Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-10-03

WE ARE NEARING AN Age or
MECHANICAL sTEEDS.

MECHANICAL STEE0S.
France 10 leading the Way Horse.
less vshIoIss In American Cite,
--Pstvolsum Wagons.
Carriages without horses have lont
been popular in France. Since 1S9:
they have been coming rapidly int
favor through the invention OF pc
troleum motor. The recent race from
Paris to Bordeaux. in which machines
adapted by NM. Pauhare and Levas
sor, of Paris, to carriages OF two OF
four seats competed, has attracted
the attention, not only of France, bat
Of America. These carriages, made
after traditional patterns. are driven
by means Of motor, which is sit
uated indifferently either at the back
or in front. The driver sits with Q
lever ready TO his hand, by means Of
which the machinery can be set in
motion in few minutes Some ex-
perimenters have proved that two
minutes will suffice for start. and
others agree upon five minutes as the
time required.
| Anyhow, lis small affair. even il
the horses have sort of advantage
here. But horses. at least. cannot &c
backward, except at great personal
Inconvenience, and after q vast
amount Of manipulation by the
coachman. The petroleum carriage
runs either way without protest. And
in the matter OF speed no mere horse
can approach it. The average speed
on good roads recommended by the
manufacturers is something more
than eleven miles an hour, and even
| greater claims are made for it, The
petroleum in these engines is used as
q fuel for the production of steam
They are as easily worked as a tri-
Cycle, probably easier. A novice. as
many witness, is able, upon the first
trial, to drive his carriage over two
hundred miles in two days OF ten
hours apiece. Tourists have wan
dered over half dozen departments
in them, and the taste is spreading
every day.
These vehicles, perfect as they APP
pear to be. will have to give place to
the later devices of electricians. So
far those that have been constructe
have proved too heavy and ex-
pensive to find general sale. The
batteries alone cost about $500.
They have undoubted advantages.
They are clean, noiseless and require
no engineer or skilled operator. re-
sembling in this respect the trolley
and the cable car. But the excessive
load of the batteries and the lack of
facilities for recharging them will
prohibit their use outside of large
cities for some time to come. Sup
plies of petroleum and gasoline are
to be obtained in any town. The
petroleum vehicles are light, more
convenient in running, and also re-
quire no engineer. For these reasons
they must take the precedence for
ordinary use until the ingenuity Of
the Yankee has overcome the obsta-
cles that electricity presents. Take,
for instance, the electric wagon of the
Boston inventor. 1t is heroic in it's
proportions, resembling an English
brake in general design, and is built
to outlast the wonderful one-hoss
shay" 1t weighs 5, 100 pounds, and
is undoubtedly the heaviest motor
wagon on the continent, rivaling in
weight the steam omnibuses of
Paris. The general design Of the
vehicle is well adapted to the pur-
pose. The batteries contained in
the body and under the front seat are
extremely powerful, consisting of
forty-four chloride cells, with total
capacity OF two hundred ampere
hours, and an average discharge rate
of twenty-five amperes. The motor
yields four horse power and three
different speeds are obtained, the
minimum being four and the maxi
mum fourteen miles an hour. The
owner has put this carriage through
the PAGES in hill climbing and over
heavy roads with most satisfactory
results.
An electrical wagon in use in Phil
adelphia has run several hundred
miles without an accident. AS COM
pared with petroleum vehicles it is
rather ponderous weighing 4,25O
pounds. The batteries weigh 1000
pounds and consist of sixty chloride
accumulators, having a maximum
capacity of thirteen horse power.
From fifty to one hundred miles.
can be accomplished on one
charge, according to grade and speed,
and the maximum speed attainable
is fifteen miles an hour. The motor,
weighing 800 pounds, is Of nominal
three horse power electric launch
type, capable OF developing for a
short time nine full horse power
Steering is accomplished by means
of wheel in front Of the driver
The first electric wagon ever seen
near New York has appeared in
Brooklyn. 1t came from the west
and is the invention of two residents
OF Kansas City. 1t weighs about
5000 pounds and as at present con-
structed has but one seat. Eighteen
hundred pounds Of storage batteries
of the cholorde accumulator type
furnish the power, which is commu.
nicated to the wheels by rawhide
friction pulley running on steel
fiange attached TO the inside of the
rear wheels. When desired, an au-
tomato lever detaches the power
from the driving wheel without
stopping the motion of the motor.
On ordinary good roads q speed OF
fifteen or eighteen miles an hour can
be obtained and for ascending hills a