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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 Elie 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 Amedee Bollee 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; Bollee, 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,
  AMEDEE BOLLEE,
  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 <DW44> 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.


AMEDEE BOLLEE

In April, 1873, Amedee Bollee, 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, Bollee 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, Bollee 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. Bollee 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 Bollee 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 Pygmee. 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 Freres, 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 legere, 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,
  ELIE 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 BOLLEE,
  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.


ELIE RICHARD

Born on the Island of Re in 1645.

A physician of La Rochelle, France, Elie 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 Elie 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 a 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
Amedee Bollee & 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 formulae, 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 BOLLEE

A brother of Amedee Bollee, Leon Bollee 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

  Bollee, Amedee, 90

  Bollee, 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, Rene, 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, Rene 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, Elie, 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



***