The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-07-16
THE HoRsELEss CARRIAGE.

In the current number of McClure's
Magazine is an article by Cleveland
Moffett on the horseless carriages that
are fast being put into practical use in
many cities of the United States. The
sudden rise of this new invention ought
TO bring a ray of hope into the hearts
of the people of Honolulu, who at pres
ent are Obliged to patronize 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
ferent points in the Rockies. In Port
land. Maine, an ingenious Yankee has
proyided a 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 $4,000 in prizes among
those who took part in the motor
cycle race of that day. The bad con-
iition of the roads in and about Chi
cago at 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-tour
miles-in a day, much less in eight
hours. the time of the winning carriage,
the 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 we'll 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 'tinkering" on scheme to
attach a 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
a scheme on which plenty of time and
money could be expended, but very
little realized in return. Today there is
a factory in Springfield for manufac-
turing the Duryea vehicle, and nearly
every bicycle factory and the large
manufacturers of electrical goods have
their experts at work evolving new
ideas for power attachments to car
riages.
The horseless fire engine has been in
trodueed in the city of Hartford, Conn,
and in place of the horse draught en-
CINE weighing about three tons and
throwing from five to six hundred gal
Ions minute, the city department has
a self-propelling engine weighing eight
and a half tons, which throws thirteen
hundred and fifty gallons minute.
The practical argument in favor of
substituting 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
the gasolene to carry the Duryea wagon
over the fifty-four mile course at Chi
cago was twenty cents.
Although the horseless carriage is in
its infancy, the experiments have gone
far enough to prove that it has come to
higher state of perfection the horse /
will become less and less a necessity /
of life, and street car lines will eventu-
ally be done away with. At present the .
81, 800. These prices will obtain for the
first few years, but as competition in
creases the horseless carriage will be
within the reach of those who can now
afford horses.