The evening times., 1895-09-24

| solved the problem of horseless carriage.
| In this he had the support of DR.. Lardner,
| then the most reliable authority on steam
| engineering, who, in his book, issued early
| in the '30s, carried the idea that Gurney's S
TURNPIKE locomotives would very shortly
| be hauling stage coaches up and down the
| post roads OF England, TO the great detri-
ment, IL not the actual wiping out, or many
| projected railroad enterprises. Nor was
| Gurney the only one who had a turnpike
| locomotive on the market seven decades
ago. Lardner mentions dozeDsuch though
| he believed Gurney's the only practical one.
Now. however. the problem Of dispensing
with horses on ordinary roads appears to
| have been solved. though steam is not the
motive power. Neither are the most sue
| cessful horseless carriages of to-day oper-
| ated by electricity, although scores of ill.,
ventors have burned the nIidnigh; oil with
great persistence in the attempt To harness
the mystic current TO successful carriage
propulsion. Down to date petroleum pro-
ducts appea to havebe becnused with mnst sue
cess in operating Rad wagons. Steam
carriage that will go have been made,
| TO be sure. and have electric ones, hut
| both are lacking in the requisite lightness
and fexibilhy. Besides, the steam car
| riages are hot, they have 10 stop occasion
ally for fresh supplies OF water, and the
noise of the exhaust is diSagreeabie.
Electrical carriages are more satisfactory
than those propelled by steam. but they
are much too heavy to I've wieldy. and are
subject to all the dra wbacks that attend
storage battery street cars, being expen-
sive. silly derangcd, and entirely depend
ent upon proximity TO charging stations
for ability tn do continuous work. The
gravity of this dra wback is apparent when
it is understood that the distance limit
of the niost successful siorage-battery car
rage yet experimental with is from fifty
TO une hundred miles. according to grade
and speed. AT the end of such run a
halt must be made and new batteries taken
on or the old ones in use re-charged, at
the loss of considerable time.
All these things may ultimately be over
come. OF course, and viii be the instant some
one invents storage battery that com
bines lightness with sufficient capacity to
make it safe toget more than twenty five
miles away from charging station. Till
then, however, electric motors in car
riageS, as in launches, will be at dis
advantage as compared with the various
forms OF petroleum motors. This seems to
have been conclusively shown by the horse
less carriage races in France. where the
petroleum motors proved So much superior
in speed to the electric ones. the winner
making the round trip Of 15O miles at the
remarkable high average sl:Sed of six
teen miles an hour. But it should be said
for the electric carriages that they are
vastly superior to all others in cleanliness
and coolness and would be far ana away
in the lead if these were the only con-
sideration.
So far Europe leads America immensely
with regard to horscless carriages, which
are rapidly coming into common use in al
most every city on the other side, especially
Paris. On tile streets of the French cap
ital, indeed, these vehicles cause no more
comment than did bicycles a few years
ago, and the rapidity Of their Introduction
appears to depend almost altogether upon
the capacity OF the factories to turn
them out. One of the greatest obstacles to
their use here has been furnished by the
poor roadways. Not only are our ountry
roads infitenitely worse than those OF
Europe, but the pavements Of our cities
are so rough and uneven, as a rule, as to
interfere very seriously with the use of
self-propelling vehicles.
Naphtha. gasoline, kerosene or any other
of the refined pr oducts of petroleum will do
the work. From the storage reservoir the
petroleum products conductedto to n carburet-
tor, where it is transformed into gas and
whence it is conducted to the cylinder Ct the
engine, which is then operated by means of
consecutive explosions, the same as an ordi
nary gas engine. The cylinders of the horse
less carriage engines are much shorter in
proportion than the cylinders of ordinary en-
gines and the cross section much greater.
1t is then rendered possible both to increase
the speed and reduce the size of an engine
proportionately to its power, and a three or
four horse power machine of this sort is so
small that 1t can be contained in what would
pass for the boot of an ordinary carriage.
There Is some hcst-of course, but this is
reduced to the minimum by the necessary de-
vice for cooling the cylinder with spray or
jacket of water. and there is some noise
caused by the explosions, but not greater
than that made by a horses hoofs.
AS to the cost OF horseless carriages and
the expense Of operating them, IL is little
early yet to speak in detail, but it is said
that a carriage which will seat four pas
sengers can be put upon the market as soon
as the new works are ready at a cost OF
$500, and New York manufacturer says
the motor for such a carriage can be run for
! 11-2 cents anhOurfor achtorsepower. The
carriages to be made in New York are to be
fitted with two and one-hah and three and
onehalf horse power motors, and can be
run at different speeds, three and onc-half,
six, nine and fourteen miles an hour, the
variation ofspeed being effectedby the turn
ing of hand lever. The last-named speed
Is certainly as high as will be desired, and
is probably higher than viii be allowed on
city streets. but ther seems to be no reason
why horscless wagons could not be made to
run at considerably higher speed.
The Difference.
Anybody can be a lawyer"
There's where you are wrone. Anybody
can be an attorney, but it takes brains -
makea ealawyer."--Judge. Ia
II it's news, it's in The Times.