The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1896-07-17
THE HoRsRLEss CARRIAGE.

In the current number of Mcclure
Magazine is an article by CLEVELAND
Moffett on the horseless carriages tina
are fast being put into practical use il
many cities of the United States. Tn,
sudden rise of this new invention ough
to bring a ray of hope into the heart:
of the people of Honolulu. who at pres
ent are obliged to pauonize a system OF
street transit which when compared
with the modern systems stands in
about the same relation as the old
time mule trains over the Rockies do
to the railway lines of the present
period.
The horseless carriage is propelled by
steam, electricity or gasolene, and the
mechanism has become so for complet-
ed that Wall street capital is being in
vested in lines OF motor stages to be
run in Cleveland and in various parts
of the South. notably in South Caro-
lima. In several American cities the
street railway lines have inaugurated
motor stages to connect terminals of
the lines. This is being done in Boston,
and in Colorado Springs line of horse
less carriages has been started TO diff
fsrent points in the Rockies. In Port
land, Maine. an ingenious Yankee has
provided number of horseless buck
boards to carry summer visitors to the
many coast resorts about the city.
Editor Kohlsaat of the Chicago
Times-Herald is probably one of the
greatest enthusiasts in this new method
of transit On Thanksgiving Day, 1895,
he distributed $1,000 in prizes among
those who took part in the motor
cycle" race of that day. The bad con-
dition of the roads in and about Chi !
cago al the time showed conclusively /
that the horseless carriage can be run
on all kinds of roads. and it is doubtful |
if the strongest pair of horses could /
have covered the distance-ffty-four
a day, much less in eight
hours. the time of the winning carriage,
he Duryea vehicle. This Duryea motor
wagon seems TO be the nearest to per
lection of any that have thus far been
put on the market.
As an example of how these new We
hicles have jumped into prominence,
the writer well remembers, while in /
Springfield. Mass, during 1893, running
across three men in back room OF one
Of the small machine shops of the city, |
who were 'inkering" on a scheme to !
attach q small gasolene engine TO an
old phaeton- The work of these men
was written up in the newspapers, but
attracted very little attention, the ma
jority OF the people looking upon it as
q scheme on which plenty of time and
money could be expended, but very |
little realized in return. Today there is
q factory in Springfield for manufac-
turing the Duryea vehicle, and nearly
every bicycle factory and the large
manufacturers of electrical goods have
their experts al work evolving new
ideas for power attachments 10 car
-iages.
The horseIess fire engine has been in
.rodueed in the city OF Hartford. Conn,
and in place of the horse draught en-
CINE weighing about three tons and
throwing from five 10 six hundred gal
ons . minute, the city department has
. self-propeliing engine weighing eight
md half tons, which throws thirteen
hundred and fifty gallons q minute
The practical argument in favor Of
motors for horses is the
small cost OF operating the motors.
Experts estimate that the gas motor
carriages can be run at about one cent
per horsepower per hour. The cost Of
ne gzsolene to carry the Duryea wagon
1yer the ffty-four mile course al Chi
ago was twenty cents
Although the horseless carriage is in
Is infancy. the experiments have gone
.ar enough TO prove that II has come to
stay. and that as it Is brought 70 q
higher state OF perfection the horse
vii become less and less 2 necessity
Of life. and street car lines viii eTentu-
ally Be done away with At present the
cost OF the vehicles runs from $500 70
800 These prices viii obtain for the
first few years. but as competition in
crezses the horseless carriage win be
sfthin The reach Of those who can nov
. ford HorzeS