Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-08-28
AN OCEAN TRICYCLE..
To Ride Over the Breakers ON Iron
wheels.

~
wheels.
WAGON TwENTY-sEvEN FEET HIGH TO BE
USED FOR AIDING STRANDED VESSELS.
From the Philadelphia News, August 2lst
An ocean tricycle. twenty-seven feet high is in
course of building in Camden, and will be COM
pleted, so that the inventor may test it In the
surf at Ocean City, within two weeks. A tri-
cycle on which to ride through and over the
breakers which beat on the Atlantic coast may
have been dreamed of, but that it would ever
be thought of when awake and sober has en-
tered into the minds of few beside E. B. Lake,
who has secured patent for his invention and
expects to find millions in II. The object OF
this, probably the largest tricycle. ever built, is
not simply for exercise and amusement, as are
the less pretentious three-wheeled vehicles, but
it is proposed to utilize it as a means for the
saving of life from vessels wrecked on the dan
gerous beaches. This one will be used by the
life-savng station at Ocean City, ana 1t proves
q success, as all who have examined it believe
it will, others will be built for the life-savinY
stations all along the coast.
The machine may be run by two men easily
ard yet Is so strong and so constructed as TO
pass through the toughest water without in
ma ride upon 1t, except such wetting as may
be due to spray.
ut can be run out to a wreck at any time, -
sale the man who was experimenting the work,
"and 1t will beyond question revolutionize the
present system OF saving life on the coast.
There need be no trouble hereafterin launching
the surf boats, and the motor used for shooting
line across stranded vessels may be laid aside
forey or, once this machine is in working trim.
Instead OF requiring an hour or two to reach q
wrecked vessel it may be done on the sea
wagon in ten minutes and without the least
danger. The Imperfect crew could be taken
ashore on the machine IL desired; in fact per-
feet communication between the land and the
wreck will be established, and absolutely with
eral use"
The sea wagon" as the inventor has
named 1t, is composed entirely Of iron and
steel, except the small triangular platform at
the top. on which those who work it will stand.
The wheels, which are eight feet and half in
diameter, are of steel, and are placed at the
points of a triangle, each side of which is twen-
ty-four feet. This triangle narrows to six feet
at the top. The frame is skeleton, the iron
being SO arranged as to present as little resist
ance 10 wind and waves as possible The in
ventOr expects the toughest seas to break
through it without doing the least damage to
the machine.
THE MACHINE DESCRIBED.
The motive power is by the working of two
levers at the top platform. These levers each
have two steel rods which lead down to the
front wheels of the tricycle., the tires of which
are notched. A shoe on the end of each steel
rod catches In these nOtches and prOpels the
machine by the moving up and down of the
levers. The rods are SO placed on the lever that
While one is going down for a fresh grip the
other is pulling upward. BY this means the
motion Is continuous and the rate at which two
men are expected TO be able to move it through
the water Is three miles an hour, as fast as the
average gait of walking. The third or hind
wheel acts like a castor and swinging on pivot
follows the leading wheels OF the tricycle., which
is steeret by the levers.
Very few vessels are wrecked in twenty or
more feet Of water, and if the ''sea wagon"
operates. as its maker expects it to, it may be
run out to any stranded vessel. A ladder ar
ranged so as to be extended from the top is
placed on one side OF the vehicle. and by this
not only will the crew of the machine mount
to the rallied platform, but crews OF wrecked
vessels may do the same and be wheeled to
dry land. Six men could thus be carried at a
time.
MIR. Lakes "sea wagon" now stands in the
yard OF the Standard Machine works, III
North Front street, Camden. Fifteen feet of
It's frame rises above the fence, and hundreds
have stopped and wondered what the thing
which resembles in outline the frame OF q light
house is intended tor