Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-31
Electric Trtcycles.


 It is to the tricycle.. in some of the many forms it is now assuming, that we look as the travelling carriage of the future. Within a very short time it has come extensively into use, and as 1t is available for ladies as we'll as gentlemen, and is safe and steady for old as well as young, while the clergyman and doc tor can use it without that sacrifice of digni- ty which is supposed to be involved in the use of the bicycle, it will be seen that the tri cycle appeals to very wide constituency in- deed. It is impossible to say how many of these useful machines are already in use, and it is equally impossible for the candid critic to affirm which of the countless patterns in vogue is the best. It is enough to say that person of average strength can with practice propel himself Cor herself) over ordinary roads at the rate of six, eight, or even ten miles per hour, without any extraordinary exertion or fatigue while if two club togeth- CT and sit side by side on ''sociable," the labor is considerably diminished. What pleasanter mode of spending holiday can there be than for man to take his wife through the country in this fashion? The luggage is strapped on behind; you start at what hour you please, taking whatever route you prefer; you halt when and where it suits you, and have no trouble with your horse when the days journey IS done. The travelling costs you nothing, unless it be few pence for turnpikes. You save your railway fare; and you see more of the country than you could possibly do in any other way while the moderate exercise-which you need never permit to become irksome-will do you a thousand times more good than lounging on the sands or rushing over the continent.
 Still, we admit, we have not proved our point. The question is whether these modes of locomotion will ever supplant in any large degree our present method. We acknowledge that so long as any physical labor whatever has to be performed in the propulsion of tri- cycles they will not come into universal use. Let us not forget however, that in many dis tricts where railway accommodation is 1aH or defective, they are used very extensively for business as well as pleasure. Postmen and doc tors especially, have taken readily to this method of locomotion. But inventions are in progress, and have indeed been already perfected, which promise to take the tricycle. out of the category of velocipedes, or foot. worked machines, and give it far greater val ue and importance.
 1t is well known that one of the first uses that M Faure made of his new discoveries relating to the storage of electricity was to propel a tricycle., and the speed he then ob- tained was ten miles an hour; and in this con- nection it appear as though the French, who were the first to introduce the modern bicy- cle about fourteen years ago, will be the first to manufacture it's direct descendant through a clearly traceable evolution, the electric tri- cycle. With such machine, supposing that the cost of producing the power be not pro- hibitive, we can for see the day when the family party will journey down to Brighton on fine afternoon by road instead of rail when the splendid main roads of our country will again be thronged with travellers moving easily, safely, and inexpensively not in sway ing coaches, but in smoothly rolling tricycles when the old Red Lion and Blue Boar, de- serted these last forty years, will again be- come gay and busy and when the long neg lected villages and by-lanes will be explored by tourists who will never want to catch