The record-union., 1895-07-01
Is THE MOTOR CARRIAGE CoM1NGs

Is THE MOTOR CARRIAGE COMING.
Three of the largest bicycle manu-
facturers of the world are now engaged
In experiments involving the outlay of
many thousands of dollars to determine
whether the three-wheeled motor car
riage is practicable. To that end they
have sent agents to Europe to examine
all the motor carriages there. and mean
while their own engineers and mechanics
are engaged testing American inventions
in that line.
The belief is entertained by these
manufacturers that comparatively cheap
motor vehicles for individual and family
use will be very soon produced in this
country, and will rapidly come into use.
The full meaning of this may not ap-
pear at first glance. but will come into
view on little reflection. If the light
motor vehicle, not weighing over $50
pounds for a single person, and not over
200 pounds for two persons can be pro-
duced and sold at the cost of a good
buggy, and be run at three-fourths or half
the cost Of keeping a good family horse
and buggy, there will be scarcely a
fair-to-do family in the land that will
not be able to own one of these vehicles.
That will mean more out-of-door exer-
else, and hence better health. 1t will
mean easier, more rapid and hence more
frequent communication and interchange,
and these in turn will tend to better the
social condition. 1t will mean more
leisure, because the time from toll can be
so much better utilized and made TO
serve so many more purposes that it will
amount to an actual extension of such
time.
It will mean a great deal more than
this. for it will remove the objections
raised against the bicycle in behalf of
women. 1t will enable people to come to
market more frequently and more speed
lily, and will therefore stimulate rural
settlement and lessen the tendency to
thicken population in towns and cities.
Finally, il will make the demand for
smooth. well-kept highways SO Impera-
tive that it will be responded to sstisfac-
torily.
It is going-for we believe these mo-
tors will be in use inside of two years
to aid railways, because all stimulation
Of movement likewise stimulates
travel aud enlarges the capacity, as well
as the opportunity. There can be no in
crease of local travel that will not greatly
benefit railways, steam and electric.
They will have the benefit of better rural
conditions, of more carriage of produce,
of enlarged tastes and desires and of the
augmented disposition to move from one
point to another. that will result from
the love for short-distanoe travel by the
motor vehicle, which, Of course. will
serve only in limited areas.
The idea OF vehicle motors is not novel.
So many of them are in use now that in
Paris they have an annual racing season
for these carriages, and it is now about to
take place for large prizes. At Spring
field, Mass, local inventor has turned
out d coal oil road motor, the motor ma
chinery weighing but 175 pounds and the
wheels 200 Is is defective, but suggests
improvements and points out the posi-
bility of accomplishing them. In Boston
another vehicle has been turned out that
weighs but 100 pounds for motor and 100
for vehicle, and will carry a 200 weight
man fifteen miles an hour on smooth
road at less cost than horse feed for one
good animal. But it is also defective and
does not meet the demand.
The English motor carriage will not do
at all The lightest of them is from four
hundred to six hundred pounds for two
persons, and they are neither easy nor
safe. The French machines are far
nearer the ideal, but they are deficient in
the fact that they are costly; economy ap-
pears not to have been considered in
their construction. The German ma
chimes are few but good, and lack only in
liRhtnesS. Ihey cost less tnan the
French machine, are safer, less swift, but
not SO strong and do not wear we'll. The
American machine is therefore to be
brought out that will be cheap. light.
safe. easy of operation and low in run
ming cost and capable Of climbing some
thing of grade.
In all the cases and experiments men
toned the vehicles are three and four
wheeled, the motor bicycle not being at
all considered. That indeed ia realized