +steam-propelled vehicle. The engineers so strongly advocating the railroad +had proven their various propositions in the eyes of those who had the +financial powers to engage in the extensive introduction and development +of the new means of transportation. Further demonstration, extensively +exploited, was also made to the satisfaction of those investors, that +vehicles could be pulled with less power on a hard roadbed such as a +railway, than on an uneven and sometimes soft path such as common roads. +It seems clear that these and various other arguments, heartily urged at +that time, and, in some cases, unquestionable from a technical standpoint, +were really decided by that first dividend. And the common road vehicle +with the support and enthusiasm of its backers largely withdrawn from it +dropped to a position greatly subordinate to the other branch of +transportation. + + +THE STEAM ROAD VEHICLE AGAIN + +On the other hand, the development which came in the next few decades in +the railroad department brought also a renewed demand for common road +vehicles for certain classes of work or for certain localities. The steam +vehicle for stationary purposes, and also for the locomotive, were being +rapidly developed and refined. The railroad settled down to the idea of a +power unit drawing numerous wagons. That has been consistently adhered to +to the present day, and only in the past decade have we gone back to the +old and first principles of embodying the mechanical propelling means in +the same vehicle that transports the passengers or goods. So, while +Hancock and his worthy contemporaries passed into history, other common +road steam advocates continued their isolated attempts up to and past the +middle of the nineteenth century, although without any such general +enthusiasm as prevailed in the twenties and early thirties. + + +NEW GENERATION OF INVENTORS + +Many attempts in America, such as those of Fisher, Dudgeon, and others, +and the work in England by numerous inventors and machine manufacturers, +such as Tangye, Hilditch, Snowden, F. Hill, Jr., aided by the engineers, +Macadam, Telford and M'Neil, who were improving the common roads so that +they might approach the advantageous conditions of the railroad, assume +prominence in connection with that period of the history. Rickett's +carriage, in 1858; Carrett's, in 1862; Boulton's, in 1867; Catley's, in +1869, and others, were among the finger-posts of that time, pointing to +more notable achievements of the future. + +But in England the Act of Parliament, passed in 1836 and in force almost +to to-day, known as the Locomotive Act, was the deterrent to progress in +common road steam locomotion. This condition even continued after the +select committee of Parliament, in 1873, endeavored to remove some of the +restrictions, but succeeded only in producing the Act of 1878, which in no +way improved the position of the common road vehicle. + +In France and on the Continent political conditions doubtless mitigated +against any general advance, and though this period included the great +development of machinery and construction which paved the way for the +future, it is not of prominence in this history. + + +A PERIOD OF EXPERIMENTING + +A new era may be said to have commenced in the early part of the seventies +when we find Amédèe Bollèe exhibiting a steam machine at the Vienna +Exposition. In the seventies were also experiments on modified forms of +power on vehicle propelling motors other than steam, but it still seemed +to be the steam vehicle that characterized the new period of activity +which blossomed out in the early eighties with many ardent advocates, and +exhibited a type of light vehicle with efficient strong boiler and light +engine. America should not be overlooked, however, when we consider the +one small vehicle of Austin, which was constructed in Massachusetts, and +attracted great attention at the shows of the Ocean Circus, in the early +seventies, or thereabout. Bouton, of France, came to the fore in the +early eighties, and the light steam vehicle seemed on the high road to a +great development and a monopoly of the common roads vehicle industry, +until its competitor appeared in what is now popularly known as the +gasoline vehicle in the middle eighties. + + +THE SELDEN PATENT + +From this time on the great industry of to-day advanced in strides and +jumps, but while the future had been anticipated in some suggestions and +experiments in Europe, at last one great mind had delved into the problem +and anticipated the great future of the new type of vehicle in America. +Selden, after a decade or more of study and work, and well-directed +experiments, had made his own deductions, and with clear discerning had +concluded what, to his mind, would be _the_ vehicle in the future. The +result of his labors and the subsequent filing, in 1879, of a patent +application, when considered in connection with his persistent work from +that time on, even to the present day, would seem to justly mark him as +the pioneer in this type of vehicle; in fact, he was so called by the +Commissioner of Patents of the United States when publishing his annual +report, immediately after the issue of Selden's patent. + + +ADVENT OF THE HYDRO-CARBON ENGINE + +Then followed the work on carbureters and ignition devices and details of +construction adapting the liquid hydro-carbons of uncertain quality to +more satisfactory use. Details became and still are numerous, and optional +to a great extent, but the liquid hydro-carbon engine of the compression +type distinguished the new epoch. The development of the stationary +engine operated with gas from receivers also proceeded rapidly in those +days, though it was well into the eighties before the gas engine of the +compression type involved a commercially successful industry to any +extent; not for several years did the principal manufacturers take up +commercially the proposition of the liquid hydrocarbon application. The +development of the small engine using liquid hydro-carbons received +attention from Marcus, in Austria, and the persistent attention of Benz +and of Daimler, in Germany. The two latter, furthermore, adapted their +engines to vehicles, and enthusiasm was great when Benz ran his +three-wheeler, with explosive engine, through the streets of his native +town. + + +PROGRESS IN FRANCE AND AMERICA + +England was still shackled; but in France many were inspired to change +from steam to the hydro-carbon engine. About 1890 we find several French +manufacturers procuring engines, or the right to manufacture the small +explosive engines developed by the Germans, and promptly adapting them to +their vehicle construction, already well developed for steam propulsion. +Panhard & Levassor; Bouton, with his backer, DeDion; Bollèe, now Leon, the +nephew; Delahaye and Peugeot, were among the earliest Frenchmen to +appreciate the commercial possibilities of the new type. Then the large +manufacturers, already experienced in other lines, and particularly in +cycle manufacture, entered the field in 1893, 1894 and 1895; among them +such old concerns as DeDetrich, manufacturers for one hundred and more +years, grasped the opportunity. America was not idle, and while road +conditions in this country militated largely against the early attempts in +the industry, the efforts of the Duryeas and of Haynes, and various other +experimenters, who have since retired, were heard from. It was difficult, +however, with the obstacles then existing in America, for these early +workers to secure encouragement, and progress was slow, just as the +endeavors of Selden and some of the early steam vehicle people had +received nothing but discouragement at the hands of those whom they +endeavored to lead to the success of large manufacturing undertakings. + +However, the Times-Herald race, in Chicago, near the close of 1895, +brought forth a large number of inventors and several starters, including +electric, steam and gasoline vehicles, and the showing was such as to +practically satisfy the doubting that these were the beginning of the +industry in this country. + + +THE ENGLISH REVIVAL + +Abroad, the leaders in the automobile movement organized the now historic +races from Paris in different directions. With the runs of 1894, 1895 and +1896, and in each successive year thereafter, and with the road and other +conditions improved, the industry rapidly developed. England also was at +last reached. The restraints that had existed there for more than half a +century could no more be endured. The burden was finally thrown off, for +which great credit is due to Sir David Salomon, and the offensive +Locomotive Act was at last repealed in August, 1896. The subsequent +Locomotive Act which came into effect November 14, 1896, marked a +red-letter day in motoring history for England, and was justly celebrated +by a procession of vehicles from London to Brighton. Salomon had +previously organized an exhibition in England, and had imported a French +car, and as a prominent member of scientific and technical societies, in +which he presented many papers on the subject, had done, possibly, more +than any other individual to influence public sentiment and to secure this +new enactment. English manufacturers were not entirely unprepared for the +change, and a great wave of interest and activity swept the country. +Naturally this was followed by a reaction, but since then a +counter-reaction has set in, resulting in the present grand development of +that class of manufacturing in the British Isles. + +The small steam vehicle of Whitney, and his contemporaries, the Stanleys +in the United States, then came to the fore. Under energetic promotion +thousands of small vehicles of that type were manufactured and put into +use. These, in no small measure, became to the public at large the +convincing object lesson of the practicability and possibilities of the +small automobile for every-day use. + + +MODERN CONDITIONS + +The Paris show of 1900 revealed a great forward step in the development of +constructions, and the offer immediately thereafter of the James Gordon +Bennett trophy of international racing gave to the automobile industry +such an impetus as has seldom been the good fortune of any other art to +receive. To-day the automobile has reached that stage of perfection where +the question is no longer whether or not the vehicle will carry you to a +certain place and back. Now it is only a question of the speed, absence of +vibration, and sweetness of running the engine, absence of all noise, and +other details of refinement. Vehicles are now of the Pullman type, +luxurious to the extent of prices ranging into the thirties of thousands +of dollars, while on the other hand, thousands of small vehicles, costing +between five hundred and one thousand dollars, are annually made and sold. + +The steam machine, after being practically succeeded by the gasoline, was +again improved by the flash boiler. The main development of this new power +was carried on by Serpollet, of France, and later, by Rollin T. White, in +the United States, both whom have become most able competitors of +manufacturers of machines of other classes. + + +THE INDUSTRY TO-DAY + +The beginning of 1905 finds us with the annual shows, which have been +consecutive for many years, while the census of vehicles now in use, or +made in the last ten years, will aggregate several hundred thousand. The +annual production is estimated as probably approximating one hundred +thousand in a few of the principal countries. The value of the electrical +vehicle, particularly as the town vehicle for anything except speeding, is +now well established, and reports from Paris as well as New York indicate +the lack of facilities of factories in this line for producing these +carriages as rapidly as demanded. Heavy 'buses and individual vehicles +alike are also popular. + + + + +PIONEER INVENTORS + + + NICHOLAS JOSEPH CUGNOT, + WILLIAM MURDOCK, + OLIVER EVANS, + WILLIAM SYMINGTON, + NATHAN READ, + RICHARD TREVITHICK, + DAVID GORDON, + W. H. JAMES, + GOLDSWORTHY GURNEY, + THOMAS BLANCHARD, + M. JOHNSON, + WALTER HANCOCK, + W. T. JAMES, + FRANCIS MACERONI, + RICHARD ROBERTS, + J. SCOTT RUSSELL, + W. H. CHURCH, + ETIENNE LENOIR, + AMÉDÈE BOLLÈE, + GEORGE B. SELDEN, + SIEGFRIED MARCUS, + CARL BENZ, + GOTTLIEB DAIMLER, + M. LEVASSOR, + LEON SERPOLLET. + + + + +NICHOLAS JOSEPH CUGNOT + +Born at Void, Lorraine, France, September 25, 1725. Died in Paris, October +2, 1804. + +Concerning the early life of Cugnot, little is known. He was educated for +the engineering service of the French army, and gained distinction as a +military and mechanical engineer. He also served as a military engineer in +Germany. Soon afterward he entered the service of Prince Charles of +Lorraine, and for a time resided at Brussels, where he gave lessons in the +military art. He did not return to his native land until 1763, and then +invented a new gun, with which the cavalry were equipped. + +This brought him to the attention of the Compte de Saxe, and under the +patronage of that nobleman, he constructed in 1765 his first locomotive. +This was a small wagon. On its first run it carried four persons, and +traveled at the rate of two and a quarter miles an hour. The boiler, +however, being too small, the carriage could go only for fifteen or twenty +minutes before the steam was exhausted, and it was necessary to stop the +engine for nearly the same time, to enable the boiler to raise the steam +to the maximum pressure, before it could proceed on its journey. This +machine was a disappointment, in consequence of the inefficiency of the +feed pumps. It has been stated that while in Brussels he had made a +smaller vehicle, which, if so, was soon after 1760. + +Several small accidents happened during the trial, for the machine could +not be completely controlled, but it was considered on the whole to be +fairly successful and worthy of further attention. The suggestion was made +that provided it could be made more powerful, and its mechanism improved, +it might be used to drag cannon into the field instead of using horses for +that purpose. Consequently, Cugnot was ordered by the Duc de Choiseul, +Minister of War, to proceed with the construction of an improved and more +powerful machine. This vehicle, which was finished in 1770, cost twenty +thousand livres. It was in two parts, a wagon and an engine. The wagon was +carried on two wheels and had a seat for the steersman; the engine and +boiler were supported on a single driving-wheel in front of the wagon. The +two parts were united by a movable pin. A toothed quadrant, fixed on the +framing of the fore part, was actuated by spur gearing on the upright +steersman's shaft in close proximity to the seat, by means of which the +conductor could cause the carriage to turn in either direction, at an +angle of from fifteen to twenty degrees. In front was a round copper +boiler, having a furnace inside, two small chimneys, two single-acting +brass cylinders communicating with the boiler by the steam pipe, and other +machinery. On each side of the driving-wheel, ratchet wheels were fixed, +and as one of the pistons descended, the piston-rod drew a crank, the pawl +of which, working into the ratchet-wheel, caused the driving-wheel to make +a quarter of a revolution. By gearing, the same movement placed the piston +on the other side in a position for making a stroke, and turned the +four-way cock, so as to open the second cylinder to the steam and the +first cylinder to the atmosphere. The second piston then descended, +causing the leading wheel to make another quarter of a revolution, and +restoring the first piston to its original position. In order to run the +vehicle backwards, the pawl was made to act on the upper side, changing +the position of the spring which pressed upon it; then, when the engine +was started, the pawl caused the driving-wheel to turn a quarter of a +revolution in the opposite direction with every stroke of the piston. + +This machine was first tried in 1770 in the presence of a distinguished +assembly, that included the Duc de Choiseul; General Gribeauval, First +Inspector-General of Artillery; the Compte de Saxe, and others. +Subsequently, other trials of it were made, with satisfactory results +generally. The heavy over-balancing weight of the engine and boiler in +front rendered it difficult to control. On one of its trips it ran into a +wall in turning a corner and was partly wrecked. Further experiments with +it were abandoned, and in 1800 it was deposited in the Conservatoire des +Arts et Metier, Paris, where it still remains. + +At a later period of his life, having lost his means of support, Cugnot's +public services were considered to entitle him to a reward from the State. +Louis Fifteenth gave him a pension of six hundred livres, but the French +Revolution coming on, he was deprived even of that pittance, and he lived +in abject misery in Brussels. His carriage was then in the arsenal, and a +revolutionary committee, during the reign of terror, tried to take it out +and reduce it to scrap, but was driven off. When Napoleon came to the +throne, he restored the pension and increased it to one thousand livres. +In addition to his inventions, Cugnot wrote several works on military art +and fortification. + + +WILLIAM MURDOCK + +Born in Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, August 21, +1754. Died at Sycamore Hill, November 15, 1839. + +Murdock was the son of John Murdoch, a millwright. He was modestly +educated, and brought up to his father's trade, helping to build and put +up mill machinery. A curious production of the father and son, at this +period, was a wooden horse, worked by mechanical power, on which young +Murdock traveled about the country. When he was twenty-three years of age +he entered the employment of the famous engineering firm of Boulton & +Watt, at Soho, and there remained throughout his active life. + +Watt recognized in him a valuable assistant, and his services were +jealously regarded. On his part he devoted himself unreservedly to the +interests of his employers. In 1777 he was sent to Cornwall to look after +the pumps and engines set up by the firm in the mines, and for a long +period he lived at Redruth. For some five years after 1800 he was engineer +and superintendent at the Soho foundry. While living at Redruth, in 1792, +he began a series of experiments on the illuminating properties of the +gases of coal, wood, peat, and other substances, and in 1799 put up a +gas-making apparatus at Soho. In 1803 he fitted the Soho factory with a +gas-lighting system. Other inventions that are credited to him are models +for an oscillating engine and a rotary engine, a method of making steam +pipes, an apparatus for utilizing the force of compressed air, and a steam +gun. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM MURDOCK] + +His early training and all his surroundings naturally and inevitably +interested Murdock in the subject of steam locomotion, and before 1784 he +began to experiment on these lines. That he made definite progress is +shown in a letter that Thomas Wilson, agent in Cornwall of Boulton & Watt, +wrote to his employers in August, 1786, saying, "William Murdock desires +me to inform you that he has made a small engine of three-quarter-inch +diameter and one and one-half inch stroke, that he has applied to a small +carriage, which answers amazingly." He had made and run this model in +1784, and it is still in existence, and in the possession of the Messrs. +Richard and George Tangye, England. + +This model was on the high-pressure principle, and ran on three wheels, +the single front one for steering. The vertical boiler, nearly over the +rear axle, was heated by a spirit-lamp, and the machine stood only a +little more than a foot high. The axle was cranked in the middle and +turned by a rod connected to a beam moved up and down by the piston-rod +projecting from the top of the cylinder. Yet it developed considerable +speed. It is interesting to note that the use of the crank for converting +the reciprocating motion of the steam engine into rotary was patented by +Pickard in 1780, and Murdock's was probably its first application to +self-propelled carriages. + +The first experiment with this little engine was made in Murdock's house +at Redruth, when the locomotive successfully hauled a wagon round the +room, the single wheel, placed in front of the engine, fixed in such a +position as to enable it to run round a circle. + +Dr. Smiles, in his work on inventors, tells an amusing story concerning +this machine. He says: "Another experiment was made out of doors, on +which occasion, small though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed of +its inventor. One night, after returning from his duties at the mine at +Redruth, Murdock went with his model locomotive to the avenue leading to +the church, about a mile from the town. The walk was narrow, straight and +level. Having lit the lamp, the water soon boiled, and off started the +engine with the inventor after it. Shortly after he heard distant shouts +of terror. It was too dark to perceive objects, but he found, on following +up the machine, that the cries had proceeded from the worthy vicar, who, +while going along the walk, had met the hissing and fiery little monster, +which he declared he took to be the Evil One in propria persona!" + +But Murdock was too useful a man to Boulton & Watt to be allowed to have +free rein, and his inclination toward steam locomotion invention was +apparently curbed, though it would appear Watt thought the roads of that +time an insurmountable obstacle to the development of road vehicles, and +wanted Murdock to devote his time to mechanical matters more ripe for +success. Boulton, writing to Watt from Truro, in September, 1796, tells +how he met Murdock on his way to London to get a patent on a new model, +and how he persuaded him to turn back. This model was for a steam carriage +that was afterward shown as able to travel freely around a room with a +light load of shovel, poker and tongs upon it. His was probably the first +high-pressure steam-engine vehicle run in England. Though only a small +model, it did its proportionate work well. + +Watt continued to oppose Murdock's scheme, but on one occasion suggested +that he should be allowed an advance of five hundred dollars to enable him +to prosecute his experiments, and if he succeeded within a year in making +an engine capable of drawing a post chaise, carrying two passengers and +the driver, at four miles an hour, it was suggested that he should be +taken as partner into the locomotive business, for which Boulton and Watt +were to provide the necessary capital. This proposition was never carried +out. Again, in 1786, Watt said: "I wish William could be brought to do as +we do, to mind the business in hand, and let such as Symington and Sadler +throw away their time and money in hunting shadows." Murdock continued to +speculate about steam locomotion on common roads, but never carried his +ideas further. He retired from the employment of Boulton & Watt in 1830, +and practically retired from all work at the same time. + +Murdock seems to have had a very clear idea of the possibilities of steam +propulsion on the common roads. Had circumstances permitted he might well +have been expected to have solved the problem in 1796 quite as completely +as his successors did in 1835. But he was a quarter of a century ahead of +the time. Even the moderate public interest that existed later on had not +manifested itself at all in his day and the condition of the English +highways offered almost insuperable obstacles to steam vehicular travel. +Personally his lack of self-assertiveness and his feeling of dependence +upon Boulton and Watt also held him back. So he remained simply one of the +pioneer investigators pointing the way for others. + + +OLIVER EVANS + +Born in 1755 or 1756, in Newport, Del. Died in Philadelphia, April 21, +1819. + +Little has been preserved respecting the early history of Oliver Evans, +who has been aptly styled "The Watt of America." His parents were farming +people, and he had only an ordinary common-school education. At the age of +fourteen he was apprenticed to a wheelwright or wagonmaker, and continued +his meager education by studying at night time by the light that he made +by burning chips and shavings in the fireplace. + +While yet an apprentice his attention was turned to the subject of +propelling land carriages without animal power. But the lack of definite +knowledge in regard to steam power compelled him to abandon his plans, +although his experiments were continued for a long time. Soon after +attaining his majority he was engaged in making card-teeth by hand, and in +connection therewith developed several labor-saving improvements. He also +invented improvements in the construction of machinery of flour mills that +effected a complete revolution in the manufacture of flour. These +improvements consisted of the elevator, the conveyor, the hopper-boy, the +drill and the descender, which various machines were applied in different +mills so as to perform mechanically every necessary movement of the grain +and meal from one part of the mill to the other, causing a saving of fully +one-half in the labor of mill attendance and manufacturing the flour +better. These improvements were not accepted by the mill owners at the +outset, and Evans spent many discouraging years before he could finally +persuade the manufacturers of the utility of his inventions. In the +end, however, he lived to see his inventions generally introduced, and he +profited largely thereby. + +[Illustration: OLIVER EVANS] + +In the year 1786, Evans petitioned the Legislature of Pennsylvania for the +exclusive right to use his improvements in flour mills and steam carriages +in that State, and in the year following presented a similar petition to +the Legislature of Maryland. In the former instance he was only successful +so far as to obtain the privilege of the mill improvements, his +representations concerning steam carriages being considered as savoring +too much of insanity to deserve notice. He was more fortunate in Maryland, +for, although the steam project was laughed at, yet one of his friends, a +member, very judiciously observed that the grant could injure no one, for +he did not think that any man in the world had thought of such a thing +before, and therefore he wished the encouragement might be afforded, as +there was a prospect that it would produce something useful. This kind of +argument had its effect, and Evans received all that he asked for, and +from that period considered himself bound in honor to the State of +Maryland to produce a steam carriage, as soon as his means would allow +him. + +For several years succeeding the granting of his petition by the +Legislature of Maryland, Evans endeavored to obtain some person of +pecuniary resources to join with him in his plans; and for this purpose +explained his views by drafts, and otherwise, to some of the first +mechanics in the country. Although the persons addressed appeared, in +several instances, to understand them, they declined any assistance from +a fear of the expense and difficulty of their execution. + +In the year 1800, or 1801, Evans, never having found anyone willing to +contribute to the expense, or even to encourage him in his efforts, +determined to construct a steam carriage at his own expense. Previous to +commencing he explained his views to Robert Patterson, Professor of +Mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania, and to an eminent English +engineer. They both declared the principles new to them, and advised the +plan as highly worthy of a fair experiment. They were the only persons who +had any confidence, or afforded encouraging advice. He also communicated +his plans to B. F. Latrobe, the scientist, who publicly pronounced them as +chimerical, and attempted to demonstrate the absurdity of Evans' +principles in his report to the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania on +steam engines. In this he also endeavored to show the impossibility of +making steamboats useful. + +Evans commenced and had made considerable progress in the construction of +a steam carriage, when the idea occurred to him that as his steam engine +was altogether different in form, as well as in principle, from any other +in use, a patent could be obtained for it, and then applied to mills more +profitably than to carriages. The steam carriage was accordingly laid +aside for a season of more leisure, and the construction of a small engine +was commenced, with a cylinder six inches in diameter and a piston of +eighteen inches stroke, for a mill to grind plaster of paris. The expense +of its construction far exceeded Evans' calculation, and before the +engine was finished he found it cost him all he was worth. He had then to +begin the world anew, at the age of forty-eight, with a large family to +support, and that, too, with a knowledge that if the trial failed his +credit would be entirely ruined, and his prospects for the remainder of +life dark and gloomy. But fortune favored him, and his success was +complete. + +In a brief account, given by himself, of his experiments in steam, he +says: "I could break and grind three hundred bushels of plaster of paris, +or twelve tons, in twenty-four hours; and to show its operations more +fully to the public, I applied it to saw stone, on the side of Market +Street, where the driving of twelve saws in heavy frames, sawing at the +rate of one hundred feet of marble in twelve hours, made a great show and +excited much attention. I thought this was sufficient to convince the +thousands of spectators of the utility of my discovery, but I frequently +heard them inquire if the power could be applied to saw timber as well as +stone, to grind grain, propel boats, etc., and though I answered in the +affirmative, they still doubted. I therefore determined to apply my engine +to all new uses; to introduce it and them to the public. This experiment +completely tested the correctness of my principles. The power of my engine +rises in a geometrical proportion, while the consumption of the fuel has +only an arithmetical ratio; in such proportion that every time I added +one-fourth more to the consumption of the fuel, its powers were doubled; +and that twice the quantity of fuel required to drive one saw, would +drive sixteen saws at least; for when I drove two saws the consumption was +eight bushels of coal in twelve hours, but when twelve saws were driven, +the consumption was not more than ten bushels, so that the more we resist +the steam, the greater is the effect of the engine. On these principles +very light but powerful engines can be made suitable for propelling boats +and land carriages without the great encumbrance of their weight as +mentioned in Latrobe's demonstration." + +In the year 1840, Evans, by order of the Board of Health of Philadelphia, +constructed at his works, situated a mile and a half from the water, a +machine for cleaning docks. It consisted of a large flat or scow, with a +steam engine of five horse-power on board, to work the machinery to raise +the mud into the scows. This was considered a fine opportunity to show the +public that his engine could propel both land and water conveyances. When +the machine was finished, he fixed, in a rough and temporary manner, +wheels with wooden axletrees, and, of course, under the influence of great +friction. Although the whole weight was equal to two hundred barrels of +flour, yet his small engine propelled it up Market Street and round the +circle to the waterworks, where it was launched into the Schuylkill River. +A paddle-wheel was then applied to its stern, and it thus moved down that +river to the Delaware, a distance of sixteen miles, leaving behind all +vessels that were under sail. + +This demonstration was in the presence of thousands of spectators, which +he supposed would have convinced them of the practicability of steamboats +and steam carriages. But no allowance was made by the public for the +disproportion of the engine to its load, nor for the rough manner in which +the machinery was fixed, or the great friction and ill form of the boat, +and it was supposed that this was the utmost it could perform. Some +individuals undertook to ridicule the experiment of driving so great a +weight on land, because the motion was too slow to be useful. The inventor +silenced them by answering that he would make a carriage propelled by +steam, for a wager of three thousand dollars, to run upon a level road, +against the swiftest horse that could be produced. This machine Evans +named the Oructor Amphibolis. + +On the 25th of September, 1804, Evans submitted to the consideration of +the Lancaster Turnpike Company a statement of the costs and profits of a +steam carriage to carry one hundred barrels of flour, fifty miles in +twenty-four hours; tending to show that one such steam carriage would make +more net profits than ten wagons, drawn by five horses each, on a good +turnpike road, and offering to build one at a very low price. His address +closed as follows: "It is too much for an individual to put in operation +every improvement which he may invent. I have no doubt but that my engines +will propel boats against the current of the Mississippi, and wagons on +turnpike roads, with great profit. I now call upon those whose interest it +is to carry this invention into effect. All of which is respectfully +submitted to your consideration." Little or no attention was paid to this +offer, for it was difficult at that day to interest anyone in steam +locomotion. + +Evans' interest in the steam carriage forthwith ceased, but in his +writings, published about that time, he remarked: "The time will come when +people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to +another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen or twenty miles an hour. +Passing through the air with such velocity, changing the scene in such +rapid succession, will be the most rapid exhilarating exercise. A carriage +(steam) will set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will +breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York in the +same day." To accomplish this he suggested railways of wood or iron, or +smooth paths of broken stone or gravel, and predicted that engines would +soon drive boats ten or twelve miles an hour. In the latter years of his +life, Evans established a large iron foundry in Philadelphia. + +Although Evans' distinct contribution to the problem of steam locomotion +on the common roads was not particularly practical it was at least +important as being the first suggestion of anything of the kind in the +United States. Road conditions in this country at that time were worse +than they were in England and yet under more discouraging circumstances he +was as far advanced in ideas and plans as his great contemporaries, +Trevithick and others across the water. To Evans must be given the credit +of perfecting the high-pressure, non-condensing engine, and even +Trevithick, "the father of the locomotive," was largely indebted to him +for his progress in the lines he was working on in England, his plans and +specifications having been sent abroad for the English engineers to +inspect in 1784. + + +WILLIAM SYMINGTON + +Born at Leadhills, Scotland, October, 1783. Died in London, March 22, +1831. + +More fortunate than most of the English inventors of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, with whom he was associated, William Symington came +of a family that was able to give him a good education. His father was a +mechanic who had charge of the engines and machinery at the Warlockhead +lead mines, and the son gained his first knowledge of mechanics and +engineering in the shops with his father. Intended for the ministry, he +was sent to the University of Glasgow and the University of Dublin to +pursue his studies. But the ministry had slight attractions for him, and +when the time came for him to choose a profession, he adopted that of +civil engineering. + +In 1786 he worked out a model for a steam road-car. This was regarded very +highly by all who saw it. It is said that Mr. Meason, manager of the lead +mines at Warlockhead, was so pleased with the model, the merit of which +principally belonged to young Symington, that he sent him into Edinburgh +for the purpose of exhibiting it before the professors of the University, +and other scientific gentlemen of the city, in the hope that it might lead +in some way to his future advancement in life. Mr. Meason became the +patron and friend of Symington, allowed the model to be exhibited at his +own house, and invited many persons of distinction to inspect it. The +carriage supported on four wheels had a locomotive behind, the front +wheels being arranged with steering-gear. A cylindrical boiler was used +for generating steam, which communicated by a steam-pipe with the two +horizontal cylinders, one on each side of the firebox of the boiler. When +steam was turned into the cylinder, the piston made an outward stroke; a +vacuum was then formed, the steam being condensed in a cold water tank +placed beneath the cylinders, and the piston was forced back by the +pressure of the atmosphere. The piston rods communicated their motion to +the driving-axle and wheels through rack rods, which worked toothed wheels +placed on the hind axle on both sides of the engine, and the alternate +action of the rack rods upon the tooth and ratchet wheels, with which the +drums were provided, produced the rotary motion. The boiler was fitted +with a lever and weight safety valve. Symington's locomotive was +abandoned, the inventor considering that the scheme of steam travel on the +common roads was impracticable. + +Henceforth, Symington gave his attention to the study of boat propulsion +by steam. In 1787 he got out a patent for an improved form of steam +engine, in which he obtained rotary action by chains and ratchet-wheels. +This engine, with a four-inch cylinder, was used to work the paddles of a +pleasure boat on Dalswinton Loch, in 1788, the boat steaming at the rate +of five miles an hour. This boat is now in the South Kensington Museum, +and it has been termed "the parent engine of steam navigation." The +experiment with this method of boat propulsion was so successful that a +year later larger engines, with eighteen-inch cylinders, were fitted to +another boat, which attained a speed of seven miles an hour. In 1801, +Symington took out a patent for an engine with a piston rod guided by +rollers in a straight path and connected by a rod with a crank attached +directly to the paddle-wheel shaft--the system that has been in use ever +since. Although the perfect practicability of this method of boat +propulsion was fully demonstrated by a trial on the tugboat Charlotte +Dundas, in March, 1802, the plan for steam power on canals and lakes was +not carried further. The Forth and Clyde Company, and the Duke of +Bridgewater, who were backing Symington, gave up the project and he could +get help from no other sources. His inventions and experiments are +generally regarded as marking the beginning of steam navigation. It is +interesting to note that among those who were guests on the Charlotte +Dundas, on the occasion of this trial trip, was Robert Fulton, who wrote a +treatise on steam navigation in 1793, tried a small steamboat on the river +Seine, in France, in 1803, and in 1807 launched his famous steamship, the +Clermont, on the Hudson River. + +Symington, disappointed and discouraged, gave up his work and went to +London. The rest of his life was for the most part thrown away, and he +became one of the waifs and strays of London. In 1825 he received a grant +of one hundred pounds from the privy purse, and later on fifty pounds +more, in recognition of his services for steam navigation. He died in +obscurity and although he was unquestionably the pioneer in his country of +the successful application of steam to navigation on inland waters his +name is only a bare memory. + + +NATHAN READ + +Born in Warren, Mass., July 2, 1759. Died near Belfast, Me., January 20, +1849. + +Graduated from Harvard College in 1781, Read was a tutor at Harvard for +four years. In 1788 he began experimenting to discover some way of +utilizing the steam engine for propelling boats and carriages. His efforts +were mainly directed toward devising lighter, more compact machinery than +then generally in use. His greatest invention at that time was a +substitute for the large working-beam. This was a cross-head beam which +ran in guides and had a connecting-rod with which motion was communicated. +The new cylinder that he invented to attach to this working-frame was +double-acting. In order to make the boiler more portable he invented a +multi-tubular form, and this he patented, together with the cylinder, +chain-wheel, and other appliances. + +The boiler was cylindrical and was placed upright or horizontal, and the +furnace was carried within it. A double cylinder formed a water-jacket, +connected with a water and steam chamber above, and a water-chamber below. +Numerous small straight tubes connected these two chambers. Read also +invented another boiler in which the fire went through small spiral tubes, +very much as it does in the present-day locomotives, and this was a +smoke-consuming engine. For the purpose of acquiring motion he first used +paddle-wheels, but afterward adopted a chain-wheel of his own invention. + +[Illustration: NATHAN READ] + +Read planned a steam-car to be run with his tubular boiler, and it is said +that this vehicle, when laden with fifty tons weight, could make five +miles per hour. The model which was completed in 1790 had four wheels, +the front pair being pivoted at the center and controlled by a horizontal +sheave and rope. The sheave was located back near the boiler, and in +guiding the machine it was operated by a hand-wheel placed above the +platform, within easy reach of the engineer. A square boiler with Read's +multi-tubular system, overhung at the rear of the carriage. Two +driving-wheels were forward of the boiler, and in front of these were two +horizontal cylinders on each side of the engine. On the inside of each +wheel were ratched teeth that fitted into corresponding teeth on +horizontal racks above and below the hub. The piston, moving back and +forth from the cylinder, engaged these teeth and caused a revolution of +the wheel. There were two steam valves and two exhaust valves to each +cylinder, the exhaust being into the atmosphere. Although this was the +first conception of propulsion by steam on land in America, Read went no +further in creating this model, inasmuch as he received no encouragement +from financial sources. + +In 1796, Read established at Salem, Mass., the Salem Iron Foundry, where +he manufactured anchors, chain cables, and other machinery. In January, +1798, he invented a machine to cut and head nails at one operation. He +also invented a method of equalizing the action of windmills by +accumulating the force of the wind through winding up a weight; and a plan +for harnessing the force of the tides by means of reservoirs which, by +being alternately filled up and emptied, created a constant stream of +water. Among his other inventions were a pumping engine and a threshing +machine. + + +RICHARD TREVITHICK + +Born in Illogan, in the west of Cornwall, England, April 13, 1771. Died in +Dartford, Kent, April 22, 1833. + +Richard Trevithick had meager educational advantages. His father was +manager of the Dolcoath and other mines, and shortly after the birth of +his son moved to Penponds, near Camborne, where the boy was sent to school +to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, which were the limits of his +attainments. Early in life he showed the dawning of remarkable inventive +genius, was quick at figures and clever in drawing. He developed into a +young man of notable physique, being six feet two inches high, and having +the frame and the strength of an athlete. He was one of the most powerful +wrestlers in the west country, and it is related of him that he could +easily lift a thousand-weight mandril. + +At the age of eighteen young Trevithick began to assist his father as mine +manager, and at once proceeded to put his inventive faculty to practical +test. His initial success, in 1795, was an improvement upon an engine at +the Wheal Treasury mine, which accomplished a great saving in fuel and in +power, and won for him his first royalty. Before his father died, in 1797, +he had attained to the position of engineer at the Ding Dong mine, near +Penzance, and had already set up at the Herland mine the engine built by +William Bull, with improvements of his own. His earliest invention of +importance was in 1797, when he made an improved plunger pump, which, in +the following year, he developed into a double-acting water-pressure +engine. One of these engines, set up in 1804, at the Alport mine, in +Derbyshire, was run until 1850. + +[Illustration: RICHARD TREVITHICK] + +In 1780 he built a double-acting high-pressure engine with a crank, for +Cook's Kitchen mine. This was known as the Puffer, from the noise that it +made, and it soon came into general use in Cornwall and South Wales, a +successful rival of the low-pressure steam vacuum engine of Watt. + +As early as 1796 Trevithick began to give attention to the subject of +steam locomotion, and a model constructed by him before 1800 is now in the +South Kensington Museum. He busied himself in designing and building a +steam vehicle to travel upon the common highways. The work was done in a +workshop at Camborne, and some of it in the shop of Captain Andrew Vivian. +It was Christmas Eve of 1801 when this steam locomotive was completed and +was brought out for trial. + +The following account of the first trial was made by one who was present: +"I knew Captain Dick Trevithick very well. I was a cooper by trade, and +when Trevithick was making his steam carriage I used to go every day into +John Tyack's shop at the Weith, close by here, where they put her +together. In the year 1801, upon Christmas Eve, towards night, Trevithick +got up steam, out on the high road, just outside the shop. When we saw +that Trevithick was going to turn on steam, we jumped up, as many as +could, maybe seven or eight of us. 'Twas a stiffish hill going up to +Camborne Beacon, but she went off like a little bird. When she had gone +about a quarter of a mile there was a rough piece of road covered with +loose stones. She didn't go quite so fast, and as it was a flood of rain, +and we were very much squeezed together, I jumped off. She was going +faster than I could walk, and went up the hill about half a mile further, +when they turned her and came back again to the shop." The next day the +engine steamed to Captain Vivian's house, and a few days subsequently, +Trevithick and Vivian started off for Tehidy House, where Lord +Dedunstanville lived, some two or three miles from Camborne. On this +journey they met with an accident, the engine being overturned in going +around a curve; but they got back safely. + +This carriage presented the appearance of an ordinary stage coach on four +wheels. The engine had one horizontal cylinder which, together with the +boiler and the furnace-box, was placed in the rear of the hind axle. +The-motion of the piston was transmitted to a separate crank-axle, from +which, through the medium of spur-gear, the axle of the driving-wheel, +which was mounted with a fly-wheel, derived its motion. The steam cocks +and the force-pump, as also the bellows used for the purpose of quickening +combustion in the furnace, were worked off the same crank axle. This was +one of the first successful high-pressure engines constructed on the +principle of moving a piston by the elasticity of steam against the +pressure only of the outside atmosphere. + +In the following year Trevithick went to London with his cousin, Andrew +Vivian, and secured a patent. Early in 1803 he made his second steam +carriage. This was built at Camborne and taken to London, via Plymouth, +for exhibition. Its journey along the highways thoroughly alarmed the +country people. Coleridge relates that a toll-gate keeper was so +frightened at the appearance of the sputtering, smoke-spitting thing of +fearsome mien that, trembling in every limb and with teeth chattering, he +threw aside the toll-gate with the scared exclamation, "No--noth--nothing +to pay. My de--dear Mr. Devil, do drive on as fast as you can. Nothing to +pay!" + +The engine in this carriage had a cylinder five and one-half inches in +diameter, with a stroke of two and one-half feet, and with thirty pounds +of steam it worked five strokes per minute. In every way it was superior +to its predecessor. It was not so heavy; and the horizontal cylinder, +instead of the vertical, added very much to its steadiness of motion; +while wheels of a larger diameter enabled it the more easily to pass over +rough roads which had brought the Camborne one to a standstill. The boiler +was made entirely of wrought iron, and the cylinder was inserted +horizontally, close behind the driving axle. A forked piston-rod was used, +the ends working in guides, so that the crank axle might be brought near +to the cylinder. Spur gearing and couplings were used on each side of the +carriage for communicating motion from the crank shaft to the main driving +axle. The driving-wheels were about ten feet diameter, and made of wood. +The framing was of wrought iron. The coach was intended to seat eight or +ten persons, and the greater part of the weight came on the driving axle. +The coach was suspended upon springs. + +The London steam carriage was put together at Felton's carriage shop, in +Leather Lane, and after its completion, Vivian one day ran the locomotive +from Leather Lane, Gray's Inn Lane, on to Lords' Cricket Ground, to +Paddington, and home again by way of Islington, a journey of ten miles +through the streets of London. Several trips were made in Tottenham Court +Road and Euston Square, and only once did they meet with accident. +Finally, however, the frame of the carriage got twisted, and the engine +was detached and set to driving a mill. + +Trevithick's next experiment was made in 1803-4, while he was engineer of +the Pen-y-darran iron works, near Merthyr Tydvil, where he built and ran +on a railway a locomotive that was fairly successful. In 1808 he built a +locomotive for a circular railway or steam circus that he and Andrew +Vivian set up in London, near Euston Square. This ran for several weeks, +carrying passengers at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour around +curves of fifty or one hundred feet radius. One day a rail broke and the +engine was overturned, which ended the exhibition. + +Subsequently, Trevithick applied his high-pressure engine to rock-boring +and breaking, and dredging. He laid out a system of dredging the Thames +River, planned a tunnel under the Thames, invented a high-pressure steam +threshing engine in 1812, constructed iron tanks and buoys, and modeled an +iron ship. He was one of the first to conceive the practical use of steam +in agriculture, declaring that the use of the steam engine for this +purpose would "double the population of the kingdom and make our markets +the cheapest in the world." + +In 1814, Trevithick became interested in a plan to work the silver mines +of Peru by Cornish methods, and nine of his high-pressure engines were +sent to South America in charge of Henry Vivian and other engineers. He +himself followed in 1816, and remained in that country ten years, making +and losing several fortunes during that time. Finally, in a revolution, +the mining plants were destroyed, and he was forced to leave the country, +penniless. For a time he was prospecting in Costa Rica, where he planned a +railroad across the Isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1827 he +returned to England, still a poor man, and settling in Dartford, Kent, +devoted himself to new inventions, unsuccessfully endeavoring to secure +the help of the government in his work. His later years were spent in +poverty, and when he died, the expense of his burial was borne by his +fellow-workmen of Dartford. + +Undoubtedly, Trevithick was one of the foremost English engineers of his +day, a period that was rich with strong men of distinction in his +profession. By many he has been considered as having contributed more even +than James Watt to the development of the steam engine and its broader +adaptation to practical uses. In his early years he was restrained in +putting his ideas and experiments to practical test by the restrictions of +Watt's patents. Finally when that difficulty was removed he at once took a +leading position in his profession. Especially in the development of the +high pressure engine he is entitled to at least as much credit as any man +of his day. His genius was fully recognized in his generation and his +impoverished old age was the result of financial reverses in business +operations and not from the lack of substantial rewards for his inventive +achievements. + + +DAVID GORDON + +The first experiments of David Gordon, who in 1819 was working with +William Murdock, in Soho, were for the purpose of using compressed air for +common road locomotives. He also invented a portable gas apparatus, and +originated a society of gentlemen, with the intention of forming a company +for the purpose of running a mail coach and other carriages by means of a +high-pressure engine, or of a gas vacuum or pneumatic engine, supplied +with portable gas. Alexander Gordon, his son, states that "the committee +of the society had only a limited sum at their disposal, nor were there to +be more funds until a carriage had been propelled for a considerable +distance at the rate of ten miles an hour." David Gordon then tried to +prevail upon the committee to make use of a steam engine, but evidently +without success. + +In 1821 he took out a patent for improvements in wheel carriages, and his +locomotive is fully described in the interesting Treatise on Elemental +Locomotion, by Mr. Alexander Gordon. The machine consisted of a large +hollow cylinder about nine feet in diameter and five long, having its +internal circumference provided with a continuous series of cogged teeth, +into which were made to work the cogged running wheels of a locomotive +steam engine, similar to that of Trevithick. The steam power being +communicated to the wheels of the carriage, caused them to revolve, and to +climb up the internal rack of the large cylinder. The center of gravity of +the engine being thus constantly made to change its position, and to throw +its chief weight on the forward side of the axis of the cylinder, the +latter was compelled to roll forward, propelling the vehicle before it, +and whatever train might be added. + +Gordon's next attempt to construct locomotive carriages for the common +road was in 1824. The means proposed was a modification of the method +invented by William Brunton. But instead of the propellers being operated +upon by the alternating motion of the piston-rod, as in Brunton's vehicle, +Gordon contrived to give them a continuous rotatory action and to apply +the force of the engines in a more direct manner. The carriage ran upon +three wheels, one in the front to steer by, and two behind to bear the +chief weight. Each of the wheels had a separate axle, the ends of which +had their bearings upon parallel bars, the wheels rolling in a +perpendicular position. This arrangement, by avoiding the usual +cross-axle, afforded an increased uninterrupted space in the body of the +vehicle. + +In the fore part of the carriage were placed the steam engines, consisting +of two brass cylinders, in a horizontal position, but vibrating upon +trunnions. The piston-rods of these engines gave motion to an eight-throw +crank, two in the middle for the cylinders, and three on each side, to +which were attached the propellers; by the revolution of the crank, these +propellers or legs were successively forced outwards, with the feet of +each against the ground in a backward direction, and were immediately +afterwards lifted from the ground by the revolution of another crank, +parallel to the former, and situated at a proper distance from it on the +same frame. The propelling-rods were formed of iron gas-tubes, filled with +wood, to combine lightness with strength. To the lower ends of these +propelling-rods were attached the feet, in the form of segments of +circles, and made on their under side like a short and very stiff brush of +whalebone, supported by intermixed iron teeth, to take effect in case the +whalebone failed. These feet pressed against the ground in regular +succession, by a kind of rolling, circular motion, without digging it up. +The guide had the power of lifting these legs off the ground at pleasure, +so that in going down hill, when the gravity was sufficient for +propulsion, nothing but a brake was put into requisition to retard the +motion, if necessary. If the carriage was proceeding upon a level, the +lifting of the propellers was equivalent to the subtraction of the power, +and soon brought it to a full stop. When making turns in a road the guide +had only to lift the propellers on one side of the carriage and allow the +others to operate alone, until the curve was traversed. + +Gordon got fair results from this locomotive, but the speed was not +satisfactory. In his first trials he found the power insufficient. He +afterwards fitted one of Gurney's light boilers in the hinder part of the +carriage, though even after this improvement had been added the +experiments were disappointing. Gordon was convinced that the application +of the power to the wheels was the proper mode of propulsion, and his +project was abandoned after six or seven years had been spent in +inventing, constructing, and carrying out experiments with four distinct +carriages. + + +WILLIAM HENRY JAMES + +Born at Henley, England, March, 1776. Died at Dulwich College Alms House, +December 16, 1873. + +The father of William Henry James was William James, of Warwickshire, the +great railway projector of his time. He was a solicitor in early life, but +became wealthy, worked a colliery in South Staffordshire, and in 1815 +removed to London, where he had a large land agency business. He became +interested in tramways in 1806, and from that date on devoted most of his +energies and fortune to projecting railways in the United Kingdom. He had +an interest in one of George Stephenson's patents, made numerous railway +surveys, and by many has been considered to have done more than any single +individual in laying the foundations of the English railroad system. + +William Henry James assisted his father in his railway surveys in early +life, and then began business independently as an engineer, in Birmingham. +He made experiments in steam locomotion on common roads, and took out +patents for locomotive steam engines, boilers, driving apparatus, and so +on. His patent for a water-tube boiler for road locomotives was secured in +1823, and his first car was built in 1824. This was a twenty-passenger +steam coach. Each rear wheel had a double-cylinder engine, and the pistons +were worked at a pressure of two hundred pounds per square inch. Separate +engines to each driver gave each wheel an independent motion, so that +power and speed might be varied for turning corners, the outer wheel +travelling over a much greater space than the inner wheel. When the front +wheels were so placed that the carriage proceeded in a straight line an +equal amount of steam was admitted to each pair of cylinders, but when the +front wheel was in the lock the engine driving the outer wheel received a +greater amount of steam and thus developed more power and traveled faster +than the inner wheel. This arrangement was said to be so efficient that +the carriage could be made to describe every variety of curve, repeatedly +making turns of less than ten feet radius. The whole of the machinery was +mounted upon laminated carriage springs. This arrangement caused the +engines and their framework to vibrate altogether upon the crank-shaft as +a center, at the same time connecting these engines to the boiler by means +of hollow axles moving in stuffing boxes. Each engine had two cylinders of +small diameter and long stroke; to these separate engines steam was +supplied from the boiler by means of the main pipe, which moved through +steam-tight stuffing boxes to the slide valve-boxes by small pipes. The +locomotive was entirely distinct from the passenger carriage. + +Sir James C. Anderson became associated with James, and in 1829 they built +another carriage. This weighed nearly three tons, and the first trials +were made round a circle of one hundred and sixty feet in diameter. When +it was finally ready to be brought out it was loaded with fifteen +passengers and driven several miles on a rough gravel road across Epping +Forest, with a speed varying from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. Steam +was supplied by two tubular boilers, each forming a hollow cylinder four +feet six inches long. The tubes of which the boilers were composed were +common gas pipe, one of which split on one of the trips, thus letting the +water out of one of the boilers and extinguishing its fire. Under these +circumstances, with only one boiler in operation, the carriage returned +home at the rate of about seven miles an hour, carrying more than twenty +passengers--at one period, indeed, it is said, a much greater number; +showing that sufficient steam could be generated in such a boiler to be +equal to the propulsion of between five and six tons weight. In +consequence of this demonstration that the most brilliant success was +attainable, the proprietors dismantled the carriage and commenced the +construction of superior tubular boilers with much stronger tubes. + +Shortly after Anderson and James commenced to build another steam +carriage, which was ready for use in November, 1829. This engine was not +intended to carry passengers, but to be employed for drawing carriages +behind. Four tubular boilers were used, the total number of tubes being +nearly two hundred. These boilers were enclosed in a space four feet wide, +three feet long, and two feet deep. The steam from each boiler was +conducted into one main steam pipe one and one-half inches in diameter, +and the communication from any one of the boilers could be cut off in case +of leakage. Four cylinders, each two and one-quarter inch bore and nine +inch stroke, were arranged vertically in the hind part of the locomotive, +and two of them acted upon each crank-shaft as before, giving a separate +motion to each driving wheel. + +The exhaust steam was conducted through two copper tanks for heating the +feed water to a high temperature, and thence passed to the chimney. The +steering-gear consisted of an external pillar containing a vertical shaft, +at the upper end of which small bevel-gearing was used, giving motion to +the vertical shaft, whose bottom end carried a pinion gearing into a +sector attached to the fore axle. The motion of the crank-shafts was +communicated to the separate axles of the driving-wheels by spur-gearing +with two speeds. + +In experiments made with this carriage, the greatest speed obtained upon a +level, on a very indifferent road, was at the rate of fifteen miles an +hour, and it never ran more than three or four miles without breaking some +of the steam joints. The Mechanic's Magazine, reporting one of these +trials, said: "A series of interesting experiments were made throughout +the whole of yesterday with a new steam carriage belonging to Sir James +Anderson, Bart., and W. H. James, Esq., on the Vauxhall, Kensington, and +Clapham roads, with the view of ascertaining the practical advantages of +some perfectly novel apparatus attached to the engines, the results of +which were so satisfactory that the proprietors intend immediately +establishing several stage coaches on the principle. The writer was +favored with a ride during the last experiment, when the machine proceeded +from Vauxhall Bridge to the Swan at Clapham, a distance of two and a half +miles, which was run at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. From what I had +the pleasure of witnessing, I am confident that this carriage is far +superior to every other locomotive carriage hitherto brought before the +public, and that she will easily perform fifteen miles an hour throughout +a long journey. The body of the carriage, if not elegant, is neat, being +the figure of a parallelogram. It is a very small and compact machine, and +runs upon four wheels." + +W. H. James patented another steam carriage in August, 1832. This varied +much from his earlier engines in the working parts, and it was not +generally considered to be as satisfactory as the others. Sir James +Anderson was not able, for pecuniary reasons, to continue to back James in +his experimenting, and it does not appear that these plans of 1832 were +ever consummated in a completed vehicle. + +James was a man of strong mind, an original thinker and thoroughly +well-trained by his apprenticeship with his father. He spent a good part +of his life in experimenting with common-road steam propulsion, but he had +not monetary resources or financial ability commensurate with his +mechanical genius. When the support of Anderson was withdrawn from him he +seems to have been compelled to give up. Little has been recorded +concerning the latter years of his life, and his death in the almshouse +sufficiently indicates the poverty in which his last years were spent. His +father also sacrificed his life to the cause of railroad advancement, +losing his entire fortune and dying a poor man. + + +GOLDSWORTHY GURNEY + +Born at Treator, near Padstow, Cornwall, England, February 14, 1793. Died +at Reeds, near Bade, February 28, 1875. + +The son of John Gurney, Goldsworthy Gurney received a good elementary +education at the Truro Grammar School, and then studied medicine. He +settled at Wadebridge as a surgeon, but although very successful, +gradually turned his attention to scientific and mechanical +investigations. He constructed an organ, studied chemistry and mechanical +science, and removing to London in 1820, delivered a series of lectures on +heat, electricity and gases at the Surrey Institute. His investigations +resulted in the invention of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and the discovery +of the powerful lime-light known as the Drummond light, and he engaged in +other experiments in this field of research. + +In 1804, while on a holiday at Camborne, he saw a Trevithick engine on +wheels. Recalling this in after years he began experimenting on steam +locomotion in 1823, and soon abandoned his surgical and medical practice +for this new pursuit. His first efforts were toward the construction of an +engine to travel on the common roads. The weight of the steam engines that +were then being built seemed to him to offer great objections to their use +for this purpose, but he succeeded, with his first machine, in reducing +weight from four tons to thirty hundredweight. Then he secured a +sufficiency of power by the invention of the high-pressure steam jet. This +invention differed from those of Stephenson and Trevithick, who sent their +waste steam up through the chimney instead of utilizing it. The Gurney +jet was applied to the Stephenson Rocket engine on the Liverpool and +Manchester Railway, in October, 1829, and also to steamboats and steam +carriages. + +In 1823, Gurney made his first experiments with a model steam carriage, on +which propellers or feet were used. Two years later, in 1825, he completed +a full-size carriage on the same plan, and in May of that year he took out +his first patent for this vehicle. The carriage was impelled by these legs +being alternately drawn forwards and pressed backwards by a steam engine +acting upon them through movable oblong blocks, to which they were +attached. As a first experiment this carriage was driven up Windmill Hill, +near Kilburn. Another trip, between London and Edgeware, demonstrated the +inefficiency of these propellers, and led to the discovery that there was +sufficient friction between wheels and the ground to insure propulsion. + +In 1826 he constructed a coach about twenty feet long, which would +accommodate six inside and fifteen outside passengers, besides the +engineer. The driving-wheels were five feet diameter, and the leading +wheels three feet nine inches diameter. Two propellers were used, which +could be put in motion when the carriage was climbing hills. Gurney's +patent boiler was used for supplying steam to the twelve horse-power +engine. The total weight of the carriage was about a ton and a half. In +front of the coach was a capacious boot, while behind, that which had the +appearance of a boot, was the case for the boiler and the furnace, from +which it was calculated that no inconvenience would be experienced by the +outside passenger, although in cold weather a certain degree of heat might +be obtained, if required. In descending a hill, there was a brake fixed on +the hind wheel, to increase the friction; but, independently of this, the +guide had the power of lessening the force of the steam to any extent by +means of the lever at his right hand, which operated upon the throttle +valve, and by which he could stop the action of the steam altogether and +effect a counter vacuum in the cylinders. By this means also he regulated +the rate of progress on the road. There was another lever by which he +could stop the vehicle instantly, and in a moment reverse the motion of +the wheels. + +This carriage traveled up Highgate Hill to Edgeware, and also to Stanmore, +and went up both Stanmore Hill and Brockley Hill. In ascending these hills +the driving-wheels did not slip, so that the legs were not needed. After +these experiments the propellers were removed. + +Gurney obtained another patent in 1827, and under this worked a steam +carriage resembling the common stage coach, with the boiler in the hind +boot. This carriage was run experimentally to Barnet, Edgeware, Finchley, +and other places, and in 1828 it was said that a trip was made from London +to Melksham, thirteen miles from Bath, a distance of nearly two hundred +miles. On the return trip the rate of speed was about twelve miles an +hour. + +Gurney's carriage so fully established its practicability, that in 1830, +Sir Charles Dance contracted for several, and ran them successfully from +London to Holyhead, and from Birmingham to Bristol. In the following year +he ran over the turnpike road between Gloucester and Cheltenham for four +months in succession, four times a day, without an accident or delay of +consequence. The distance of nine miles was regularly covered in from +forty-five to fifty-five minutes. Nearly three thousand persons were +carried, and nearly four thousand miles traveled. + +A strong public sentiment against the use of the common roads by these +vehicles sprang up, and Parliament was prevailed upon to impose upon steam +carriages heavy highway tolls that were in effect prohibitory. Sir Charles +Dance suspended his operations. Gurney petitioned the House of Commons for +relief. Several committees in 1831, 1834 and 1835 investigated the subject +and reported strongly in favor of steam carriages, but no legislation +could be secured, and Gurney was forced to give up further introduction of +steam carriages. + +He continued his experimenting in other directions, invented the stove +that bore his name, introduced new methods of lighting and ventilating the +Houses of Parliament, and was otherwise active in scientific pursuits. He +was a magistrate for Cornwall and Devonshire, and in 1863 was knighted in +recognition of his discoveries and inventions. + +By writers of that period Gurney received a great deal of credit and an +abundance of advertising for his work. He was especially conspicuous in +the Parliamentary investigations regarding steam carriages. On the whole, +however, it is generally considered that he was proclaimed far beyond his +merits, especially in comparison with such rivals as Hancock, Maceroni and +others. + + +THOMAS BLANCHARD + +Born in Sutton, Mass., June 24, 1788. Died, April 16, 1864. + +Blanchard received a common school education, and before he had entered +his teens his mechanical genius began to show itself. At thirteen years of +age he invented a machine for paring apples, and shortly after, a machine +for making tacks. His great work was the invention of a machine for +turning out articles of irregular form from wood and metals. His lathes +for this purpose were put in operation by the United States Government in +the armories at Harper's Ferry, Va., and Springfield, Mass. + +Becoming interested in the subject of steam propulsion he made, in 1826, a +steamboat that was successfully tried on the Connecticut River, running +from Hartford, Conn., to Springfield, Mass. Afterward, he built a boat of +larger size, that drew eighteen inches of water, and ran this up the +Connecticut River, from Springfield, Mass., to Vermont. He also built +other boats for use on the Alleghany River. + +The subjects of railroads and locomotive power on land interested him for +a short time, and in 1825, after he had completed his engagement with the +United States armories, he built, at Springfield, Mass., a carriage driven +by steam for use on the common road. This was the first real steam +carriage constructed in this country, the Philadelphia machine of Evans +being but a rude affair, although it involved the essential principles of +steam propulsion. The Blanchard carriage was perfectly manageable, +could turn corners and go backwards and forwards with all the readiness of +a well-trained horse, and on ascending a hill the power could be +increased. Its performance on the highway was altogether satisfactory, and +a patent was issued to its inventor. + +[Illustration: THOMAS BLANCHARD] + +Blanchard endeavored to secure support to build a railroad in +Massachusetts, and the joint committee on roads and canals of the +Massachusetts Legislature, in January, 1826, endorsed the model of his +railway and steam carriage, and recommended them "to all the friends of +internal improvements." Notwithstanding this report, capitalists viewed +the project as visionary, and Blanchard met with no greater success when +he subsequently applied to the Legislature of New York. Giving up his +plans he thenceforward devoted his attention to the subject of steam +navigation. + +Blanchard was a prolific inventor, having taken out no less than thirty or +forty patents for as many different inventions. He did not reap great +benefit from his labors, for many of his inventions scarcely paid the cost +of getting them up, while others were appropriated without payment to him, +or even giving him credit. His machine for turning irregular forms was his +most notable work, and even of that, others sought to defraud him. To +defend himself he was forced to go to the courts and even to Congress, +before he succeeded in establishing his rights. After the success of this +machine he made other improvements in the manufacture of arms, +constructing thirteen different machines that were operated in the +government armories. + + +JOHNSON + +Two brothers Johnson had a small engineering establishment in +Philadelphia, in 1828. They put upon the streets in that year a vehicle +that J. G. Pangborn, in his The World's Rail Way, says was "the first +steam wagon built, and actually operated as such, in the United States." +The same writer, describing this wagon, says that it had a single cylinder +set horizontally, with a connecting-rod attachment with a single crank at +the middle of the driving-axle. Its two driving-wheels were eight feet in +diameter and made of wood, the same as those on an ordinary road wagon. +The two forward or guiding wheels were much smaller than the others, and +were arranged in the usual manner of a common wagon. It had an upright +boiler hung up behind, shaped like a huge bottle, the smoke-stack coming +out through the center of the top. The safety-valve was held down by a +weight and lever, and the horses in the neighborhood did not take at all +kindly to the puffing of the machine as it jolted over the rough streets. +Generally it ran well, and could take without difficulty reasonable grades +in the streets and roadways. During its existence, however, it knocked +down a number of awning-posts, ran into and broke several window fronts, +and sometimes was altogether unmanageable. Like all others of their day, +however, the Johnsons were ahead of their time. There was no demand for +their steam wagon, road conditions made it unavailable and the machine +itself was, despite much merit, really not much more than a suggestion of +better things three-quarters of a century later. + + +WALTER HANCOCK + +Born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, June 16, 1799. Died May 14, 1852. + +The father of Walter Hancock was James Hancock, a timber merchant and +cabinet maker. Walter received a common school education, and then was +apprenticed to a watchmaker and jeweler in London. The bent of his +inclination, however, was toward engineering, and he turned his attention +to experimenting along the lines that were at that time absorbing the +thoughts and efforts of those men of England interested in mechanical and +scientific subjects. + +He was foremost among those who in the early part of the nineteenth +century were engaged in trying to solve the problem of steam carriage +locomotion on the common highways. The story of his work in this direction +is fully told by himself in his Narrative of Twelve Years' Experiments, +1824-36, Demonstrative of the Practicability and Advantage of Employing +Steam Carriages on Common Roads, a book published in London, in 1838. This +volume contains a full account of his labors, and descriptions of all the +carriages that he built and ran. The following extract from the +introduction of the book shows in what esteem Hancock regarded himself and +what estimate he placed upon the value of his work: + +"The author of these pages believes he should offend alike against truth +and genuine modesty were he to yield to any of the steam carriage +inventors who have appeared in his day, in a single particular of desert; +he began earlier (with one abortive exception) and has persevered longer +and more unceasingly than any of them. He was the first to run a steam +carriage for hire on a common road, and is still the only person who has +ventured in a steam vehicle to traverse the most crowded streets of the +metropolis at the busiest periods of the day; he has built a greater +number of steam carriages (if not better) than anyone else, and has been +thus enabled to try a greater variety of forms of construction, out of +which to choose the best." + +In 1824, Hancock invented a steam engine in which the ordinary cylinder +and piston were replaced by two flexible steam receivers, composed of +several layers of canvas firmly united together by coatings of dissolved +caoutchouc, or india-rubber, and thus enabled to resist a pressure of +steam of sixty pounds upon the square inch. This engine he tried to adapt +to steam carriages, but found that he could not get the requisite degree +of power for locomotion, although it worked very well as a stationary +engine of four horse-power at his factory in Stratford. Next he invented a +tubular boiler with sixteen horizontal tubes, each connected with each +other by lesser tubes, so that the water or steam might circulate through +the entire series. This boiler was subsequently changed by arranging the +tubes vertically, and a patent was taken out in 1825. + +After further experiments and improvements, Hancock finally made a vehicle +to travel on three wheels, getting power from a pair of vibrating or +trunnion engines fixed upon the crank-axle of the fore wheels. +Experimental trips of this carriage were made from the Stratford shop to +Epping Forest, Paddington, Hounslow, Croydon, Fulham, and elsewhere. Some +changes were made in the vehicle, and finally the trunnion engines were +put aside and fixed ones substituted. + +This improved carriage, the first in a long series built by Hancock, was +named the Infant. The body was in the form of a double-body coach, or +omnibus, with seats for passengers inside and out. The bulk of the +machinery was placed in the rear of the carriage, a boiler and a fire +being beneath it. Between the boiler and the passengers' seats was the +engine and a place for the engineer. A pair of inverted fixed engines +working vertically on a crank-shaft furnished the power. The steering +apparatus was in front. The whole carriage was on one frame supported by +four springs on the axle of each wheel. The carriage was capable of +carrying sixteen passengers besides the engineer and guide. Its total +weight, including coke and water, but exclusive of attendants and +passengers, was about three and one-half tons. The wheel tires were three +and one-half inches wide, and the diameter of the hind wheels four feet. + +In February, 1831, the Infant began to run on regular trips between +Stratford and London. In 1832 a second carriage, similar to the Infant, +was built, and called the Era. It was constructed for the London and +Brighton Steam Carriage Company, to ply between London and Greenwich. The +following year a third carriage, the Enterprise, was completed, for the +London and Paddington Steam Car Company, and was run between London and +Paddington. + +Hancock took the Infant on a long trip from Stratford to London and +Brighton, in October, 1832. Eleven passengers were carried, and the +carriage kept a speed of nine miles an hour on the level, and six to eight +miles an hour up grade. On the return one mile up hill was made at the +rate of seventeen miles an hour. Another trip to Brighton was made in +September of the next year at an average speed of twelve miles an hour +actual traveling. At Brighton the new carriage attracted much attention, +and was exhibited for several days on trips in and around the town. After +the Enterprise, the Autopsy came from the Hancock shops, in September, +1833. This carriage was run on trial about Brighton and in London streets, +and for about a month was run for hire between Finsbury Square and +Pentonville. + +A small steam drag or tug to draw an attached coach or omnibus was the +next production of the Hancock establishment, which had already attained +more than local fame. This was built for a Herr Voigtlander, of Vienna, +and on one of its trial trips it carried ten persons and an attached +four-wheeled carriage with six persons in it. With this load a speed of +fourteen miles an hour on the level was attained, and eight to nine miles +an hour on up grades. + +Beginning in August, 1834, the Era and the Autopsy were run daily in +London between the City, Moorgate and Paddington. During the ensuing four +months over four thousand passengers were carried. Each coach carried from +ten to twelve passengers, and the trip from Moorgate to Paddington, five +miles, was made in a half hour, including stops. On the trial trip a speed +of twelve miles an hour, exclusive of stops, was maintained. + +Later in the same year the Era, with its name changed to the Erin, was +sent to Dublin, Ireland, where it was exhibited and run in and about the +city, by Hancock, for eight days, before it was reshipped to Stratford. +Next in turn came a drag of larger size than any before built, with an +engine of greater capacity. On the trial trip this drew, on a level road, +at a speed of ten miles an hour, three omnibuses and one stage coach with +fifty passengers. In July, 1835, the trip to Reading, a distance of +thirty-eight miles, was made in three hours forty minutes twenty-five +seconds; actual running time, exclusive of stops, three hours eight +minutes ten seconds, at a moving rate of over twelve miles an hour. +Subsequently, this drag was made over into a carriage, like the others of +the Hancock type, fitted for eighteen passengers, and named the Automaton. + +In August, 1835, the Erin ran from London to Marlborough, a distance of +seventy-eight miles, in seven hours forty-nine minutes, exclusive of +stops, averaging nine and six-tenths miles an hour. The return from +Marlborough to London was accomplished in seven hours thirty-six minutes, +exclusive of stops, an average of nine and eight-tenths miles an hour. In +the same month the Erin made the run from London to Birmingham at the rate +of ten miles an hour. + +In 1836, Hancock ran all his carriages on a regular route on the Stratford +and Islington roads for a period of twenty weeks, making in that time +seven hundred and twelve trips, covering four thousand two hundred miles, +and carrying twelve thousand seven hundred and sixty-one passengers. + +After running his carriages for several years dissensions in the companies +that were promoting the new means of travel, and the increasing efficiency +of railways, led to the discontinuance of Hancock's energy in this +direction. Thereafter he built only a steam phaeton for his personal use; +this had seats for three, and was used about the City, Hyde Park and the +London suburbs. Hancock's steam vehicles were ten in number--the +experimental three-wheeler, the trunnion-engine Infant, the fixed engine +Infant, the Era, afterward the Erin, the Enterprise, the Autopsy, the +Austrian drag, the Irish drag, the Automaton, and the phaeton. + +Hancock turned his attention in the later years of his life to developing +the use of india-rubber, in connection with his brother, Thomas Hancock, +who was one of the foremost rubber manufacturers of England. He secured +several patents for improvements in manufacturing rubber. + +At the time when Hancock was at work upon his steam carriages, Gurney was +also in the front and there was considerable jealousy between the two. Dr. +Lardner and others were active in exploiting Gurney, while Hancock was +supported in controversies by Alexander Gordon, Luke Hebert and others. +That Hancock achieved most in the way of definite results and that his +experimenting and accomplishments were more markedly along thoroughly +intelligent and conservatively practical mechanical lines than any of his +rivals is now generally conceded. His carriages were admirable productions +as road vehicles, well-built, attractive and comfortable. + + +WILLIAM T. JAMES + +An engineer of New York, who was engaged in experimenting about 1829 James +made, in his shop in Eldridge Court, several small models of vehicles that +proved sufficiently satisfactory. His first engine had two-inch cylinders +and four-inch stroke. This ran around a track on the floor of his shop, +and drew a train of four cars, carrying an apprentice boy on each car. +James' second locomotive was mounted on three wheels, two drivers in the +rear and a steering wheel, and it ran on the floor or sidewalk. + +In 1829, James, satisfied with his experimenting, built a steam carriage +capable of carrying passengers, and with this he made very good time over +the streets and roadways in and about the metropolis. He then adopted the +rotary cylinders instead of the reciprocating, in his engine, which had +two six-inch cylinders, and was supported on three wheels. On each +cylinder were two fixed eccentrics, one for the forward and one for the +backing motion. The slide valve of one cylinder had a half-inch lap at +each end, and exhausted its steam into the other. + +In 1830, James made his fourth full-size steam carriage. This was a +three-wheeled vehicle, the rear wheels being drivers three feet in +diameter, and the third the front or steering wheel. In 1831, in a +competition for the best locomotive engine adapted to the Baltimore and +Ohio Railroad Company, James built his fifth locomotive, and the first one +to run on rails. His engine did not secure the prize, but the company, +thinking his machine contained valuable ideas, entered into an arrangement +with him for further experimenting. + + +FRANCIS MACERONI + +Born in Manchester, England, in 1788. Died in London, July 25, 1846. + +The father of Francis Maceroni was Peter Augustus Maceroni who, with two +brothers, served in a French regiment in the American Revolution. After +that conflict was ended he went to England and settled in Manchester, +where he was Italian agent for British manufacturers. + +Francis Maceroni was educated in the Roman Catholic school, in Hampshire; +at the Dominican Academy, in Surrey, and at the college at Old Hall Green, +near Puckerbridge, Hertfordshire. During a period of ten years, from 1803 +to 1813, he lived in Rome and Naples as a young gentleman of elegant +leisure. In 1813 he began the study of anatomy and medicine, but had not +gone far in those pursuits before his vagrom disposition took him in +another direction. He became aide-de-camp to Murat, King of Naples, with +the rank of Colonel of Cavalry. His service with Murat took him on +missions to England and France, and for a time he was a prisoner of the +French authorities. + +After two years of this military service, he returned to England, and +retained his residence there for the rest of his life. He did not remain +at home long, however, for he was with Sir George MacGregor at Porto +Bello, in 1819; became a brigadier-general of the new republic of +Colombia, and in 1821 saw service in Spain with General Pepe. + +Returning again to England, he came before the public as an advocate of a +ship canal across the Isthmus, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, +and also promoted a company, called The Atlantic and Pacific Junction and +South American Mining and Trading Company, with a capital of one million +pounds sterling. The company collapsed in the commercial panic of 1825, +and this soldier of fortune in 1829 went to Constantinople to assist the +Turks against the Russians. In London again in 1831, Maceroni was engaged +for the rest of his life in the cause of highway steam locomotion, in +which he accomplished a great deal. + +Maceroni was second only to Walter Hancock as an inventor and builder of +steam road carriages and as a promoter of travel by those vehicles. From +1825 to 1828 he was with Goldsworthy Gurney in London, but his real +activity did not begin until 1831, when he became associated with John +Squire. In 1833, Maceroni and Squire took out a patent for a multi-tubular +boiler, which they applied to a steam carriage that one writer of that day +described as "a fine specimen of indomitable perseverance." It often +traveled at the rate of from eighteen to twenty miles an hour. The engines +were placed horizontally underneath the carriage body, the boiler was +arranged at the back, and a fan was used to urge the combustion of the +fuel, the supply of which was regulated by the engineman, who had a seat +behind. The passengers were placed in the open carriage body, and their +seats were upon the tops of the water tanks. There were two cylinders +seven and one-half inches in diameter, the stroke being fifteen and +three-quarter inches. The diameter of the steam pipe was two and +one-quarter inches, and that of the exhaust pipe was two and three-quarter +inches. + +The carriage attracted a great deal of attention, and much was written +about it in the newspapers of the time. Once the trip was taken to +Harrow-on-the-Hill, a distance of nine miles, in fifty-eight minutes, +without the full power of steam being on at any time. For several weeks in +the early part of 1834 the carriage was running daily from Oxford Street +to Edgeware. Several trips were made to Uxbridge, when the roads were in +very bad condition, but the journey from the Regent's Circus, Oxford +Street, a distance of sixteen miles, was often performed in a little over +an hour. A trip to Watford was made, and one of the passengers thus +described the experience from Bushby Heath into the village of Watford: + +"We set off from the starting place amid the cheers of the villagers. The +motion was so steady that we could have read with ease, and the noise was +no worse than that produced by a common vehicle. On arriving at the summit +of Clay Hill, the local and inexperienced attendant neglected to clog the +wheel until it became impossible. We went thundering down the hill at the +rate of thirty miles an hour. Mr. Squire was steersman, and never lost his +presence of mind. It may be conceived what amazement a thing of this kind, +flashing through the village of Bushy, occasioned among the inhabitants. +The people seemed petrified on seeing a carriage without horses. In the +busy and populous town of Watford the sensation was similar--the men gazed +in speechless wonder; the women clapped their hands. We turned round at +the end of the street in magnificent style, and ascended Clay Hill at the +same rate as the stage coaches drawn by five horses." + +Maceroni made two steam carriages, but in 1834 he separated from Squire, +and becoming short of funds fell into the clutches of Asda, an Italian +Jew, who persuaded him to let the two carriages go to the Continent. One +was sent to Brussels, where it ran successfully, and the other went to +Paris. The performance of the latter was thus described in the columns of +a Paris journal: "The steam carriage brought to perfection in England by +Colonel Maceroni, ran along the Boulevards as far as the Rue Faubourg du +Temple. It turned with the greatest facility, ran the whole length of the +Boulevards back again, and along the Rue Royale, to the Place Louis XV. +This carriage is very elegant, much lighter, and by no means so noisy as +the one we saw here some months ago, and it excited along its way the +surprise and applause of the astonished spectators. All the hills on the +paved Boulevard were ascended with astonishing rapidity. One of our +colleagues was in this carriage the whole of its running above described, +and he declares that there is not the least heat felt inside from the +fire, and that conversation can be kept up so as to be heard at a much +lower tone than in most ordinary carriages." + +Asda sold the carriage and the patent for a large sum of money, and +swindled Maceroni out of all his share. For years the inventor was in the +direst extremes of poverty. In 1841 he succeeded in securing the support +of The General Steam Carriage Company to construct and run carriages under +his patent. Disagreement between the directors and the manufacturing +engineer again brought to Maceroni disaster, from which he was never able +to recover. + + +RICHARD ROBERTS + +Born in 1789. Died in March, 1864. + +Roberts was best known as a Manchester, England, engineer, of the firm of +Sharp, Roberts & Co. He built a steam road locomotive that was first tried +in December, 1833. Three months later the machine was subjected to a +second trial. The carriage went out under the guidance of Mr. Roberts, +with forty passengers. It proceeded about a mile and a half, made a +difficult turn where the road was narrow, and returned to the works +without accident. The maximum speed on the level was nearly twenty miles +an hour. Hills were mounted easily. No doubt existed of the engine being +speedily put in complete and effective condition for actual service. +During another experimental trip in April of the same year, the locomotive +met with an accident caused by some of the boiler tubes giving way, +allowing the steam to escape and the fuel to be scattered about. No one +was seriously injured, and none of the passengers was hurt. + +Roberts invented the compensating gear that he first used on his steam +carriage. This gear superseded claw clutches, friction bands, +ratchet-wheels, and other arrangements for obtaining the full power of +both the driving-wheels, and at the same time allowing for the engine to +turn the sharpest corner. In 1839, Roberts invented an arrangement for +communicating power to both driving-wheels at all times, whether turning +to the right or left. During the latter years of his life this famous +engineer lived in exceedingly straitened circumstances, and he died in +poverty. + + +JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL + +Born at Parkhead, near Glasgow, Scotland, May 8, 1808. Died June 8, 1882, +at Ventnor. + +The father of John Scott Russell was David Russell, a Scottish clergyman, +and the son was originally intended for the church. His mind was more +inclined toward mechanics than theology, and he entered a workshop in +order to learn the trade of engineering. Studying at the Universities of +Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Glasgow, he was graduated from Glasgow when he +was sixteen years of age. In 1832, upon the death of Sir John Leslie, +Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, Russell was +elected to fill the vacancy temporarily. Shortly after that he began his +celebrated investigations into the nature of the sea waves, as a +preliminary study to improving the forms of ships. As a result of these +researches he developed the wave-line system for the construction of +vessels. In 1837 he received a gold medal of the Royal Society of +Engineers, and was elected a member of the Council of that Society for a +paper that he read "on the laws by which water opposes resistance to the +motion of floating bodies." At that time he was manager of the +shipbuilding words at Greenock, and under his supervision and according to +his designs several ships were built with lines based on his wave system. +Among these were four of the new fleet of the West India Mail Company. + +Russell removed to London in 1844, and became a Fellow of the Royal +Society in 1847. He was vice-president of the Institute of Civil Engineers +and secretary of the Society of Arts. For many years he was a shipbuilder +on the Thames, and supervised the construction of the celebrated steamship +Great Eastern. He was one of the promoters and vice-president of the +Institute of Naval Architects, and a pioneer in advocating the +construction of iron-clad men-of-war. He published many papers, +principally upon naval architecture. + +It was while he was residing in Edinburgh that he took out a patent for a +steam locomotive to be used on the common roads. The boiler that he +invented was multi-tubular, with the furnace and the return tubes on the +same level, and similar to a marine boiler. The boiler everywhere +consisted of opposite and parallel surfaces, and these surfaces were +connected by stays of small diameter. The copper plates of the boiler were +only one-tenth of an inch thick. When put to actual test the weakness of +the boiler thus constructed was fully demonstrated. + +The engine had two vertical cylinders, twelve inches in diameter and with +twelve inches stroke. The engine was mounted upon laminated springs, +arranged so that each spring in its flexure described, at a particular +point, such a circle as was also described by the main axle in its motion +round the crank shaft. This arrangement was intended to correct any +irregularities in the road so that they would not interfere with the +proper working of the spur gearing. Exhaust steam was turned into the +chimney to create a blast. Water and coke were carried on a separate +tender on two wheels, coupled to the rear of the engine. Spare tenders, +filled, were kept in readiness at different stations on the road. These +tenders, mounted upon springs, had seats back and front for passengers. To +work the locomotive three persons were required, a steersman on the front +seat, an engineer on the back seat outside above the engines, and a +fireman stationed on the footplate in front of the boiler. + +On the order of the Steam Carriage Company, of Scotland, six of these +coaches were built by the Grove House Engine Works, of Edinburgh. They +were substantially constructed and very elaborately fitted up. As was said +at the time, they were "in the style and with all the comfort and elegance +of the most costly gentleman's carriage." They ran very successfully for +some time, during 1834, between St. George's Square, Glasgow, and Paisley. +There was a service of six coaches once an hour. Each carriage +accommodated six passengers inside and twenty outside, and sometimes drew, +in addition, a dogcart laden with six passengers, and the necessary fuel +and water. These dogcarts were used as relays on the road, being kept +ready constantly. Public opposition to these coaches developed here as it +had done in London about the same period. Road trustees objected to them +on the ground that they wore out the roads too rapidly. Obstructions of +stones, logs of wood, and other things were placed in their way, but the +coaches generally went on in spite of these. Ordinary horse-drawn road +carriages were more damaged and hindered than the Russell coaches, and +even heavy carts were compelled to abandon travel on the obstructed roads +and take roundabout courses, greatly to the discomfiture of the drivers. + +One day, however, a heavy strain, unusually severe, caused by jolting over +the rough road, broke a wheel, and the weight of the coach falling on the +boiler caused an explosion. Five persons were killed, and as a result of +this accident the Court of Session interdicted the further travel of these +carriages in Scotland. The Steam Carriage Company brought an action for +damages against the trustees of the turnpike road for having compelled +them to withdraw the carriages from the Glasgow and Paisley road by +"wantonly, wrongfully and maliciously accumulating masses of metal, stones +and rubbish on the said road, in order to create such annoyance and +obstruction as might impede, overturn, or destroy the steam coaches +belonging to the plaintiffs," but nothing seems to have come of this +action. + +No longer used in Scotland, two of Russell's coaches were sent to London. +There they were engaged in running with passengers between London and +Greenwich, or Kew Bridge. Several trips were made to Windsor. After about +a year they were offered for sale, and, on exhibition preparatory to sale, +they started every day from Hyde Park Corner to make a journey to +Hammersmith. But they remained unsold, and were shortly forgotten. + +Had conditions been more encouraging Russell might have achieved as great +success in his land as in his water vehicles. He was a man of rare +scientific attainments, and his work in ship designing and building put +him in the front rank of naval architects and builders of his day. In +addition to his work, already mentioned, he built a big steamer to +transport railway trains across Lake Constance. + + +W. H. CHURCH + +A physician of Birmingham, England, Dr. W. H. Church gave many years to +the study of steam locomotion. Several patents were secured by him between +1832 and 1835, and in the latter year a common road carriage, built +according to his plans, was brought out. + +The Church vehicle had a framework of united iron plates or bars, bolted +on each side of the woodwork to obtain strength. Well trussed and braced, +this framework enclosed a space between a hind and fore body of the +carriage, and of the same height as the latter, and contained the engine, +boiler, and other machinery. The boiler consisted of a series of vertical +tubes, placed side by side, through each of which a pipe passed, and was +secured at the bottom of the boiler tube; the interior pipe constituted +the flue, which first passed in through a boiler tube, and was then bent +like a syphon, and passed down another until it reached as low or lower +than the bottom of the fireplace, whence it passed off into a general flue +in communication with an exhausting apparatus. Two fans were employed, one +to blow in air, and the other to draw it out; they were worked by straps +from the crank shaft. The wheels of the carriage were constructed with the +view to rendering them elastic, to a certain degree, in two different +ways: First, the felloes were made of several successive layers of broad +wooden hoops, covered with a thin iron tire, having lateral straps to bind +the hoops together; second, these binding straps were connected by hinge +joints to a kind of flat steel springs, somewhat curved, which formed the +spokes of the wheels. These spring spokes were intended to obviate the +necessity, in a great measure, of the ordinary springs, and the elasticity +of the periphery was designed so that the yielding of the circle should +prevent the wheel from turning without propelling. + +Church also proposed, in addition to spring felloes, spring spokes, and +the ordinary springs, to employ air springs, and for that purpose provided +two or more cylinders, made fast to the body of the carriage, in a +vertical position, closed at top, and furnished with a piston, with +packing similar to the cap-leather packing of the hydraulic press. This +piston was kept covered with oil, to preserve it in good order, and a +piston rod connected it with the supporting frame of the carriage. Motion +was communicated by two oscillating steam cylinders suspended on the steam +and exhaust pipes over the crank shaft. The crank shaft and driving-wheel +axle were connected by means of chains passing about pitched pulleys. + +To introduce the Church coach, the London and Birmingham Steam Carriage +Company was organized. The first carriage built for the company was an +imposing vehicle, something like a big circus van, elaborately ornamented +and with a large spheroidal wheel in front. It carried about forty +passengers on top, in omnibus fashion, and the driver sat on a raised seat +near the roof. A fair rate of speed was maintained, fifteen miles on the +level, but the boiler was damaged, and horses hauled the engine back to +the factory. Other carriages were subsequently brought out, but they all +failed to meet the requirements of travel on the rough roads that existed +at that time in England. + + +JEAN JOSEPH ETIENNE LENOIR + +Born at Mussy-la-Ville, Luxembourg, January 12, 1822. Died, July, 1900, at +La Varnne Chemevieves, near Paris. + +When Lenoir came to Paris in 1838 he had but an ordinary education and was +without resources. For a time he served as a waiter in order to earn money +to become an enameler and decorator. In 1847, he invented a new white +enamel and four years after invented a galvano plastic process for raised +work. Many other inventions were made by him, among them being an electric +motor in 1856, a water meter in 1857, an automatic regulator for dynamos, +the well-known gas motor that bears his name, and a system of autographic +telegraphing. + +It is claimed that in September, 1863, Lenoir put a gas engine of his +non-compressor type, of one and a half horse-power, on wheels and made an +experimental run to Joinville-le-Paris and back. The motor, running at one +hundred revolutions, it is said, took them there in one and a half hours. +He thereupon abandoned such trials, and tried his engines in a boat, and +in 1865 put a six horse-power in one, but the insignificant speed possible +with his engine caused him to abandon that also. + +The Academy of Science of Paris decorated M. Lenoir and the Society of +Encouragement gave him the grand prize of Argenteuil, amounting to twelve +thousand francs. For his patriotic services at the siege of Paris, during +the Franco-Prussian war, he was made a naturalized Frenchman. In 1880, he +published in Paris a work treating of his researches into the tanning of +leather. + + +AMEDÈE BOLLÈE + +In April, 1873, Amedèe Bollèe, of Le Mans, France, the noted French +engineer, filed a patent for a steam road vehicle and two years later he +built the steam stage that he named Obeissante. Toward the end of that +year this stage was run in and about Paris, where it created something of +a sensation. It was even chronicled in the songs of the day and was made a +topic of amusement at the variety theatres. This steam omnibus made +twenty-eight kilometers in an hour. It is claimed to have been the first +creation of the man to whose family much credit is due for the modern +French automobile. + +Between 1873 and 1875, Bollèe made several carriages. In 1876, he worked +with Dalifol and made a tram-car that would carry fifty passengers. This +vehicle was put into the steam omnibus service in Rouen. Two years later +he made another steam omnibus that he called La Mancelle. This vehicle, in +June of that year, was run from Paris to Vienna and developed a speed on +level roads of twenty-two miles an hour. In Vienna this vehicle was the +subject of much talk and was largely caricatured. + +In 1880, Bollèe built another omnibus, La Nouvelle. This vehicle was +entered in the Paris-Bordeaux competition in 1895, and was the only steam +carriage that covered the course in that race. Bollèe has been a +conspicuous exponent of the steam carriage in France from the time he +commenced as far back as 1873. The vehicles that he has built were in many +instances pioneers in their class, and have been exceedingly serviceable +and successful. They have made the name of Bollèe notable. + + +GEORGE B. SELDEN + +Born in the fifties, George B. Selden came of a family of jurists, whose +ancestors were early Connecticut settlers. Among them were several eminent +scientific men. His father, Henry Rogers Selden, was born in Lyme, Conn., +October 14, 1805, and died in Rochester, N. Y., September 18, 1885; was +Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and is still +remembered by men of that generation as one of the most accomplished +lawyers and jurists who occupied that bench in the last century. + +George B. Selden attended Yale University, and while equipping himself for +his legal career, following in the footsteps of his father, indulged his +natural predilection for scientific work. While practicing law in +Rochester, N. Y., he devoted much time to the problem of self-propelled +vehicles on common roads, in which, as early as the sixties, he was then +interested. The study of this art led to a very full analysis of the +possibilities of different means of propulsion, with, as a result, the +conclusion that the light, liquid hydro-carbon concussion engine must +eventually fill the exacting requirements of road vehicles. His further +experimenting that was carried on during the seventies, and the actual +constructing, so convinced him in his deductions that the record is found +in the United States Patent Office of his filing an application for patent +in May, 1879, with a Patent Office model of his gasoline vehicle. For more +details, reference must be made to his patent, No. 549160, subsequently +issued in November, 1895. Thereafter in a general report treating of +important and leading inventions in various fields this was referred to +by the Commissioner of Patents as the pioneer patent in its class. + +Of Selden's voluminous and persistent work and his many engines and models +more detailed information cannot be here given. His fundamental patent at +present is involved in extensive litigation, although it is recognized by +manufacturers of gasoline vehicles who, to-day, are producing from eighty +to ninety per cent of the output of the United States. Of his work along +the lines of improvements in details of his main invention, the gasoline +automobile _per se_, and kindred matters all of which have or will have a +great bearing upon automobile construction and operation, it is not at +this time possible to dwell at length. + +Selden is known as an exceedingly able attorney in his specialty, while +his active connection with the extensive reaper and binder litigation, in +all of which he appeared prominently, established for him an enviable +reputation. Those who have had the privilege of a closer personal +acquaintance know of his great fund of scientific knowledge in various +arts, as well as his most interesting accumulations of data as a result of +his personal researches. + +Selden is a patentee in other fields beside that of the gasoline +automobile and his achievements have been numerous and of exceeding +importance. He is also a chemist of more than ordinary ability and has +applied himself as a close student to this line of scientific +investigation. As a result he has made notable discoveries that, although +not yet given to the world, will, it is confidently believed by those +acquainted with them, prove to be of the greatest scientific value. + + +SIEGFRIED MARCUS + +Marcus was an ingenious mechanic. In early life he made dental instruments +and apparatus for a magician in Vienna. For his construction of a +thermopile he received a prize and to his further credit as an inventor +are placed an arc lamp, Rhumkoff coil carbureter, a high candle-power +petroleum lamp, magneto-electro machines, a microphone and various other +things in many branches of science. + +[Illustration: SIEGFRIED MARCUS] + +It is claimed that about the middle seventies of the last century he +carried on experiments with a gas engine that had a spring-connected +piston rod. He mounted this vertically on an ordinary horse vehicle and +connected it directly with a cranked rear axle, carrying two flywheels in +place of the regular road wheels. He is said to have made trials of this +vehicle at night in Vienna. If this was so he was apparently trying to +keep his plan secret and succeeded very well. Aside from general +references nothing of importance revealed itself concerning this vehicle +and Marcus' experiments with it, until very recently when interest in the +historic development of the automobile has stimulated anew investigation +into the endeavors of the early inventors. + +In 1882 the motor work of Marcus was principally preparatory to his new +engine construction. It included experimenting with an Otto engine run +with petroleum and a vaporizer and electric ignition with magneto. In 1883 +he constructed a closed or two-cycled motor and thereafter had engines +made in Budapest and elsewhere. One of these motors he put on wheels, but +this was abandoned for other ideas that came from his fertile mind. + + +CARL BENZ + +Born, November 26, 1844, at Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany. + +The early education of Carl Benz was acquired at the Lyceum until his +seventeenth year and then at the Technical High School of his native city +for four more years. This was followed by three years of practical work in +the shops of the Karlsruhe Machine Works. When he was twenty-eight years +of age, in 1872, after further experience in Mannheim, Pforzheim and +Vienna, he opened workshops of his own in Mannheim. + +In 1880 he began to commercialize a two-cycle stationary engine. In 1883 +he organized his business as Benz & Co., and produced his first vehicle in +1884. In the beginning of 1885 his three-wheeled vehicle ran through the +streets of Mannheim, Germany, attracting much attention with its noisy +exhaust. This was the subject of his patent dated January 29, 1886, +claimed by him to be the first German patent on a light oil motor vehicle. +This embodied a horizontal flywheel belt transmission through a +differential and two chains to the wheels; but it is noteworthy primarily +as having embodied a four-cycle, water jacketed, three-quarter horse-power +engine, with electric ignition. + +In 1888, the Benz Company exhibited their vehicles at the Munich +Exposition, where they attracted wide attention. This was followed by the +exhibition at the Paris show in 1889, by the engineer Roger, of another +vehicle made under license that Roger had acquired from Benz and +constructed by Panhard and Levassor. + +[Illustration: CARL BENZ] + +While in 1899 the firm was converted into a stock company of three million +marks capital, and then employed three hundred men, Carl Benz remained the +leading spirit of the concern, technically, while the commercial work came +under the direction of Julius Ganz. The able co-operation of these two has +established the world-famous automobile enterprise looked upon by many as +the pioneer producing works of its kind in Germany. Of late years motor +boats have also been made by them, but their automobiles and those of +their affiliated companies or licensees in other countries still stand in +the first rank. + + +GOTTLIEB DAIMLER + +Born at Schorndorf, Wurtemburg, March 17, 1834. Died at Cannstadt, near +Stuttgart, March 6, 1899. + +After receiving a technical and scientific training at the Polytechnic +School at Stuttgart, 1852-59, Daimler spent two years, 1861-63, as an +engineer in the Karlsruhe Machine Works, becoming foreman there. In 1872 +he entered the Gas Engine Works at Deutz, near Cologne, and became +director of that establishment. Within ten years that shop, better known +as the Otto Engine Works, grew from a small place into a large, +well-organized and famous establishment. In 1882 he removed to Cannstadt +to give his entire attention to the light-weight internal-combustion auto +motor, with which his career was so completely identified, and the +successful application of which earned for him the title, "the father of +the automobile," in Germany, though that is, in fact, contested by those +familiar with the work of Benz. + +Instead of using the uncertain-acting flame with the inconvenient speed +limitations, Daimler invented and introduced in 1883 the so-called +hot-tube ignition. This consisted of a metal or porcelain tube attached to +the compression space of the cylinder in such a manner that the interior +of the tube was in continual communication with the compression space. A +gas flame, continually burning under the tube, maintained it at a glowing +red heat, so that the mixed charge of air and gas, when compressed into +the tube, became fully and effectively ignited. Experience showed that by +a proper regulation of the temperature of the hot tube the ignition could +be made to take place at any desired point in the compression, and thus +the complicated, slow and uncertain slide flame ignition was replaced by a +simple device, without moving parts, altogether satisfactory and reliable. +The especial feature of the hot-tube ignition, however, was soon found to +be the increased speed which it permitted. By its use the rotative speed +could be increased eight to ten times over the older motor, and hence the +weight could be reduced in nearly the same proportion. + +[Illustration: GOTTLIEB DAIMLER] + +This fact at once showed Daimler that the application of the +internal-combustion motor to mechanically propelled vehicles had become a +possibility, and that, with the use of hydro-carbon vapor as fuel, and the +high-speed hot-tube motor, the petroleum automobile might become a +practical possibility. He therefore severed his connection with the Otto +Engine Works at Deutz, and returning to Cannstadt, near Stuttgart, his +early home, he devoted his entire time and attention to the design of a +light petroleum motor and motor vehicle. The result was the production, in +1885, of a motor-bicycle, in which the motor was placed directly under the +seat, between the legs of the rider. The petroleum was drawn from a tank, +the supply being regulated by the valve. The motor was first set in motion +by lighting a lamp and turning the crank a few times, the discharge +passing through the chamber into an exhaust-pipe. After the motor had been +fully started, the vehicle was set in motion by moving a lever, which drew +a tightening pulley against the belt, and so caused the power to be +transmitted from the shaft pulley to the wheel pulley. Changes of speed +were attained by using pulleys of different sizes, similar to the cone +pulleys on a lathe. This machine was put into successful action at +Cannstadt on November 10, 1885. + +An interesting feature in connection with the Daimler motor is the +arrangement of the cooling-water circulation for the cylinder jacket. The +water is contained in a tank, from which it is circulated in the cylinder +jacket by means of a small rotary pump. From the jacket it passes to the +cooler. This consists of a system of several hundred small tubes over +which a blast of air is driven by a fan operated from the motor shaft. +Since the speed of the fan increases with the speed of the motor, the +cooling is proportional to the production of heat in the cylinder. + +In addition to gas, which is applicable for stationary motors only, the +fuel may be benzine of a specific gravity of sixty-eight or seventy +one-hundredths, or ordinary lamp petroleum. The consumption varies +according to the size of the motor, ranging from thirty-six to forty-five +one-hundredths kilograms per horse-power hour for vehicles, or somewhat +less for boats. He adapted these light motors to vehicles of many styles, +and his persistent work in this connection has made the world-wide +reputation of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, now flourishing at +Cannstadt, Germany. + +In 1888-89 the French interest in the light motors led to their adoption +by Panhard and Levassor. The type then developed and known as Phenix +motors, were soon copied in part at least by many other French makers, +resulting in a modified form there known as the Pygmée. Work at Cannstadt +progressed steadily, however, and many pleasure vehicles were made as well +as small boats. + +The able assistance of William Maybach brought further credit to the +company, particularly in view of the aspirating carbureter which, with +such details as clutch and transmission mechanism, helped to perfect the +Cannstadt automobiles. In the latter nineties the prominence of the +Daimler Works as vehicle makers, distinguished from motor makers, again +began to be noticed and soon their now famous Mercedes cars appeared. In +recent years these machines have made remarkable records in races and all +other branches of the sport. With a magnificent refinement of details in +construction they are to-day looked upon as the pleasure vehicles _par +excellence_. + +They have had a large vogue in all parts of Europe and are accepted there +as among the most satisfactory vehicles in their class that are now made. +Many of them have been brought to the United States, where they have been +and still are in great demand. + + +LEVASSOR + +Born at Marolles, in Hurepoix (Seine and Oise), January 21, 1843. Died, +April 14, 1897. + +Levassor was graduated from the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, +Paris, in 1864. He was employed as an engineer at the Cockerill Works at +Seriang, Belgium, and also with Durenne at Courbevoie, near Paris. In 1872 +he entered the firm of Perrin & Panhard, the name of the concern being +changed to Perrin, Panhard & Co. Upon the death of M. Perrin, he became +the junior partner and the name of Panhard & Levassor was adopted. When +Levassor died in 1897, the corporation of Panhard & Levassor was formed. + +[Illustration: LEVASSOR] + +Levassor made many improvements in the machinery and output of Panhard & +Levassor. Especially he perfected machines for wood-working and made +important changes in the processes used for the cold cutting of hard +metals. On the first appearance of gas motors he undertook their +construction in France. It was in the establishment of Panhard & Levassor +that the first motors were constructed under the system of Otto and Langen +with atmospheric pressure, then the four-cycle engine of Otto and finally +the two-cycle system of Benz and Ravell. + +In 1886, when the Daimler petroleum motor appeared, he recognized the +great part that it would play in practical application to the propulsion +of vehicles and boats. He acquired the right to use it in France, and in +1887 exhibited, in Paris, a boat thus propelled. After several years he +put forth the first automobile vehicle with motor in front. + + +LEON SERPOLLET + +Serpollet is noted in France to-day as the champion of the steam +automobile. In 1887, he appeared in Paris with his three-wheeler, two rear +drive and one front steering wheel. With its light and safe generator his +machine attracted much attention, but its use in the streets of the +capital was temporarily prohibited, until the granting to him in 1891 of +the first unrestricted license for such use resulted from his initiation +of the prefect of police by driving that important personage in the +steamer. + +His generator, known as the "flash boiler," has been developed to a high +state of perfection. The tubes of his boiler were heavy, flattened tubing, +strengthened in that form by being transversally bent or grooved. He was +helped doubtless to no small extent, in his work, by his association, +about 1897, with a wealthy American, F. L. Gardner, who made possible the +development of the large Gardner-Serpollet establishment in the Rue +Stendhal, Paris. + +While Serpollet has achieved a brilliant and well-deserved reputation in +his native land, he is also recognized in other countries as one of the +greatest living promoters of the steam branch of the automobile industry. +His adherence to steam as the motive power in self-propelled road vehicles +has been unremitting and energetic. Few men have done more than he to +improve carriages in this class. + +In 1900, Serpollet was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. His sales +to that date of five machines for the Shah of Persia and landaulets for +the Maharajah of Mysore and other notables had given him much prominence +at that time. + +[Illustration: LEON SERPOLLET] + + +LOUIS AND MARCEL RENAULT + +Born in Boulogne, France, the Renault Brothers, with general technical +education, perseverance and ability, entered the field of automobile +manufacturing only some six years ago, although they earlier gave to the +subject much attention and study. + +Having appreciated through personal experience the shortcomings of the +gasoline tricycle, Louis Renault in October, 1898, manufactured, in his +private shop, a small two-passenger vehicle, with a one and three-quarters +horse-power motor, which eliminated the pedalling for starting, but was +otherwise small and light as a tricycle. In January, 1899, he brought out +a small four-wheeler with one and three-quarters horse-power motor in +front, three speeds and chainless, or as now called propeller drive. The +demand was immediate and large and resulted in the establishment of the +works of Renault Frères, who began to make the first lot of these small +vehicles in March of the same year. These won prizes in the +Paris-Trouville, the Ostende and the Rambouillet runs, and one completed a +three thousand six hundred kilometer tour through different parts of +Europe and over the Alps. + +The new model of 1900 had a three and one-half horse-power motor and +thermo-syphon cooling system. Many honors were won with these, and notably +that of Louis Renault's most successful use of one in the grand army +maneuvers. But the output of three hundred and fifty showed the necessity +for larger works. With the increased facilities of 1901, the product was +doubled and the model increased to four and one-half horse-power, while +eight and nine horse-power were winners in the Paris-Bordeaux and +Paris-Berlin races. + +In 1902 came another addition to the Billancourt works of Cloise to four +thousand square meters area, and the Renault Brothers then changed their +models to voiture légère, six to eight horse-power, steel tube frame and +wood wheels--a full-fledged vehicle. They succeeded in the Circuit du +Nord, organized by the Minister of Agriculture, for alcohol-motored +vehicles. Then came the triumph of their twenty horse-power four-cylinder +type in the great Paris-Vienna race, where it was pitted against forty and +even seventy horse-power vehicles. The result was a great impetus +commercially, and new shops accommodating a thousand workmen and covering +thirteen thousand square meters, which produced one thousand four hundred +vehicles in the following year. + +Both brothers, who had always been at the wheel of their own cars in the +years of racing, entered the memorable "race-of-death," Paris-Madrid, in +May, 1903. Louis arrived first at Bordeaux, but his unfortunate brother +Marcel, while close to victory, was killed with the overturning of his +machine only a few kilometers from the goal. In memory of Marcel Renault a +simple monument was unveiled at Billancourt May 26, 1904, on ground +contributed by the municipal council; a bronze plate on one side of this +perpetuates his triumphant entry into Vienna, showing his arrival at the +finish. + +Louis Renault, since continuing the business, has now produced larger +machines, including the sixty to ninety horse-power made for the +Vanderbilt race in America, October, 1904. + +[Illustration: MARCEL RENAULT] + + + + +NOTED INVESTIGATORS + + + SIMON STEVIN, + THOMAS WILDGOSSE, + DAVID RAMSEY, + JOHANN HAUTSCH, + CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS, + STEPHEN FARFLEUR, + FERNANDO VERBIEST, + ISAAC NEWTON, + VEGELIUS, + ELIÉ RICHARD, + GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNITZ, + HUMPHREY MACKWORTH, + DENIS PAPIN, + VAUCAUSON, + ROBINSON, + ERASMUS DARWIN, + RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH, + FRANCIS MOORE, + PLANTA, + J. S. KESTLER, + BLANCHARD, + THOMAS CHARLES AUGUSTE DALLERY, + JAMES WATT, + ROBERT FOURNESS, + GEORGE MEDHURST, + ANDREW VIVIAN, + DU QUET, + J. H. GENEVOIS, + JOHN DUMBELL, + WILLIAM BRUNTON, + THOMAS TINDALL, + JOHN BAYNES, + JULIUS GRIFFITHS, + EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, + T. BURTSALL, + T. W. PARKER, + GEORGE POCOCK, + SAMUEL BROWN, + JAMES NEVILLE, + T. S. HOLLAND, + JAMES NASMYTH, + F. ANDREWS, + HARLAND, + PECQUEUR, + JAMES VINEY, + CHEVALIER BORDINO, + CLIVE, + SUMMERS AND OGLE, + GIBBS, + CHARLES DANCE, + JOSHUA FIELD, + DIETZ, + YATES, + G. MILLICHAP, + JAMES CALEB ANDERSON, + ROBERT DAVIDSON, + W. G. HEATON, + F. HILL, + GOODMAN, + NORRGBER, + J. K. FISHER, + R. W. THOMPSON, + ANTHONY BERNHARD, + BATTIN, + RICHARD DUDGEON, + LOUGH AND MESSENGER, + THOMAS RICKETT, + DANIEL ADAMSON, + STIRLING, + W. O. CARRETT, + RICHARD TANGYE, + T. W. COWAN, + CHARLES T. HAYBALL, + ISAAC W. BOULTON, + ARMSTRONG, + PIERRE RAVEL, + L. T. PYOTT, + A. RICHTER, + RAFFARD, + CHARLES JEANTEAUD, + SYLVESTER HAYWOOD ROPER, + COPELAND, + G. BOUTON, + COUNT A. DE DION, + ARMAND PEUGEOT, + RADCLIFFE WARD, + MORS, + MAGNUS VOLK, + BUTLER, + LE BLANT, + EMILE DELAHAYE, + ROGER, + GEORGES RICHARD, + POCHAIN, + LOUIS KRIEGER, + DE DETRICH, + DAVID SALOMONS, + LEON BOLLÈE, + JOSEPH GUEDON, + RENE DE KNYFF, + ADOLF CLEMENT, + A. DARRACQ, + JAMES GORDON BENNETT. + + +SIMON STEVIN + +Born in Bruges, Holland, in 1548. Died in 1620. + +Stevin was a noted mathematician, and also experimented in the +construction of wheel vehicles about 1600. He built in his workshop at The +Hague a wheeled vehicle that was propelled by sails. This was simply a +tray or boat of wood, which hung close to the ground. It was borne on four +wooden wheels, each one of which was five feet in diameter, and the +after-axle was pivoted to form a rudder. A tall mast was carried +amidships, and there was a small foremast that was stayed aft. Large +square sails were carried on these masts. A trial trip of this sailing +ship on land was made in 1600, when the journey from Scheveningen to +Petten, a distance of forty-two miles, was made in about two hours. On +this occasion some twenty-two passengers were carried. Prince Maurice of +Holland steered, and among the passengers were Grotius, and the Spanish +Admiral, Mendoza, who was then a prisoner of war in Holland. + +Stevin also built a smaller sail vehicle, similar to the one just +described, that carried from five to eight persons. Both carriages were +used a great deal, running many miles on the Dutch coast. The smaller one +was to be seen at Scheveningen as late as 1802. Grotius wrote a poem on +these carriages. Bishop Wilkens, in England, also wrote about them in +1648, and showed a drawing that was made from a description given to him +by those who had seen the car at work. Howell, a writer of the period, +thus quaintly described the Stevin carriage: "This engine, that hath +wheels and sails, will hold above twenty people, and goes with the wind, +being drawn or moved by nothing else, and will run, the wind being good +and the sails hois'd up, about fifteen miles an hour upon the even hard +sands." + + +THOMAS WILDGOSSE + +In 1618, Thomas Wildgosse got out a patent for "newe, apte, of compendious +formes or kinds of engines or instruments to ploughe grounds without horse +or oxen; and to make boates for the carryage of burthens and passengers +runn upon the water as swifte in calmes, and more safe in stormes, than +boats full sayled in great wynnes." It is agreed by the best authorities +that these vehicles were set in motion by gear worked by the hand of a +driver, although Fletcher thinks that steam engines were intended. +Additional patents were granted to Wildgosse in 1625. + + +DAVID RAMSEY + +Associated with Thomas Wildgosse in his experimenting and patenting, in +1618, was David Ramsey, who at that time was Page of the Bed Chamber to +James I. of England, and afterwards was Groom of the Privy Chamber to the +same monarch. In 1644, Ramsey was again a partner in the grant of a patent +for "a farre more easie and better waye for soweing of corne and grayne, +and alsoe for the carrying of coaches, carts, drayes, and other things +goeing on wheels, than ever yet was used and discovered." This may have +been a manually or a steam propelled vehicle. It is most reasonable to +suppose that it was the former. + + +JOHANN HAUTSCH + +Born in 1595. Died in 1670. + +Hautsch was a noted mathematician, and, experimenting in the construction +of road vehicles, he built a mechanical carriage for use on common roads. +This carriage was successfully run in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1649, and +thereafter attracted a great deal of attention. It was propelled by a +train of gears that turned the axle, being operated by two men who, +secreted in the interior of the body, worked cranks. The finish of the +body of this coach was very elaborate, being heavily carved and having +fashioned in front the figure of a dragon, arranged to roll its eyes and +spout steam and water, in order to terrify the populace and clear the way. +On each side of the body were carved angels holding trumpets, which were +constantly blown, the precursors, perhaps, of the automobile horns of +to-day. The Hautsch coach was said to have gone as rapidly as one thousand +paces an hour. One of the carriages which he built was sold to the Crown +Prince of Sweden, and another to the King of Denmark. Not much more is +known of the Hautsch vehicles, but it is a matter of record that the +inventor was preceded by one whose name is unknown, but who ran a coach, +mechanically propelled somewhat like this car, in January, 1447, near +Nuremberg. + + +CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS + +Born at The Hague, Holland, April 14, 1629. Died at The Hague, June 8, +1695. + +Huygens received a good education, and at early age showed a singular +aptitude for mathematics. Soon after he was sixteen years of age he +prepared papers on mathematical subjects that gave him pre-eminent +distinction. He became noted as a physicist, astronomer and mathematician. +He devoted some time to the consideration of improvements in road +vehicular travel. + + +STEPHEN FARFLUER + +Born in 1663. + +Farfluer was a contemporary of Johann Hautsch, and was a skillful +mechanician of Altderfanar, Nuremberg, Germany. About 1650 he made a +dirigible vehicle propelled by man power, but as distinguished from that +of his rival, Hautsch, this was a small carriage, being calculated only +for one person. Being crippled, Farfluer used the wagon as his only means +of getting about alone. It had hand cranks that drove the single front +wheel by gears. + + +FERNANDO VERBIEST + +Born near Courtrai, Belgium, 1623. Died in China in 1688. + +Verbiest became a Jesuit missionary, and was a man of marked ability. +After going to China he acquired a thorough knowledge of the language of +that country, where he spent the greater part of his life. Under his +Chinese name he wrote scientific and theological works in Chinese. He was +appointed astronomer at the Pekin observatory, undertook the reformation +of the Chinese calendar, superintended the cannon foundries, and was a +great favorite of the Emperor. + +About 1655 he made a small model of a steam carriage. This is described in +the English edition of Huc's Christianity in China, in Muirhead's Life of +James Watt, and in the Astronomia Europia, a work that is attributed to +Verbiest, but was probably compiled from his works by another Jesuit +priest and was published in Europe in 1689. The Verbiest model was for a +four-wheeled carriage, on which an aeolipile was mounted with a pan of +burning coals beneath it. A jet of steam from the aeolipile impinged upon +the vanes of a wheel on a vertical axle, the lower end of the spindle +being geared to the front axle. An additional wheel, larger than the +supporting wheels, was mounted on an adjustable arm in a manner to adapt +the vehicle to moving in a circular path. Another orifice in the aeolipile +was fitted with a reed, so that the steam going through it imitated the +song of a bird. + + +ISAAC NEWTON + +Born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, December 25, 1642. Died at +Kensington, March 20, 1727. + +Isaac Newton, who became one of the greatest mathematicians that the world +ever knew, was the son of a farmer. He was educated at Trinity College, +Cambridge, and in his early youth he mastered the principles of +mathematics, as then known, and began original investigations to discover +new methods. His great achievement was the discovery of the law of +universal gravitation, but his genius was active in other directions, as +the investigation of the nature of light, the construction of improved +telescopes, and so on. He was a Member of Parliament in 1689 and 1701, and +master of the mint, a lucrative position, from 1696 until the time of his +death. In 1671 he was elected a member of the Royal Society, and was +annually chosen to be its president, from 1703 until his death. + +Newton was one of the first Englishmen to conceive the idea of the +propulsion of vehicles by the power of steam. Taking up for consideration +Hero's hollow ball filled with water from which steam was generated by the +outward application of heat, he added these conclusions: "We have a more +sensible effect of the elasticity of vapors if the hole be made bigger and +stopped, and then the ball be laid upon the fire till the water boils +violently; after this, if the ball be set upon little wheels, so as to +move easily upon a horizontal plane, and the hole be opened, the vapors +will rush out violently one way, and the wheels and the ball at the same +time will be carried the contrary way." Beyond this philosophical +suggestion, however, Newton never went. The steam carriage attributed to +him by some writers is merely an imaginative creation, by writer or +artist, based upon the above proposition. + + +VEGELIUS + +A professor at Jena, Saxony, in the seventeenth century, Vegelius +constructed, in 1679, a mechanical horse, which was propelled by springs +and cased in the skin of a real horse. This machine is said to have +traveled four German miles an hour. + + +ELIÉ RICHARD + +Born on the Island of Ré in 1645. + +A physician of La Rochelle, France, Elié Richard was a man of science, and +a considerable celebrity in his day. He had built, in 1690, a dirigible +vehicle that he used to travel about in on his professional work. The +carriage was propelled by mechanism operated by a man-servant by means of +a treadle. The operator was placed on the rear of the carriage, and the +occupant, seated in front, steered by a winch attached to a small wheel. +This construction was frequently referred to by contemporaries of Richard, +and even later on, and was copied by others during the following hundred +years or so. + + +GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNITZ + +Born at Leipsic, Germany, July 6, 1646. Died at Hanover, November 14, +1716. + +Leibnitz, in addition to his work as a philosopher and mathematician, was +also interested in mechanics. He gave some attention to the study of the +possibility of making improvements in common road vehicles, and he +endeavored to encourage, though without results, his contemporary, Denis +Papin. + + +HUMPHREY MACKWORTH + +Born in 1647. Died in 1727. + +A celebrated English politician and capitalist, Sir Humphrey Mackworth +matriculated at Magdalene College, Oxford, December 11, 1674. He was +entered at the Middle Temple, in June, 1675, and called to the bar in +1682. In 1695 he was engaged in developing collieries and copper and +smelting works at Melencryddan, near Neath, Wales, and the improvements +introduced by him there were of the greatest value. Among other +improvements he constructed a wagon-way from the mines, and propelled his +coal-carrying cars by sails. + + +DENIS PAPIN + +Born at Bloys, France, August 22, 1647. Died in England, 1712. + +Papin was a son and nephew of a physician. He studied medicine in Paris +and practiced for some time, attaining distinction in his profession. A +passion for the sciences, mathematics and physics drew him away from +medical practice and he became skillful in other lines. He followed +assiduously the footsteps of Huygens and in some respects became a rival +of his master in original thought and experimenting and in professional +attainments. + +Papin invented in 1698 a carriage that was fitted with a steam engine as +such is now understood; that is, a cylinder and a piston. This was +probably the first vehicle of its kind known in Europe. The construction +was a model merely, a toy which ran around the room, but it is said to +have worked well. Concerning this invention, Papin said: "I believe that +one might use this invention for other things besides raising water. I +have made a little model of a carriage that is propelled by this force. I +have in mind what I can do, but I believe that the unevenness and turns of +the highway will make this invention very difficult to perfect for +carriages or road use." Although encouraged to prosecute his work by the +Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, his doubts could not be overcome in +regard to the practicability of his proposed carriage. He still claimed, +however, that by the aid of such vehicles, infantry could probably be +moved as quickly as cavalry and without the necessity of heavy impedimenta +of food and other supplies. + + +VAUCAUSON + +A celebrated French mechanician, Vaucauson, in April, 1740, built a +vehicle "to go without horses." He was visited at his palace in Rue +Charonne, Paris, by King Louis Fifteenth, and the exhibition of this +vehicle, which, according to reports, was propelled by a "simple watch +spring," was reviewed in a journal of the time as follows: + +"Yesterday, at 3 P.M. His Majesty, accompanied by several officers and +high court functionaries, repaired to the palace of M. Vaucauson and took +his seat on a species of throne specially prepared for his reception on a +raised platform, whence he could clearly discern all the mechanism of the +carriage in its gyrations through the avenues and alleys. The vehicle +would seat two persons, and was painted scarlet, bordered in blue, +ornamented with much gilding; the axle trees of the wheels were provided +with brakes and set in motion by a fifth wheel, likewise well braked and +bound with long ribbons of indented steel. Two chains communicated with a +revolving lever in the hands of the conductor, who could at will start or +stop the carriage without need of horses. His Majesty congratulated the +skillful mechanician, ordering from him for his own use a similar vehicle +to grace the royal stables. The Duke of Montemar, the Baron of Avenac and +the Count of Bauzun, who had witnessed the trial, were unable to credit +their own vision, so marvelous did the invention appear to them. +Nevertheless, several members of the French Academy united in declaring +that such a piece of mechanism could never circulate freely through the +streets of any city." + +Either from royal forgetfulness or thanks to the customary court intrigues +to turn His Majesty from his purpose, or possibly because of the somewhat +crude nature of the invention itself, the fact is that from that time +forth not the slightest mention is to be found in history of the motor +carriage of Vaucauson. + + +ROBINSON + +It is on the authority of James Watt that Dr. Robinson is credited with +having conceived the idea of driving carriages by steam power. Watt wrote +as follows: + +"My attention was first directed to the subject of steam engines by the +late Dr. Robinson, then a student in the University of Glasgow, afterwards +Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He, in +1759, threw out the idea of applying the power of the steam engine to the +moving of wheel carriages, and to other purposes, but the scheme was soon +abandoned on his going abroad." + + +ERASMUS DARWIN + +Born at Elton, Nottinghamshire, England, December 12, 1731. Died at Derby, +April 18, 1802. + +Having studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, and at Edinburgh, Darwin +settled as a physician at Litchfield and gained a large practice. In 1781 +he moved to Derby. He was a man of remarkable scientific attainments and a +voluminous writer of poetry that was pervaded by enthusiasm and love of +nature, but had little poetic quality. + +Darwin, wrote most of his poetry and evolved most of his ideas as he drove +about the country in a doctor's covered sulky that was piled high with +books and writing materials. He was in correspondence with Benjamin +Franklin and Matthew Boulton about 1765 in regard to steam, and writing to +Boulton, said: "As I was riding home yesterday I considered the scheme of +the fiery chariot, and the longer I contemplated this favorite idea, the +more practicable it appeared to me. I shall lay my thoughts before you, +crude and undigested as they appeared to me, and by these hints you may be +led into various trains of thinking upon this subject, and by that means +(if any hints can assist your genius, which, without hints, is above all +others I am acquainted with) be more likely to approve or disapprove. And +as I am quite mad of the scheme, I hope you will not show this paper to +anyone. These things are required: (1) a rotary motion; (2) easily +altering its direction to any other direction; (3) to be accelerated, +retarded, destroyed, revived, instantly and easily; (4) the bulk, the +weight, the expense of the machine to be as small as possible in +proportion to its weight." Darwin gave sketches and suggested that the +steam carriage should have three or four wheels, and be driven by an +engine having two cylinders open at the top, and the steam condensed in +the bottom of the cylinder, on Newcomen's principle. The steam was to be +admitted into the cylinders by cocks worked by the person in charge of the +steering wheel, the injection cock being actuated by the engine. The +"fiery chariot" never went beyond this suggestion, however. + + +RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH + +An English gentleman of fortune, and much interested in mechanics, Richard +Lovell Edgeworth was influenced by Dr. Erasmus Darwin to take up the +subject of steam locomotion. In 1768, Dr. Small, in correspondence with +James Watt, spoke of Edgeworth and his experiments in the problem of +moving land and water carriages by steam. Two years later Edgeworth +patented a portable railway system and then spent nearly forty years on +that one idea. + +When an old man of seventy, Edgeworth wrote to James Watt: "I have always +thought that steam would become the universal lord, and that in time we +should scorn the post horses." Dr. Smiles says: "Four years later he died, +and left the problem which he had nearly all his life been trying +ineffectually to solve, to be worked out by younger men." + + +FRANCIS MOORE + +In 1769, Francis Moore, of London, a linen draper, invented a machine +which he described as made of wood, iron, brass, copper, or other metals, +and constructed upon peculiar principles, and capable of being wrought or +put in motion by fire, water, or air, without being drawn by horses or any +other beast or cattle; and which machines, or engines, upon repeated +trials, he has discovered would be very useful in agriculture, carriage of +persons and goods, either in coaches, chariots, chaises, carts, wagons, or +other conveyances, and likewise in navigation, by causing ships, boats, +barges, and other vessels to move, sail, or proceed, with more swiftness +or despatch. + +It was said that, so confident was the inventor of the success of his +machine, he sold all his own horses, and by his advice many of his friends +did the same, expecting that the price of that animal would be so affected +by the invention, that it would not be again one-fourth of what it was +then. Moore made several trials with his steam carriage, and took out +three patents for it. Like many others of that time, however, Moore's +carriages never got into use. + + +PLANTA + +A Swiss army officer who was contemporary with Cugnot in the seventeenth +century. He was engaged upon the problem of a steam road wagon at about +the same time that Cugnot conceived and executed his vehicle in 1769. +General Gribeauval, to whom Cugnot's plan had been referred, engaged +Planta to pass upon it and to examine the new vehicle. The Swiss officer +found it in all respects so much better than his own that he so reported +to the French Ministry of War and abandoned further endeavors on that +line. + + +J. S. KESTLER + +In 1680 a description was published of a carriage designed by J. S. +Kestler. This was merely a toy, set in motion by mercury in a tube heated +by a candle. + + +BLANCHARD + +In connection with his partner, Masurier, Blanchard brought out in Paris, +in 1779, a vehicle that was somewhat patterned after the man-propelled +carriage of Elié Richard. It was very successful and attracted a great +deal of attention. + + +THOMAS CHARLES AUGUSTE DALLERY + +Born at Amiens, France, September 4, 1754. Died at Jouy, near Versailles, +in June, 1835. + +About 1780, Dallery made a steam vehicle with a multi-tubular boiler which +he claimed was an original invention of his own. This vehicle was run in +Amiens and in 1790 was seen on the streets of Paris. In March, 1803, he +secured a patent on the tubular boiler for use on his steamboat, or on his +steam carriage. This vehicle was a boat-shaped wagon, driven by a steam +engine. + + +JAMES WATT + +Born at Greenock, Scotland, January 19, 1736. Died at Birmingham, +Staffordshire, England, August 25, 1819. + +Watt came of a respectable and industrious family. His grandfather was a +professor of mathematics, while his father was an instrument maker, +councillor and manufacturer. After a limited education young Watt went to +London, in 1755, and became a mathematical and nautical instrument maker. +In that capacity he became connected with Glasgow University, and there +made his discoveries that resulted in the practical improvements in the +steam engine which made him famous. He was associated with Matthew +Boulton, under the firm name of Boulton & Watt, from 1774 to 1800, and the +Watt engines that were built by that concern at Soho revolutionized +England's mining industries. His steam engines represented a great step +beyond the Newcomen engines, though still using low-pressure steam. + +Watt's connection with steam carriages for use on the common roads, a +subject that was of much moment in his day, was limited to a single patent +and generally to discouraging the plans of others in that direction, owing +to his fear that the introduction of high-pressure steam use would harm +the engine business. In the patent granted to him in 1784 he proposed that +the boiler of his carriage should be made of wooden staves, fastened with +iron hoops, like a cask, and the furnace to be of iron, and placed in the +inside of the boiler, surrounded with water. + +Watt, however, never built the steam carriage. He retained the deepest +prejudices against the use of high-pressure steam, saying: "I soon +relinquished the idea of constructing an engine on this principle; from +being sensible it would be liable to some of the objections against +Savery's engine, viz., the danger of bursting the boiler, and also that a +great part of the power of the steam would be lost, because no vacuum was +formed to assist the descent of the piston." + + +ROBERT FOURNESS + +Born in Otley, Yorkshire, England. Died at an early age. + +Fourness became a practical engineer and invented several labor-saving +machines. One of his first inventions was for a machine to split hides, +that was set up and operated in the establishment of his father. Later in +life he established works for himself in Sheffield, and afterwards in +Gainsborough. In 1788, he was a resident of Elland, Halifax, and there +made a steam carriage that was run by a three-cylinder inverted engine. +Spur-gearing transmitted the driving power from the crank shaft to the +axle. His patent was taken out in conjunction with James Ashworth. This +vehicle was mounted on two driving wheels and had a smaller steering wheel +in front. + + +GEORGE MEDHURST + +Born at Shoreham, Kent, England, in February, 1759. Died in September, +1827. + +Medhurst was educated as a clock maker, but in 1789 started as an +engineer. In the same year he secured a patent for a windmill and pumps +for compressing air to obtain motive power. One of the first investigators +in this direction, the idea on which he worked and which continued to +absorb his energy throughout life, was to make use of the wind when it +served in order to compress large bodies of air for use when needed. In +1800, he took out a patent on an aeolian engine and demonstrated how +carriages could be driven upon the common roads by compressed air stored +in reservoirs underneath the body of the vehicle. He also contemplated +applying this engine to other useful purposes and calculated that small +carriages could be worked by a rotary engine and larger ones by +reciprocating engines with special gear for varying power. + +In describing his inventions and explaining his ideas regarding compressed +air, Medhurst said: "The power applied to the machinery is compressed air, +and the power to compress the air I obtain generally by wind, assisted and +improved by machinery described in this specification, and in order to +render my invention universally useful I propose to adapt my machinery +and magazine so that it may be charged by hand, by a fall of water, by a +vacuum obtained by wind and also by explosive and effervescent substances, +for the rapid conveyance of passengers, mails, dispatches, artillery, +military stores, etc., and to establish regular stage coaches and wagons +throughout the kingdom, to convey goods and passengers, for public +accommodation, by erecting windmills, water-mills, etc., at proper +intervals upon the roads, to be employed in charging large magazines at +these stations with compressed air, or in raising large magazines of water +by wind, etc., by the power of which portable magazines may be charged +when required by machinery for that purpose." + +Medhurst contemplated establishing regular lines of coaches, with pumping +stations at regular stopping places. He endeavored to form a company to +work his inventions and develop his plans and published a pamphlet on the +subject of compressed air. About 1800, he established himself as a +machinist and ironmaster in Denmark street, Soho, and about ten years +later was the first to suggest pneumatic tubes for the carriage of parcels +or passengers. Some two years later he brought out the proposition for +what has come to be known as the atmospheric railway, an appliance for +conveying goods and passengers by the power of a piston in a continuous +tube laid between the rails. + + +ANDREW VIVIAN + +A resident of Cornwall, England, Andrew Vivian, a cousin of Richard +Trevithick, became much interested in the engineering experiments of his +famous relative. He worked with his cousin and particularly assisted him +in experiments on steam engines for propelling road carriages. In 1802, he +was a joint patentee with Trevithick, in the early steam vehicle that was +taken to London and was exhibited in that city, where for a short time it +occasioned a great deal of public curiosity. + + +DU QUET + +A Frenchman who, in 1714, designed a small windmill to give motion to the +wheels of his carriages. + + +J. H. GENEVOIS + +A Swiss clergyman, of the early part of the eighteenth century. He +proposed to use windmills or sails on his wagon and by a system of springs +to store the energy thus obtained until such time as it should be needed +for driving purposes. + + +JOHN DUMBELL + +In 1808, John Dumbell secured a patent for an engine that had many +peculiar features. He planned to have the steam act on a series of vanes, +or fliers, within a cylinder, "like the sails of a windmill," causing them +to rotate together with the shaft to which they were fixed. Gearing +transmitted the motion of this shaft to the driving wheels. The inventor +proposed to raise steam by permitting water to drop upon a metal plate, +kept at an intense heat by means of a strong fire, which was stimulated by +a pair of bellows. + + +WILLIAM BRUNTON + +Born at Dalkeith, Scotland, May 26, 1777. Died at Camborne, Cornwall, +England, October 5, 1857. + +The eldest son of Robert Brunton, a watch and clock maker, William Brunton +studied mechanics first in his father's shop and then in England, under +the guidance of his grandfather, who was a colliery viewer. When he was +thirteen years of age, in 1790, he began work in the fitting shops of the +New Lanark cotton mills of David Dale and Richard Arkwright. Remaining in +that establishment for six years he then went to the Boulton & Watt shops, +at Soho, where he was gradually promoted, until he finally became the +foreman and superintendent of engine manufacturing. + +In 1813, he went to the Jessop's Butterley Works, but remained there only +three years, when he became a partner and mechanical manager of the Eagle +Foundry, at Birmingham, a connection that he maintained for ten years. +From 1825 to 1835, he was engaged in the practice of civil engineering in +London. In the last-mentioned year, he became a share owner in the Cwm +Avom tin works in Glamorganshire, Wales, where he superintended the +erection of copper-smelting furnaces and rolling mills. He was also +connected with the Maesteg Works in the same county and a brewery at +Neath. Through the failure of these enterprises he lost the savings of his +lifetime and was never again engaged actively in business. He invented +many ingenious modes of reducing and manufacturing metals; made some of +the original engines used on the Humber and the Trent and also some of the +earliest that were seen on the Mersey, including those four vessels first +operated on the Liverpool ferries in 1814. He also invented the calciner +that was put in use in the tin mines at Cornwall and the silver ore works +in Mexico. + +Like nearly all the other engineers of his day, Brunton planned a steam +carriage. This was built when he was at the Butterley Works, in 1813, and +was called "the mechanical traveller." Although a peculiar machine it +worked with some degree of success, at a gradient of one in thirty-six, +all the winter of 1814, at the Newbottle Colliery. The machine was a steam +horse rather than a steam carriage. It consisted of a curious combination +of levers, the action of which nearly resembled that of the legs of a man +in walking, with feet alternately made to press against the ground of the +road or railway, and in such a manner as to adapt themselves to the +various inclinations or inequalities of the surface. The feet were of +various forms, the great object being to prevent them from injuring the +road, and to obtain a firm footing, so that no jerks should take place at +the return of the stroke, when the action of the engine came upon them; +for this purpose they were made broad, with short spikes to lay hold of +the ground. The boiler was a cylinder of wrought iron, five feet six +inches long, three feet in diameter, and of such strength as to be capable +of sustaining a pressure of upwards of four hundred pounds per square +inch. The working cylinder was six inches in diameter, and the piston had +a stroke of twenty-four inches; the step of the feet was twenty-six +inches, and the whole machine, including water, weighed about forty-five +hundredweight. In 1815, the engine of this carriage exploded and killed +thirteen persons. + + +THOMAS TINDALL + +A steam engine was patented, in 1814, by Thomas Tindall, of Scarborough. +The inventor proposed to use this for an infinitude of purposes, such as +driving carriages for the conveyance of passengers, ploughing land, mowing +grass and corn, or working thrashing machines. The carriage had three +wheels--one for steering. The steam engine drove, by spur gearing, four +legs, which, pushing against the ground, moved the carriage. The engine +could also be made to act upon the two hind wheels for ascending hills, or +for drawing heavy loads. A windmill, driven partly by the action of the +wind, and partly by the exhaust steam from the engine, was used as adjunct +power. + + +JOHN BAYNES + +A very ingenious modification of William Brunton's mechanical traveler, +was the subject of a patent granted to John Baynes, a cutler, of +Sheffield, England, in September, 1819. The mechanism was designed to be +attached to carriages for the purpose of giving them motion by means of +manual labor, or by other suitable power, and consisted of a peculiar +combination of levers and rods. The patentee also stated that there might +be several sets of the machinery above described for working each set with +a treadle, or even only one set and treadle. Then he added: "I prefer two +for ordinary purposes, particularly when only a single person is intended +to be conveyed in the carriage, who may work the same by placing one foot +on each treadle, in which the action will be alternate. The lower parts of +the leg should be so formed or shod as not to slip upon the ground. This +machinery may be variously applied to carriages, according to +circumstances, so as that the treadles may be worked either behind or +before the carriage, still producing a forward motion; in some cases it +may be advantageous to joint the front end of the treadles to the carriage +and press the feet on the hind ends." + + +JULIUS GRIFFITHS + +Among those who came to the front with plans for steam carriages for the +public highways, soon after the roads began to be improved, was Julius +Griffiths, of Brompton Crescent. In 1821, he patented a steam carriage +that was built by Joseph Bramhah, a celebrated engineer and manufacturer. +It is said that part of the mechanism was designed by Arzberger, a +foreigner. + +The carriage has been termed by some English authorities "the first steam +coach constructed in this country, expressly for the conveyance of +passengers on common roads." It was repeatedly tested during a period of +three or four years, but failed on account of boiler deficiencies. +Alexander Gordon said of it: "The engines, pumps, and connections were all +in the best style of mechanical execution, and had Mr. Griffiths' boiler +been of such a kind as to generate regularly the required quantity of +steam, a perfect steam carriage must have been the consequence." The +carriage moved easily and answered very readily to guidance. The vehicle +was a double coach and could carry eight passengers. + +This locomotive had two vertical working steam cylinders, which with the +boiler, condenser, and other details were suspended to a wood frame at the +rear of the carriage. The engineer was seated behind and did his own +firing. The boiler was a series of horizontal water tubes, one and +one-half inches in diameter and two feet long; at each end the flanges +were bolted to the vertical tubes forming the sides of the furnace. +Attached to the wood frame in front of the driving wheels, was a small +water tank, and a force pump supplied the boiler with water. The steam, +passing through the cylinder, went into an air condenser. The power of the +engines was communicated from the piston rods to the driving wheels of the +carriage by sweep rods, the lower ends of which were provided with driving +pinions and detents, which operated upon toothed gear fixed to the hind +carriage axle. The object of this mechanism was to keep the driving +pinions always in gear with the toothed wheels, however the engine and +other machinery might vibrate or the wheels be jolted upon uneven ground. +The boiler, engine, and other working parts were suspended to the wood +frame by chain slings, having strong spiral springs so as to reduce the +vibration from rough roads. + + +EDMUND CARTWRIGHT + +Born at Marnham, Nottinghamshire, England, April 24, 1743. Died at +Hastings, October 30, 1823. + +Cartwright was educated at Oxford and secured a living in the English +church. He devoted himself to the ministry and to literature until 1784, +when he became interested in machinery and in the following year invented +the power loom. He took out other patents and also gave some attention to +devising a mechanical carriage propelled by man power. In 1822, he made a +vehicle that was moved by a pair of treadles and cranks worked by the +driver. + +Even the steam engine engaged his attention. Some improvements which he +proposed in it are recorded in works on mechanics. While residing at +Eltham, in Lincolnshire, he used frequently to tell his son that, if he +lived to be a man, he would see both ships and land-carriages impelled by +steam. At that early period he constructed a model of a steam engine +attached to a barge, which he explained, about the year 1793, to Robert +Fulton. It appears that even in his old age, only a year before his death, +he was actively engaged in endeavoring to contrive a plan of propelling +land-carriages by steam. + + +T. BURTSALL + +An engineer, of Edinburgh, Scotland, T. Burtsall, in conjunction with J. +Hill, of London, got out, in 1824, a patent for flash or instantaneous +generation boilers. His aim was to make the metal of the boiler store heat +instead of a mass of water, and he accomplished this by heating the boiler +to anywhere from two hundred and fifty degrees to six hundred degrees +Fahrenheit, keeping the water in a separate vessel and pumping it into the +boiler as steam was required. A coach that he built to run with this +boiler weighed eight tons, and it was a failure, simply because the boiler +could not make steam fast enough. + + +T. W. PARKER + +A working model of a light steam carriage was made by T. W. Parker, of +Illinois, in 1825. Three wheels supported the carriage, the two hind +wheels being eight feet in diameter. The double-cylinder engine was used. + + +GEORGE POCOCK + +One of the most curious of the wind vehicle productions that held the +fancy of scientists to a slight extent in the early part of the nineteenth +century was the charvolant or kite carriage that was devised by George +Pocock in 1826, and built by Pocock and his partner, Colonel Viney. This +was a very light one-seated carriage, drawn by a string of kites harnessed +tandem. With a good wind these kites developed great power and it is said +that the carriage whirled along, even on heavy roads, at the rate of a +mile in three or even two and one-half minutes. Once Viney and Pocock made +the trip from Bristol to London, and they often ran their carriage around +Hyde Park and the suburbs of London. As the wind could not always be +depended upon the charvolant was provided with a rear platform, upon which +a pony was carried for emergencies. + + +SAMUEL BROWN + +In 1826, Samuel Brown applied his gas-vacuum engine to the propulsion of a +carriage, which was effectively worked along the public roads in England. +It even ascended the very steep acclivity of Shooter's Hill, in Kent, to +the astonishment of numerous spectators. The expense of working this +machine was, however, said far to exceed that of steam, and this formed a +barrier to its introduction. Experiments with this engine for the +propulsion of vessels on canals or rivers were also made by the Canal Gas +Engine Company. Brown patented a locomotive for common roads in 1823. + + +JAMES NEVILLE + +In January, 1827, James Neville, an engineer of London, took out a patent +for a "new-invented improved carriage," to be worked by steam, the chief +object of which appears to have been to provide wheels adapted to take a +firm hold of the ground. He proposed to make each of the spokes of the +wheels by means of two rods of iron, coming nearly together at the nave, +but diverging considerably apart to their other ends, where they were +fastened to an iron felly-ring of the breadth of the tire, and this tire +was to be so provided with numerous pointed studs about half an inch long +as to stick into the ground to prevent the wheel from slipping round. A +second method of preventing this effect was to fasten upon the tire a +series of flat springing plates, each of them forming a tangent to the +circumference, so that as the wheels rolled forward each plate should be +bent against the tire and recover its tangential position as it left the +ground in its revolution. It was considered that the increased bearing +surface of the plate, and the resistance of its farthest edge, would +infallibly prevent slipping. For propelling the carriage Neville proposed +to use a horizontal vibrating cylinder to give motion direct to the crank +axis by means of the compound motion of the piston rod, as invented by +Trevithick, the motion to the running wheels to be communicated through +gear of different velocities. + + +T. S. HOLLAND + +Among the singular propositions for producing a locomotive action that +were brought out early in the eighteenth century was that invented by T. +S. Holland, of London, for which he took out a patent in December, 1827. +The invention consisted in the application of an arrangement of levers, +similar to that commonly known by the name of lazy-tongs, for the purpose +of propelling carriages. The objects appeared to be to derive from the +reciprocating motion of a short lever a considerable degree of speed, and +to obtain an abutment against which the propellers should act +horizontally, in the direction of the motion of the carriage, instead of +obliquely to that motion, as is the case when carriages are impelled by +levers striking the earth. + + +JAMES NASMYTH + +Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 19, 1808. Died in South Kensington, +England, May 6, 1890. + +While yet in his teens James Nasmyth showed great mechanical ability and +constructed a small steam engine. In 1821, he became a student at the +Edinburgh School of Arts. Six years later he had made a very substantial +advance in his experiments. The story of what he endeavored to accomplish +is best told by himself. In later life he wrote: + +"About the year 1827, when I was nineteen years old, the subject of steam +carriages to run upon common roads occupied considerable attention. +Several engineers and mechanical schemers had tried their hands, but as +yet no substantial results had come of their attempts to solve the +problem. Like others, I tried my hand. Having made a small working model +of a steam carriage, I exhibited it before the members of the Scottish +Society of Arts. The performance of this active little machine was so +gratifying to the Society, that they requested me to construct one of such +power as to enable four or six persons to be conveyed along the ordinary +roads. The members of the Society, in their individual capacity, +subscribed three hundred dollars, which they placed in my hands as the +means for carrying out their project. I accordingly set to work at once, +and completed the carriage in about four months, when it was exhibited +before the members of the Society of Arts. Many successful trials were +made with it on the Queensferry Road, near Edinburgh. The runs were +generally of four or five miles, with a load of eight passengers sitting +on benches about three feet from the ground. The experiments were +continued for nearly three months, to the great satisfaction of the +members. + +"I may mention that in my steam carriage I employed the waste steam to +create a blast or draught, by discharging it into the short chimney of the +boiler at its lowest part; and I found it most effective. I was not at +that time aware that George Stephenson and others had adopted the same +method; but it was afterwards gratifying to me to find that I had been +correct as regards the important uses of the steam blast in the chimney. +In fact, it is to this use of the waste steam that we owe the practical +success of the locomotive engine as a tractive power on railways, +especially at high speeds. + +"The Society of Arts did not attach any commercial value to my road +carriage. It was merely as a matter of experiment that they had invited me +to construct it. When it proved successful they made me a present of the +entire apparatus. As I was anxious to get on with my studies, and to +prepare for the work of practical engineering, I proceeded no further. I +broke up the steam carriage, and sold the two small high-pressure engines, +provided with a strong boiler, for three hundred and thirty-five dollars, +a sum which more than defrayed all the expenses of the construction and +working of the machine." + + +F. ANDREWS + +It is said that F. Andrews, of Stamford Rivers, Essex, England, was the +inventor of the pilot steering wheel which was used by Gurney and has been +often used since then. He also made other improvements in steam carriages +in 1826. One of his patents was for the oscillating cylinders that were +used by James Neville in his steam carriage. Andrews' steam carriage was a +failure, like many others of that period, on account of imperfect working +of the boiler. + + +HARLAND + +Dr. Harland, of Scarborough, in 1827 invented and patented a steam +carriage for running on common roads. A working model of the steam coach +was perfected, embracing a multi-tubular boiler for quickly raising +high-pressure steam, with a revolving surface condenser for reducing the +steam to water again by means of its exposure to the cold draught of the +atmosphere through the interstices of extremely thin laminations of copper +plates. The entire machinery placed under the bottom of the carriage, was +borne on springs; the whole being of an elegant form. + +This model steam carriage ascended with ease the steepest roads. Its +success was so complete that Harland designed a full-sized carriage; but +the demands upon his professional skill were so great that he was +prevented going further than constructing a pair of engines, the wheels, +and a part of the boiler. Harland spent his leisure time in inventions and +in that work was associated with Sir George Cayley. He was Mayor of +Scarborough three times. He died in 1866. + + +PECQUEUR + +Chief of shops at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metier, Paris, Pecqueur +made a steam wagon in 1828. His vehicle had two drive wheels keyed to two +pairs of axles. His planet gearing was the origin of the balance gear. + + +JAMES VINEY + +Colonel James Viney, Royal Engineers, in 1829 patented a boiler intended +for steam carriages. His plan was to have two, three, four, or six +concentric hollow cylinders containing water, between which the fire from +below passed up. An annular space for water, and an annular space or flue +for the ascending fire, were placed alternately, the water being between +two fires. + + +CHEVALIER BORDINO + +An Italian officer of engineers, Bordino devised and constructed a steam +carriage for the diversion of his little daughter. It was a carriage à la +Dumont, and for forty years was used regularly in the carnival festivities +of Turin in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is still +preserved as donated by the widow of Bordino to the Industrial Museum of +Turin. + + +CLIVE + +Best known as a writer of articles on the steam carriage, over the +signature of Saxula, in the Mechanic's Magazine, Clive, of Cecil House, +Staffordshire, England, also engaged in experimenting with steam. In 1830, +he secured patents for two improvements in locomotives, one increasing the +diameter of the wheels and the other increasing the throw of the cranks. +After a time he seems to have lost faith in the steam carriage, for in +1843 he wrote: "I am an old common road steam carriage projector, but gave +it up as impracticable ten years ago, and I am a warm admirer of Colonel +Maceroni's inventions. My opinion for years has been, and often so +expressed, that it is impossible to build an engine sufficiently strong to +run even without a load on a common road, year by year, at the rate of +fifteen to twenty miles an hour. It would break down. Cold iron at that +speed cannot stand the shock of the momentum of a constant fall from +stones and ruts of even an inch high." + + +SUMMERS AND OGLE + +Two steam carriages built by Summers and Ogle, in 1831, were among the +most successful vehicles of their kind in that day. One of these carriages +had two steam cylinders, each seven and one-half inches in diameter and +with eighteen-inch stroke. It was mounted on three wheels and its boiler +would work at a pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds per square inch. +Passengers were carried in the front and the middle of the coach, while +the tank and the boiler were behind. The second carriage had three steam +cylinders, each four inches in diameter, with a twelve-inch stroke. When +the committee of the House of Commons was investigating the subject of +steam locomotion on the common roads Summers and Ogle appeared and gave +interesting particulars concerning their vehicles. The greatest velocity +ever obtained was thirty-two miles an hour. They went from the turnpike +gate at Southampton to the four-mile stone on the London road, a continued +elevation, with one slight descent, at the rate of twenty-four and a half +miles per hour, loaded with people; twenty passengers were often carried. +Their first steam carriage ran from Cable Street, Wellclose Square, to +within two miles and a half of Basingstoke, when the crank shaft broke, +and they were obliged to put the whole machine into a barge on the canal +and send it back to London. This same machine had previously run in +various directions about the streets and outskirts of London. With their +improved carriage they went from Southampton to Birmingham, Liverpool and +London, with the greatest success. + +The Saturday Magazine, of October 6, 1832, gave an account of one of their +trials as follows: "I have just returned from witnessing the triumph of +science in mechanics, by traveling along a hilly and crooked road from +Oxford to Birmingham in a steam carriage. This truly wonderful machine is +the invention of Captain Ogle, of the Royal Navy, and Mr. Summers, his +partner, and is the first and only one that has accomplished so long a +journey over chance roads, and without rails. Its rate of traveling may be +called twelve miles an hour, but twenty or perhaps thirty down hill if not +checked by the brake, a contrivance which places the whole of the +machinery under complete control. Away went the splendid vehicle through +that beauteous city (Oxford) at the rate of ten miles an hour, which, when +clear of the houses, was accelerated to fourteen. Just as the steam +carriage was entering the town of Birmingham, the supply of coke being +exhausted, the steam dropped; and the good people, on learning the cause, +flew to the frame, and dragged it into the inn yard." + + +GIBBS + +An English engineer, Gibbs made a special study of the steam carriage of +Sir Charles Dance in 1831. As a result of his investigations he built a +steam drag in 1832. This was intended to draw passenger carriages and it +had a boiler with spirally descending flue placed behind the driving +wheels. In 1832, in conjunction with his partner, Applegate, he patented a +steam carriage with a tubular boiler and oscillating engine cylinders. +The power from the axle was transmitted to the driving wheels through +friction bands, arranged in the bases of the wheels so that one or both +wheels could be coupled to the axles. + + +CHARLES DANCE + +An enthusiastic motorist, Sir Charles Dance, of London, in the first third +of the ninteenth century did a great deal to encourage the engineers who +were inventing steam road vehicles. He was financially interested in +several of the companies that were organized to run steam coaches over the +common roads. He was the backer of Goldsworthy Gurney, and was also +engaged in building for himself. His most famous car was a coach that ran +every day from the Strand, London, to Brighton. This was an engine mounted +on four wheels with a tall rectangular funnel that narrowed toward the +top. Above the engine were seats for six or seven persons besides the +driver. Behind the engine was a vehicle like a boxcar low hung on wheels. +On the side of this box was emblazoned the coat of arms of its owner. On +the roof seat in front were places for four passengers. On a big +foot-board behind, stood the footman. This carriage was one of the +spectacular sights of London at that time and great crowds gathered in the +Strand every day to witness its departure. + +Dance ran Gurney's coaches on the Cheltenham and Gloucester Road until +public opposition compelled his withdrawal, but after that he was a joint +patentee with Joshua Field, of an improved boiler. This was applied to the +road carriage above mentioned and the first trips were made in September, +1833, with a drag and omnibus attached, a speed of sixteen miles an hour +being attained. On the first trip from London to Brighton, fifteen +passengers were carried and the distance of fifty-two miles was covered in +five and a half hours, the return journey being performed in less than +five hours. About the middle of October the steam drag and omnibus were +put upon the road between Wellington Street, Waterloo Bridge, and +Greenwich, where it continued to run for a fortnight, with a view of +showing the public in London what could be done in this direction. The +proprietor had no intention of making it a permanent mode of conveyance, +and therefore kept the company as select as he could by charging half a +crown for tickets each way. + + +JOSHUA FIELD + +Born in 1786. Died in 1863. + +A member of the well-known firm of Maudsley, Sons & Field, marine +engineers, of London, England, Joshua Field took out a patent for an +improved boiler, in conjunction with Sir Charles Dance. The firm made an +improved vehicle for Dance, and in 1835 Field constructed for himself a +steam carriage that made a trip in July with a party of guests. The +carriage was driven up Denmark Hill, and did the distance, nine miles, in +forty-four minutes. It also ran several times to Reading and back, at the +rate of twelve miles an hour. One of the subscribers towards the building +of this carriage, said that it was a success mechanically, but not +economical. Field was one of the six founders of the Institution of Civil +Engineers. + + +DIETZ + +Previous to the time that the carriage of Francis Maceroni was taken to +France, an engine designed by Dietz was run in the streets of Paris. In +the reports of the Academy of Sciences and Academy of Industry in Paris, +in 1840, this vehicle was described. The carriage had eight wheels, two of +which were large and gave the impulsion. The six smaller wheels rose and +fell according to the irregularity of the road, and at the same time +assisted in bearing the weight of the carriages. The wheels were bound +with wood tires, having cork underneath. The locomotive was a drag, +drawing a carriage for passengers. The engine was of thirty horse-power, +and a speed of ten miles an hour was made. + + +YATES + +A steam carriage was built by Messrs. Yates & Smith, London, in 1834. It +had a trial in July of that year, running from the factory in Whitechapel, +along High and several other streets, at the rate of ten to twelve miles +an hour. Vibrating engines, working on horizontal framing, were used. The +coach resembled an ordinary stage-coach. + + +G. MILLICHAP + +In a letter to an English engineering paper in 1837, G. Millichap, of +Birmingham, claimed to have a locomotive carriage building. He wrote: "If +your correspondent will take the trouble to call at my house I shall be +happy to show him a locomotive carriage in a state of great forwardness, +intended decidedly for common roads." + + +JAMES CALEB ANDERSON + +Born in Cork, Ireland, July 21, 1782. Died in London, April 4, 1861. + +The father of Sir James Caleb Anderson, of Buttevant Castle, Ireland, was +John Anderson, a celebrated merchant of Ireland, famous as the founder of +the town of Fermoy. The son gave much attention to the subject of steam +and steam propulsion, and made many experiments, taking out several +patents. In 1831, he lodged a specification for improvements in machinery +for propelling vessels on water; in 1837, for improvements in locomotive +engines, and in 1846, for improvements in obtaining motive power and +applying it to the propulsion of cars and vessels and the driving of +machinery. His 1831 patent was for a manually-propelled vehicle, a +carriage in which twenty-four men were arranged on seats, like rowers in a +boat, but in two tiers, one above the other. The action was nearly the +same as the pulling of oars, the only difference being that all the men +sitting on one seat pulled at one horizontal cross-bar, each extremity of +which was furnished with an anti-friction roller that ran between guide +rails on the opposite sides of the carriage. The ends of each of these +horizontal bars were connected to reciprocating rods that gave motion to a +crank shaft, on which were mounted spur gear that actuated similar gear on +the axis of the running wheels of the carriage; so that by sliding the +gear on the axis of the latter any required velocity could be communicated +to the carriage, or a sudden stop made. It was proposed to employ this as +a drag, to draw one or more carriages containing passengers after it. The +patentee had chiefly in view the movement of troops by this method. + +Anderson gave financial support to W. H. James, in 1827, until he fell +into pecuniary difficulties. Ten years later he re-engaged in steam +carriage construction on his own account, and according to his own reports +he expended over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on experiments. It +was said that he failed in twenty-nine carriages before he succeeded in +the last. He patented a boiler that was said to be a poor copy of Walter +Hancock's boiler. Then he organized a joint-stock company, the Steam +Carriage and Wagon Company, which proposed to construct steam drags in +Dublin and in Manchester, which, when completed, were to convey goods and +passengers at double the speed and at half the cost of horse carriages. + +Anderson said: "I produce and prove my steam drags before I am paid for +them, and I keep them in repair; consequently, neither the public nor the +company runs any risk. The first steam carriage built for the company is +nearly completed. It will speak for itself." In the Mechanic's Magazine, +June, 1839, a Dublin correspondent writes: "I was fortunate enough to get +a sight of Sir James Anderson's steam carriage, with which I was much +pleased. It had just arrived from the country, and was destined for London +in about three weeks. The engine weighs ten tons, and will, I dare say, +act very well. I shall have an opportunity of judging that, as the tender +is at Cork. It has a sort of diligence, not joined, but to be attached to +the tender, making in all three carriages. I talked a great deal about it +to one of his principal men, who was most lavish in its praises, +especially as regards the boiler." In August, 1839, the carriage arrived +in London. + +In 1840, a report said: "Several steam carriages are being built at +Manchester and Dublin, under Sir James Anderson's patents, and one has +been completed at each place. At Manchester the steam drag had been +frequently running between Cross Street and Altrincham, and the last run +was made at the rate of twenty miles an hour, with four tons on the +tender, in the presence of Mr. Sharp, of the firm of Sharp, Roberts and +Company, of Manchester, and others." A newspaper of the same year reported +that an experimental trip of Anderson's steam drag for common roads took +place on the Howth Road, Dublin. It ran about two hours, backing, and +turning about in every direction--the object being chiefly to try the +various parts in detail. It repeatedly turned the corners of the avenues +at a speed of twelve miles an hour, the steam pressure required being only +forty-six pounds per square inch. No smoke was seen, and little steam was +observed. The whole machinery was ornamentally boxed in, so that none of +the moving parts was exposed to view, and it was found that the horses did +not shy at this carriage. + +The company had great plans for travel communication by means of these +drags between the chief towns in Ireland, as soon as a few of the steam +carriages were finished. An even more pretentious scheme involved a +service in conjunction with the railway trains from London, carriages to +be run from Birmingham to Holyhead, whence passengers were to be conveyed +to Dublin by steamer; from Dublin to Galway the steam drags were to be +employed; and thence to New York per vessel touching at Halifax; thus +making Ireland the stepping-stone between England, Nova Scotia, and the +United States of America. But all these plans came to naught. + +Anderson continued to take out patents down to as late as 1858. He devoted +more than thirty years of his life to the promotion of steam locomotion on +common roads. + + +ROBERT DAVIDSON + +Robert Davidson, of Aberdeen, was probably the first to make an +electrically propelled carriage large enough to carry passengers. This he +did in 1839. His carriage could carry two persons when traveling over a +fairly rough road, and though the prospects were enticing enough to cause +investment in the enterprise, Davidson's subsequent work was on rail +vehicles. + + +W. G. HEATON + +W. G. and R. Heaton, of Birmingham, England, built several steam carriages +which operated with various degrees of success in their neighborhood. +Their patent was dated in October, 1830. The patent aimed particularly at +the guidance of a locomotive carriage, and the management of the steam +apparatus so that the power and speed might be accommodated to the nature +of the road, the quantity of the load, and so on. + +For the purpose of steering the carriage, a vertical spindle was placed at +some distance before the axle of the front wheels and on its lower end a +small drum was fixed. Around this drum was coiled a chain with its middle +fixed upon the drum, and its ends made secure to the front axle formed a +triangle with the drum, situated at the angle opposite the longest side. +The other end of the vertical spindle was connected with a frame situated +in front of the coachman's or rather the steersman's seat and here on the +spindle was a horizontal beveled-toothed wheel. Over this wheel an axis +extended, terminating in two crank handles proceeding from the axes in +different directions, so that one was down when the other was up. Upon +this axis was fixed another beveled-toothed wheel taking into the first. +When these wheels were turned in one direction the right-hand fore wheel +of the carriage advanced and the coach turned towards the left, while when +they were turned in the other direction the left-hand wheel advanced and +the carriage turned towards the right. + +The driving wheels were connected with the axle by means of a pair of +ratchets furnished with a double set of ratchet teeth and a reversing +pall. By this one wheel could be advanced or backed while the other +remained stationary, or moving in a contrary direction, an arrangement +necessary for turning and backing. The steersman controlled the reversing +pall by connecting rods and lever. + +Motion was communicated to the driving wheels by a double set of spur +wheel gear, arranged to give different powers or velocities, by having +both a large and a small wheel fixed on the driving as well as the driven +axis. By shifting the large wheel on the driving axis into gear with the +small wheel on the driven axis speed was obtained, and by shifting their +relative position till the small wheel on the driving axis came into gear +with the large wheel on the driven axis, power was obtained at the expense +of speed. These two axes were kept at the same distance from each other by +means of connecting rods, although the relative positions might be changed +by the motion of the carriage on rough roads. + +In August, 1833, the Heatons placed a steam drag on the road between +Worcester and Birmingham. A slight accident occurred at the start, but +after repairs were made the trial was a success. Attached to the engine +was a stage-coach, carrying twenty passengers, the load weighing nearly +two tons. Lickey Hill was ascended, a rise of one in nine, and even one in +eight in some places. Many parts of the hill were very soft, but by +putting both wheels in gear they ascended to the summit, seven hundred +yards in nine minutes. A company was formed in Birmingham to construct and +run these carriages, subject to the condition of keeping up an average +speed of ten miles an hour. A new carriage was built and tried in 1834, +but after trials, the Messrs. Heaton dissolved their contract, as they +were unable to do more than seven or eight miles an hour. After spending +upwards of ten thousand dollars in endeavors to effect steam traveling, +they retired from the field, stating that the wear and tear were excessive +at ten miles an hour, and that the carriage was heavy, and wasteful in +steam. + + +F. HILL + +An English engineer, connected with the Deptford Chemical Works, Hill was +among the first to be interested in steam-road locomotion. He was +familiar with Hancock's experiments and made a carriage of his own that +was tried in 1840. He journeyed to Sevenoaks and elsewhere and ran up +steep hills with the carriage, fully loaded, at twelve miles an hour, and +on the level at sixteen miles an hour. He adopted the compensating gear +that was invented by Richard Roberts and that by some writers has been +credited to him. + +To put Hill's patents to practical use The General Steam Carriage Company +was formed in 1843. The probable success of the company was based upon the +belief that there was a demand for additional road accommodations in order +that road locomotion should counteract the exorbitant charges made by the +gigantic railway monopoly for conveying goods short distances. The company +stated in its prospectus "that while they confidently believe the improved +steam coach which they have engaged and propose to employ in the first +instance to be the most perfect now known in England, they do not bind +themselves to adhere to any particular invention, but will avail +themselves of every discovery to promote steam coach conveyance." + +Trial trips were made on the Windsor, Brighton, Hastings, and similar +roads, and with success. Once the carriage made a trip to Hastings and +back, a distance of one hundred and twenty-eight miles, in one day, half +the time occupied by the stage coaches. The Mechanic's Magazine said: "We +accompanied Hill, about a year ago, in a short run up and down the hills +about Blackheath, Bromley, and neighborhood; and we had again the pleasure +of accompanying him in a delightful trip, on the Hastings Road, as far as +Tunbridge and back. The manner in which his carriage took all the hills, +both in the ascent and the descent, proved how completely every difficulty +on this head had been surmounted." + +In the Hill carriage, both the coach and the machinery were erected upon a +strong frame mounted upon substantial springs. In the rear were the +boiler, furnace, and water tanks, with a place for the engineer and +fireman. In front was a coach body with seats for six inside, three on the +box, and the conductor in front. The front part of the carriage was also +suspended upon springs. The carriage was propelled by a pair of ten-inch +cylinders and pistons, horizontally placed beneath the carriage. These +acted upon two nine-inch cranks, coupled to the main axle through +compensating gear; the two six-foot six-inch diameter driving wheels had +the full power of the engines passed through them. The weight of the +boiler when empty was two thousand three hundred pounds, and it had a +capacity of about sixty gallons of water, while one hundred gallons more +were contained in the tanks. The total weight of the carriage, including +water, coke, and twelve passengers, was less than four tons. On heavy and +rough roads the steam pressure was seventy pounds per square inch, but on +good roads only sixty pounds. The average speed was sixteen miles an hour, +but on a level twenty miles an hour was reached. As late as 1843, Hill's +carriages were running from London to Birmingham, having been in operation +four or five years. Smooth in motion, they carried their passengers +comfortably, but soon went out of use. + + +GOODMAN + +Early in the forties a small road locomotive was made by Goodman, of +Southwark, London. It was worked by a pair of direct-acting engines, +coupled to the crank shaft. A chain pinion on the crank shaft transmitted +motion to the main axle through an endless pitch chain working over a +chain wheel of larger diameter on the driving shaft. The smoke from the +boiler was conducted by a flue placed beneath the carriage. The vehicle +had a speed of from ten to twelve miles an hour. + + +NORRGBER + +A correspondent of The Mechanic's Magazine, of London, wrote in 1843: +"Norrgber, of Sweden, a locksmith and an ingenious mechanic, made a steam +carriage which ran between Copenhagen and Corsoer, carrying thirty +passengers, the engine being of eight horse-power." + + +J. K. FISHER + +A small steam carriage, that in general character was like a railroad +locomotive, was designed by J. K. Fisher, of New York, in 1840. It was not +until 1853, however, that he went beyond this. Then he built another +carriage, with driving wheels five feet in diameter, and two steam +cylinders four inches in diameter, with ten-inch stroke. This carriage +attained a speed of fifteen miles an hour on good pavements. During the +next two years, Fisher made many trips, sometimes running twelve miles an +hour without excessive wear. In his later engines he introduced several +novelties, among them being parallel connections between the crank shaft +and the driving axle. In the steering gear a screw was placed across the +front part of the carriage carrying a nut, to which the end of an +elongated reverted pole was jointed. The screw was turned by bevel +gearing, one wheel being keyed to the end of the screw, and the other to +the steerage rod, the opposite end of this rod having a lever placed +within easy access of the footplate. Fisher's carriages were driven by +direct-acting engines, one cylinder on each side of the smoke-box. + + +R. W. THOMPSON + +Born in Stonehaven, England, in 1822. Died, March 8, 1873. + +R. W. Thompson came to the United States in early life, but returned to +England and engaged in scientific experimenting and studying, and in +engineering at Aberdeen and Dundee. He invented a rotary engine during +this period of his life. In 1846, being then in business for himself, he +conceived the idea of india-rubber tires and perfected this in 1876. In +December of that year he made a small road locomotive to draw an omnibus +and this was sent to the Island of Ceylon. Other road steamers of +Thompson's design were manufactured and sent to India and elsewhere. + + +ANTHONY BERNHARD + +In 1848, a compressed-air carriage invented by Anthony Bernhard, Baron von +Rathen, was built in England. It weighed three tons, and on its first trip +was driven at a speed of eight miles an hour. Upon one occasion it made +twelve miles an hour on a trip from Putney to Wandsworth, carrying twenty +passengers. Until near 1870, Baron von Rathen was engaged in inventing +compressed-air engines. + + +BATTIN + +In 1856, Joseph Battin, of Newark, N. J., constructed a steam carriage +with a vertical boiler and oscillating engines. + + +RICHARD DUDGEON + +A small locomotive for the common roads was built in 1857, Dy Richard +Dudgeon, an engineer, of New York. It had two steam cylinders, each three +inches in diameter and with sixteen-inch stroke, and drew a light carriage +at ten miles an hour on gravel roads. The carriage was destroyed by fire +at the New York Crystal Palace in 1858. Dudgeon is said to have afterward +built another carriage, which was larger and more clumsy than the other. A +few years ago this was discovered in an old barn in Locust Valley, L. I. +It was fixed up and started out and demonstrated that, old as it was, it +could go at a speed of more than ten miles an hour. + + +LOUGH AND MESSENGER + +In 1858, Messrs. Lough and Messenger, of Swindon, England, designed and +erected a steam-road locomotive which for two years ran at fifteen miles +an hour on level roads, and six miles an hour up grades of one in twenty. +The engine had two cylinders, each three and one-half inches in diameter +and with five-inch stroke, working direct on to the crank axle. The +driving wheels were three and one-half feet in diameter, and the leading +wheels two feet in diameter. The vertical boiler fixed on the frame was +worked at one-hundred-and-twenty-pound pressure. The tanks held forty +gallons of feed water. The total weight of the locomotive was eight +hundred pounds. + + +THOMAS RICKETT + +When the revival of interest in the common-road steam locomotive began in +England, about 1857, Thomas Rickett, of Castle Foundry, Buckingham, was +one of the first to give attention to the subject. He built a road +locomotive in 1858 for the Marquis of Stafford. This engine had two +driving wheels and a steering wheel. The boiler was at the back with the +steam cylinders horizontally on each side of it. Three passengers were +carried. + +The carriage was steered by means of a lever connected with the fork of +the front wheel. The cylinders were three inches in diameter, with +nine-inch stroke; the working steam pressure was one hundred pounds per +square inch. The driving wheels were three feet in diameter. The weight of +the carriage when fully loaded was only three thousand pounds. On level +roads the speed was about twelve miles an hour. + +An account of one of the trips in 1859 was as follows in the columns of +The Engineer: "Lord Stafford and party made another trip with the steam +carriage from Buckingham to Wolverton. His lordship drove and steered, and +although the roads were very heavy, they were not more than an hour in +running the nine miles to Old Wolverton. His lordship has repeatedly said +that it is guided with the greatest ease and precision. It was designed by +Mr. Rickett to run ten miles an hour. One mile in five minutes has been +attained, at which it was perfectly steady, the centre of gravity being +not more than two feet from the ground. A few days afterwards this little +engine started from Messrs. Hayes' Works, Stoney Stratford, with a party +consisting of the Marquis of Stafford, Lord Alfred Paget, and two +Hungarian noblemen. They proceeded through the town of Stoney Stratford at +a rapid pace, and after a short trip returned to the Wolverton railway +station. The trip was in all respects successful, and shows beyond a doubt +that steam locomotion for common roads is practicable." + +Two other engines were built by Rickett, one of them for the Earl of +Caithness. Some improvements were installed in this carriage, which was +intended to carry three passengers. The weight of the carriage, fully +loaded, was five thousand pounds. + +In this carriage, the Earl of Caithness traveled from Inverness to his +seat, Borrogill Castle, within a few miles of John o' Groat's House. He +describes his trip as follows: "I may state that such a feat as going over +the Ord of Caithness has never before been accomplished by steam, as I +believe we rose one thousand feet in about five miles. The Ord is one of +the largest and steepest hills in Scotland. The turns in the road are very +sharp. All this I got over without trouble. There is, I am confident, no +difficulty in driving a steam carriage on a common road. It is cheap, and +on a level I got as much as nineteen miles an hour." The Earl of Caithness +brought the trial to a successful result, and some expert authorities +jumped to the conclusion that at once steam traveling upon the high roads +of England would be availed of to a large extent; but that did not happen. + +In 1864, Mr. Rickett furnished an engine for working a passenger and light +goods service in Spain, intended to carry thirty passengers up an incline +of one in twelve, at ten miles an hour. The steam cylinders were eight +inches in diameter, and the driving wheels four feet in diameter. The +boiler would sustain a pressure of two hundred pounds. Rickett's later +engines had spur wheels; but his last engines were direct-acting. In +November, 1864, he says: "The direct-acting engines mount inclines of one +in ten easily; whether at eight, four, two, or one mile an hour, on +inclines with five tons behind them, they stick to their work better than +geared engines." + + +DANIEL ADAMSON + +In 1858 the firm of Daniel Adamson & Co., of Dukinfield, near Manchester, +England, built a common-road locomotive for a Mr. Schmidt. A multi-tubular +boiler was used, two and one-half feet in diameter and five and one-half +feet long, with a working pressure of one hundred and fifty pounds per +square inch. The engine, which weighed five thousand six hundred pounds +and was borne on three wheels, was calculated to run at eight miles an +hour. A steam cylinder of six-inch diameter was attached to each side of +the locomotive, and these cylinders actuated a pair of driving wheels +three feet six inches in diameter. + +Mr. Schmidt gave this vehicle a thorough trying out and especially raced +it with several competitors. On one of these races, in 1867, with a +Boulton steam carriage, the start was made from Ashton-under-Lyne, for the +show ground at Old Trafford, a distance of over eight miles. Although the +Adamson engine was the larger, the smaller one easily passed it during the +first mile, and kept a good lead all the way, arriving at Old Trafford +under the hour. + +Mr. Schmidt sent his road locomotive to the Havre Exhibition, in 1868, and +a trial of its powers was made by French engineers, and M. Nicole, +director of the exhibition. Mr. Schmidt conducted the engine himself, and +to it was attached an omnibus containing the commissioners. The engine and +carriage traversed several streets of Havre and mounted a sharp incline. +Other trips were made to several villages in the neighborhood of the +exhibition, and the engine behaved very satisfactorily. + + +STIRLING + +In a road steamer designed by Stirling, of Kilmarnock, in 1859, the five +traveling wheels were mounted upon springs. A single wheel was used as a +driver, and more or less weight was thrown upon this wheel. The leading +and trailing wheels swiveled in concert, in opposite directions, by means +of right and left hand worms and worm wheels. The carriage was thus made +to move in a curve of comparatively short radius. + + +W. O. CARRETT + +In 1860, George Salt, of Saltshire, England, employed W. O. Carrett, of +the firm of Carrett, Marshall & Co., proprietors of the Gun Foundry at +Leeds, to design and build a steam pleasure carriage for him. The +carriage was first shown and exhibited at the Royal Show held in Leeds, +1861, and likewise at the London Exhibition, 1862. It had two steam +cylinders, six inches in diameter and with eight-inch stroke. The boiler +was of the locomotive multi-tubular type, two feet six inches in diameter, +and five feet three inches long. It had a working pressure of one hundred +and fifty pounds per square inch, the test pressure being three hundred +pounds. The locomotive was mounted upon two driving wheels, each four feet +in diameter, made of steel, and a leading wheel was three feet in +diameter. Seats were provided for nine persons, including the steerer and +the fireman. The traveling speed was fifteen miles an hour; and the weight +of the carriage, fully loaded, was five tons. Motion was communicated from +the crank shaft to the driving axle through spur gearing. + +The English magazine, Engineering, in an article in June, 1866, said: +"This steam carriage, made by Carrett, Marshall & Co., was probably the +most remarkable locomotive ever made. True, it did little good for itself +as a steam carriage, and its owner at last made a present of it--much as +an Eastern prince might send a friend a white elephant--to that +enthusiastic amateur, Mr. Frederick Hodges, who christened it the +Fly-by-Night, and who did fly, and no mistake, through the Kentish +villages when most honest people were in their beds. Its enterprising +owner was repeatedly pulled up and fined, and to this day his exploits are +remembered against him." Hodges ran the engine eight hundred miles; he had +six summonses in six weeks, and one was for running the engine thirty +miles an hour. It was afterwards altered to resemble a fire engine and the +passengers were equipped like firemen, wearing brass helmets. The device +did not deceive the police, and finally the carriage was made over into a +real self-moving fire engine. + + +RICHARD TANGYE + +The steam carriage built by the Tangye Brothers, of England, about 1852, +was a simple affair. It had seating capacity in the body for six or eight +persons, while three or four more could be accommodated in front. The +driver who sat in front had full control of the stop valve and reversing +lever, so that the engine could be stopped or reversed by him as occasion +required. The speed of twenty miles an hour could be attained, and the +engine with its load easily ascended the steepest gradients. + +Richard Tangye, in his autobiography, speaks of his experience with this +carriage in the following terms: "Great interest was manifested in our +experiment, and it soon became evident that there was an opening for a +considerable business in these engines, and we made our preparations +accordingly, but the 'wisdom' of Parliament made it impossible. The +squires became alarmed lest their horses should take fright; and although +a judge ruled that a horse that would not stand the sight or sound of a +locomotive, in these days of steam, constituted a public danger, and that +its owner should be punished and not the owner of the locomotive, an act +was passed providing that no engine should travel more than four miles an +hour on the public roads. Thus was the trade in quick-speed locomotives +strangled in its cradle; and the inhabitants of country districts left +unprovided with improved facilities for traveling." The Tangye carriage +thus driven out of England was sent to India, where it continued to give +good service. + + +T. W. COWAN + +At the London Exhibition of 1862, the Messrs. Yarrow and Hilditch, of +Barnsbury, near London, exhibited a steam carriage, designed and made by +T. W. Cowan, of Greenwich. Eleven passengers, besides the driver and the +fireman, were carried and the vehicle with full load weighed two tons and +a half. The boiler, of steel, was a vertical multitubular two feet in +diameter and three feet nine inches high. The frame of the carriage was of +ash, lined with wrought-iron plates, and to the outside of the bottom sill +were two iron foundation plates, to which the cylinders and other parts +were attached. The cylinders were five inches in diameter and had +nine-inch stroke. + + +CHARLES T. HAYBALL + +A quick-speed road locomotive was made by Charles T. Hayball, of +Lymington, Hants, England, in 1864. The machinery was mounted upon a +wrought-iron frame, that was carried upon three wheels. The two driving +wheels had an inner and an outer tire, and the space between was filled +with wood to reduce noise and lessen the concussion. The two steam +cylinders were each four and one-half inches in diameter and with six-inch +stroke. Hayball used a vertical boiler, two feet two inches in diameter, +and four feet high, working at a pressure of one hundred and fifty +pounds. The carriage ran up an incline of one in twelve at sixteen miles +an hour, and traveled four miles an hour in fourteen minutes, up hill and +down, with ten passengers on board. + + +ISAAC W. BOULTON + +In August, 1867, Thomas Boulton says: "I ran a small road locomotive +constructed by Isaac W. Boulton, of Ashton-under-Lyne, from here through +Manchester, Eccles, Warrington, Preston Brook, to Chester, paraded the +principal streets of Chester, and returned home, the distance being over +ninety miles in one day without a stoppage except for water." Boulton's +engine had one cylinder four and one-half inches in diameter, and with +nine-inch stroke. The boiler worked at one hundred and thirty pounds +pressure per square inch. The driving wheels were five feet in diameter. +Two speeds were obtained by means of spur gearing between the crank shaft +and the counter shaft. On the Chester trip six persons, and sometimes +eight and ten passengers, were carried. + + +ARMSTRONG + +The virtues of the horseless vehicle early penetrated to India. Many +English manufacturers sent carriages there. Some time in 1868, a steam +carriage, with two steam cylinders, each three inches in diameter, and +with six-inch stroke, was made by Armstrong, of Rawilpindee, Punjab. A +separate stop valve was fitted to each cylinder. The boiler was fifteen +inches in diameter and three feet high, and worked steam pressure of one +hundred pounds per square inch. Twelve miles an hour on the level, and six +miles an hour up grade of one in twenty, were made. The driving wheels +were three feet in diameter. + + +PIERRE RAVEL + +Ravel, of France, planned in 1868 a steam vehicle, and about 1870 +completed the construction of one at the barracks at Saint-Owen. Then came +the declaration of war with Prussia, and the barracks, being within the +zone of fortification, the vehicle was lost or destroyed. There is no +certainty that it was ever unearthed after peace was declared. + + +L. T. PYOTT + +Before 1876, a motor vehicle was invented by L. T. Pyott, who was then a +foreman with the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. The carriage, +which could carry seven persons at the rate of twenty miles an hour, cost +about two thousand two hundred dollars, and weighed nearly two tons. It +was shown at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, but was +not allowed to run on the streets. + + +A. RICHTER + +An engineer and mechanician of Neider-Bielan, Oberlaneitz, Germany, +Richter secured in 1877 a patent for a vehicle that was propelled by a +motor consisting of a stack or battery of elliptic springs horizontally +disposed, which were compressed by a charge of powerful powder exploded in +what was practically a cannon. The subsequent expansion transmitted the +driving effort to the wheels by a rack of gears. The success of this +vehicle is not generally known. + + +RAFFARD + +In 1881, Raffard, a French engineer, made a tricycle and a tram-car that +is said to have been the first electric automobile which ran +satisfactorily. + + +CHARLES JEANTEAUD + +It is claimed for Jeanteaud that he built a four-wheeled electric vehicle +about 1881, which was changed in 1887 by the addition of an Immisch motor. +In 1890 he constructed a three-wheeled steam vehicle for five persons, +having the advice and interest of Archdeacon. In June, 1895, at the +Paris-Bordeaux race, he entered an electric automobile and established +battery relays every twenty-five kilometers, but without success so far as +speed was involved in comparison with the gasoline cars. In 1897 he +constructed a gasoline phaeton, but his subsequent work has been primarily +confined to the electric. + + +SYLVESTER HAYWOOD ROPER + +As early as 1850, Sylvester Haywood Roper, of Roxbury, Mass., began +experimenting with steam for street-vehicle propulsion. In 1882, when he +was seventy-three years of age, he fitted a Columbia bicycle with a +miniature engine, and with this he could run seventy miles on one charge +of fuel. His bicycle weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He +engaged in many track events and his record for three runs of one-third +of a mile each, was forty-two, thirty-nine and thirty-seven seconds. + + +COPELAND + +A tandem tricycle with a vertical boiler and a two-cylinder vertical +engine was built by Copeland, of Philadelphia, in 1882. Kerosene was used +to fire the boiler. It is said that over two hundred of these machines +were built. + + +G. BOUTON + +An ingenious and practical engineer, Bouton made various mechanical +devices, but it is claimed that from a clever toy came the associations +which have resulted in the now famous firm, DeDion-Bouton, with which he +is connected. It is said Compte DeDion saw this toy and on asking for the +maker, met Bouton. Thus came the partnership, in 1882, with Bouton and +Trepardoux. Bouton made a steam tricycle in 1884, containing the +remarkable light and efficient boiler of his invention, which for years +remained the most important contribution of the firm to this art. In 1885 +a quadricycle was made, and the success attending the runs made with this, +in which Merrelle co-operated, was such as to bring forth the personal +ideas of DeDion in so strong a manner that Trepardoux and Merrelle severed +their connections with the firm. + +The real beginning of the work of this firm was in 1884, and the several +years following saw the production of numerous steam machines, including +phaetons, dog carts, and a variety of other types. Even as late as 1897 +heavy steam chars-bancs were made by them, and that year also saw their +well-known thirty-five-passenger, six-wheeled coach, Pauline, on the +streets of Paris--a vehicle which cost over twenty-six thousand francs, +and had a thirty-five horse-power steam tractor. This vehicle had been +preceded by a somewhat similar one constructed in 1893 on the old idea of +a mechanical horse attached to an ordinary 'bus body from which the front +wheels had been removed. + +In 1895, DeDion-Bouton produced their first liquid hydro-carbon engine +vehicle--a tricycle with air-cooled motor and dry-battery ignition, which +is so well known to everyone in the industry to-day. These were +manufactured in large numbers, and were followed by larger gasoline +vehicles into which they introduced their engine, namely, a vertical +position. In 1899, their three-passenger, four-wheeled vehicle, and in +1900 a six-passenger vehicle, made good reputations. Since then their +large factory at Putaux, France, well known under the name of +DeDion-Bouton et Cie, has been continually crowded with work on vehicles, +and with the manufacture of their motors which are still sold +independently to other makers in France, as well as in other countries. In +fact the manufacture of engines and parts might be said to be now their +main work. + + +COUNT A. DEDION + +Count DeDion's interest in an ingenious mechanical device constructed by +Bouton, led to his backing the enterprise now so well known under his +name. His activity in the Automobile Club of France, and in all the +sporting events in the past ten years, has in fact brought him into far +more prominence than his associate, Bouton. His interest and energy in +connection with his company are well known, and though the credit for the +mechanical work must undoubtedly be given to Bouton, DeDion is largely +responsible for the great success and general prominence of the company. + + +ARMAND PEUGEOT + +In 1885, and again in 1889, Armand Peugeot, a French inventor and +manufacturer, brought up the subject of automobiles, and in 1889 he began +to manufacture, using the Daimler motor. His first attention having been +given to the motor, he brought out very soon his famous two-parallel +cylinder mounted horizontally on the body frame. Originally of the firm of +Fils de Peugeot, he severed his connection with that firm, and in 1876 +formed the Society of Artisans. In 1898, additional factories were erected +at Fives-Lille, and now the concern has works also at Audincourt. The +latter works is claimed to be the most extensive automobile manufacturing +establishment in the world. Peugeot is a member of many learned societies, +was elected an officer of the Academie in 1881, and a Chevalier of the +Legion of Honor in 1889. + + +RADCLIFFE WARD + +Ward commenced his experiments in England about 1886, and built a cab in +1887, which he ran in Brighton with more or less success. A second +vehicle, an omnibus, was built by him and run on the streets in London in +1888, and actually covered, all told, five thousand miles. + + +MORS + +A manufacturer of electrical apparatus, the Mors establishment made a +steam vehicle in 1886, and some ten years later began to manufacture +gasoline vehicles. + + +MAGNUS VOLK + +In 1887, Volk built an electrical dog cart which, like that of Ward, was +seen on the streets of Brighton. The next year he associated himself with +Immisch & Co., and built for the Sultan of Turkey an electrical dog cart. +This was claimed to have a radius of fifty miles at ten miles an hour, +with seven hundred pounds of battery in twenty-four cells, driving the +vehicle by means of a one horse-power motor. + + +BUTLER + +About the same time that Daimler and Benz were at work, Butler, an +Englishman, was studying to make a hydro-carbon engine. He had drawings in +1884 and got out a patent in 1887. He built a tricycle soon after that +date. This had two front wheels as steering wheels and a rear wheel driven +by a two-cylinder engine. But Butler did not carry his plans further, for, +as he wrote in 1890, "the authorities do not countenance its use on roads, +and I have abandoned in consequence any further development of it." + + +LE BLANT + +The steam carriage that Le Blant, of France, built carried nine +passengers, and its weight, fuel and water included, was three and +one-half tons. The engine was three-cylinder horizontal, and the boiler, a +Serpollet instantaneous generator, was placed behind the carriage, the +fireman beside it and the driver in front. + + +EMILE DELAHAYE + +Delahaye, of Tours, associated himself with the firm of Cail in 1870, +spending some years in Belgium, but in 1890 the automobile so attracted +him as to lead him to the construction of his first vehicle. For ten years +he practically adhered to the horizontal engine under the seat, which +construction we find him using in 1900. It is worthy of note that to +Delahaye is given credit for the practical adaptation of the radiator in +the arrangement now generally used in the cooling system. + + +ROGER + +Roger, of Paris, was the French licensee for Benz, taking up that motor +much in the same manner as Panhard & Levassor took up the Daimler. In fact +he had such close relations with Benz as to guide the further development +of both. To this extent he was doubtless largely responsible for +converting Benz to the four-cycle instead of the two-cycle construction, +and he is also credited with having brought about the change from the +vertical crank shaft to the horizontal in the Benz cars. Making good +headway in 1894, he had produced fifty or more machines by 1895, and ran +one in the Paris-Bordeaux race of that year. He brought a car to New York +in 1896, and took part in the Cosmopolitan race, from New York to Ardsley +and return. + + +GEORGES RICHARD + +In 1893, Georges Richard began cycle manufacturing in a small shop and two +years later turned his business into a limited corporation. In 1897, he +began the manufacture of automobiles. His motor is a development of the +Benz, with ignition improvement. + + +POCHAIN + +Pochain, in France, built in 1893 a six-seated phaeton with fifty-four +cells of battery, which would seem to have been practically the first +satisfactory vehicle of its kind. + + +LOUIS KRIEGER + +Early in the nineties of the last century Krieger made an electric +vehicle. About 1894, he introduced his four-passenger hack, converted by +substituting an electric fore carriage for the front axle of an ordinary +vehicle. He has since developed his electric vehicles in the class of city +carriages. A touring car, built for England, called the Powerful, made in +1901 notable records in that country in a long tour through the Isles. The +principal work of Krieger, however, has been in the development of front +drive and steer construction. + + +DEDETRICH + +Baron DeDetrich is of the well-known house that claims to have been +founded more than one hundred years ago in Luneville, Alsace, and has +grown to be one of the greatest works for the manufacture of locomotives +and other machinery. In 1880 the concern is said to have employed four +thousand men. Its connection with the automobile industry began +practically in 1895, when the construction of automobiles on the system of +Amédèe Bollèe & Sons was undertaken. With large resources and ability +development was naturally rapid, resulting in the production to-day of one +of the first-class French makes. + + +DAVID SALOMONS + +Sir David Salomons, Bart., was born in England, in 1851. He was educated +for a short period at University College, London, and afterwards at Caius +College, Cambridge, where he was graduated with natural science honors. He +is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, where he took +leading part for many years on the Council, and served in the positions of +honorary treasurer and vice-president. He is a fellow of the Royal +Astronomical Society, of the Physical Society of London, and of the Royal +Microscopical Society, and an associate of the Institution of Civil +Engineers. + +[Illustration: SIR DAVID SALOMONS] + +Sir David was one of the first in England to adopt the electric light. +This was about the year 1874, when he found it necessary to make the +lamps, switches and other apparatus himself, as those were unobtainable at +the time; much of the apparatus in general use to-day has been copied from +his models. About 1874-5, he constructed a small electrical road carriage, +which was in use a short time only, owing to the trouble of re-charging +batteries, as no accumulators existed at that period. Devoting himself +largely to scientific investigation he is the author of various works on +scientific subjects, such as photographic optical formulæ, photography +and electrical subjects, his chief work being his three-volume Electric +Light Installations, now entering its ninth edition. Of this work, the +first volume on Accumulators was for a great many years the only practical +work on the subject. He is also the author of many papers read before +scientific societies, including the Royal Society and Royal Institution. +He is an original member of the Automobile Club of France and of the +Automobile Club of Great Britain, being a member of the committee of the +former and member of committee and a vice-president of the latter, and is +also an ordinary or honorary member of most of the Continental automobile +clubs. He was Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, 1894-5, and High Sheriff of Kent +in 1881, and is a Magistrate for Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, Westminster and +London. + +The connection of Sir David Salomons with the encouragement and +development of self-propelled traffic in the United Kingdom, constitutes +one of the most important chapters in the contemporaneous history of the +automobile. His first step to secure a favorable public opinion for the +legislative measures that he proposed was to have an exhibition of +vehicles, which took place at Tunbridge Wells, in October, 1895. As a +result of this exhibition and a voluminous correspondence thereafter, the +newspapers of Great Britain and many of the members of the Houses of Lords +and Commons were brought to see the justice of the measures asked for. +Next, the Self-Propelled Traffic Association was organized. Sir David +Salomons was elected president and the campaign for Parliamentary action +was inaugurated and brilliantly and energetically prosecuted. When the +bill came before the Commons and the Lords it was substantially supported, +but its provisions received a great deal of discussion. Some amendments, +particularly relating to the questions of smoke and petroleum use, were +attached to it. In the end, however, the act that was passed was generally +satisfactory to all interested in the promotion and protection of +self-propelled traffic. It has been said that "there has hardly been an +act passed containing more liberal clauses and with more unity of action." +Its provisions allow of reasonable travel of all kinds of self-propelled +vehicles throughout the Kingdom and the act as a whole is regarded as one +of the most notable advances made in this matter during the present +generation. + + +LEON BOLLÈE + +A brother of Amédèe Bollèe, Leon Bollèe has been long interested in the +business that bears the family name. In 1896, he brought out a motor cycle +that was a type between a cycle and a vehicle. It had two front steering +wheels and one front driver. The same type of vehicle has been adopted for +light work, such as parcel delivery. + + +JOSEPH GUEDON + +Guedon made his appearance at Bordeaux, in October, 1897, with a +four-wheeled wagonette, which he made under the name of the Decauville. +His special construction was claimed to very largely eliminate the +vibration of the vehicle, and his success can be fairly judged from the +results in the past few years. The Decauville cars have been developed +and refined to such a point as to be among the best of the French makes, +and now have an international reputation. + + +RENE DE KNYFF + +De Knyff became an enthusiastic automobilist, and with other gentlemen, +sportsmen of the nobility, became a great amateur. He was and is still +known as the King of Chauffeurs, having won several of the most important +races, driving the Panhard cars to victory. + + +ADOLF CLEMENT + +Born in 1855. + +Entirely a self-made man, Clement had experience as a locksmith and served +an apprenticeship as a tinsmith. He started and built up a bicycle +manufacturing establishment which, in 1894, was considered one of the +finest in France. In time this developed into the finest cycle manufactory +in that country. It is situated in Levallois, near Paris. In 1899, Clement +contracted with Panhard & Levassor to manufacture under their patents, and +in 1900 he made a most successful light vehicle of four horse-power. Since +then he has developed his automobile factory, and in the past few years +has produced competitors for honors in the first class, which are known at +home and abroad as the Bayard or Clement-Bayard cars. + + +A. DARRACQ + +About fifty years of age, Darracq has had an energetic and successful +career. He is now president of the Society of Engineers, Paris, and a +member of the Legion of Honor. He is best known as an inventor in +connection with the automobile industry. Among his inventions are a shaft +drive and a beveled gear drive which are now universally used. He +originated the idea of placing the operating lever on the steering post +and made the first moderate priced automobile in France. He is now the +engineer and manager of one of the biggest factories in the world. + +[Illustration: A. DARRACQ] + + +JAMES GORDON BENNETT + +So interesting was the sporting side of the automobile movement that it +early attracted the attention of James Gordon Bennett. The great runs, or +tours, or races commenced in 1891, and continued annually from 1894 on, +resulted in the offering of the Bennett trophy for international +competition under conditions which may have been suggested by the America +yacht cup races. In January, 1900, this was announced in Paris, and the +custody of the trophy initially given to the Automobile Club of France as +the first and foremost champions of automobiling. Elaborate and excellent +rules govern the annual competition for the trophy, and the races are held +in the country whose representative has won in the previous year. In this +way the first race was in France, as well as the second, and the 1903 race +in Ireland, while that of 1904 was held in Germany, but was won by a +Frenchman, so that the 1905 race will again be held in the land of the +original custodians of the trophy. + + + + +INDEX + + + Adamson, Daniel, 158 + + Anderson, James Caleb, 145 + + Andrews, F., 137 + + Armstrong, 163 + + Automobile, Origin and Development of the, 11 + + + Battin, 155 + + Baynes, John, 129 + + Bennett, James Gordon, 176 + + Benz, Carl, 94 + + Bernhard, Anthony, 154 + + Blanchard, 121 + + Blanchard, Thomas, 68 + + Bollèe, Amedèe, 90 + + Bollèe, Leon, 174 + + Bordino, Chevalier, 139 + + Boulton, Isaac W., 163 + + Bouton, G., 166 + + Brown, Samuel, 133 + + Brunton, William, 127 + + Burtsall, T., 132 + + Butler, 169 + + + Carrett, W. O., 159 + + Cartwright, Edmund, 131 + + Church, W. H., 87 + + Clement Adolf, 175 + + Clive, 139 + + Copeland, 166 + + Cowan, T. W., 162 + + Cugnot, Nicholas Joseph, 31 + + + Daimler, Gottlieb, 95 + + Dallery, Thomas Charles Auguste, 122 + + Dance, Charles, 142 + + Darracq, A., 175 + + Darwin, Erasmus, 118 + + Davidson, Robert, 148 + + Decauville, 174 + + De Detrich, 171 + + De Dion, Count A., 167 + + De Knyff, René, 175 + + Delahaye, Emile, 170 + + Dietz, 144 + + Dudgeon, Richard, 155 + + Dumbell, John, 126 + + Du Quet, 126 + + + Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 120 + + Evans, Oliver, 38 + + + Farfleur, Stephen, 112 + + Field, Joshua, 143 + + Fisher, J. K., 153 + + Foreword, 5 + + Fourness, Robert, 123 + + + Genevois, J. H., 126 + + Gibbs, 141 + + Goodman, 153 + + Gordon, David, 56 + + Griffiths, Julius, 130 + + Guedon, Joseph, 174 + + Gurney, Goldsworthy, 64 + + + Hancock, Walter, 71 + + Harland, 137 + + Hautsch, Johann, 111 + + Hayball, Charles T., 162 + + Heaton, W. G., 148 + + Hill, F., 150 + + Holland, T. S., 135 + + Huygens, Christiaan, 111 + + + Inventors, Pioneer, 29 + + Investigators, Noted, 105 + + + James, William Henry, 59 + + James, William T., 77 + + Jeanteaud, Charles, 165 + + Johnson, 70 + + + Kestler, J. S., 121 + + Krieger, Louis, 171 + + Knyff, René de, 175 + + + Le Blant, 169 + + Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm von, 115 + + Lenoir, Jean Joseph Etienne, 89 + + Levassor, 99 + + Lough and Messenger, 155 + + + Maceroni, Francis, 78 + + Mackworth, Humphrey, 115 + + Marcus, Siegfried, 93 + + Masurier, 121 + + Medhurst, George, 124 + + Messenger, 155 + + Millichap, G., 144 + + Moore, Francis, 120 + + Mors, 169 + + Murdock, William, 34 + + + Nasmyth, James, 135 + + Neville, James, 134 + + Newton, Isaac, 113 + + Norrgber, 153 + + Noted Investigators, 105 + + + Ogle, Summers and, 140 + + Origin and Development of the Automobile, 11 + + + Papin, Denis, 116 + + Parker, T. W., 133 + + Pecqueur, 138 + + Peugeot, Armand, 168 + + Pioneer Inventors, 29 + + Planta, 121 + + Pochain, 171 + + Pocock, George, 133 + + Pyott, L. T., 164 + + + Raffard, 165 + + Ramsey, David, 110 + + Ravel, Pierre, 164 + + Read, Nathan, 48 + + Renault, Louis, 101 + + Renault, Marcel, 101 + + Richard, Elié, 114 + + Richard, Georges, 171 + + Richter, A., 164 + + Rickett, Thomas, 156 + + Roberts, Richard, 82 + + Robinson, 118 + + Roger, 170 + + Roper, Sylvester Haywood, 165 + + Russell, John Scott, 83 + + + Salomons, Sir David, 172 + + Selden, George B., 91 + + Serpollet, Leon, 100 + + Stirling, 159 + + Stevin, Simon, 109 + + Summers and Ogle, 140 + + Symington, William, 45 + + + Tangye, Richard, 161 + + Tindall, Thomas, 129 + + Thompson, R. W., 154 + + Trevithick, Richard, 50 + + + Vaucauson, 117 + + Vegelius, 114 + + Verbiest, Fernando, 112 + + Viney, James, 138 + + Vivian, Andrew, 125 + + Volk, Magnus, 169 + + Von Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 115 + + + Ward, Radcliffe, 168 + + Watt, James, 122 + + Wildgosse, Thomas, 110 + + + Yates, 144 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41891 *** |