The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-21
CARRIAGES FOR ALL.
EDISON SAYS THAT HORSELESS We
HIcLES WILL SOON BE CHEAP.
Market Will he Flooded With Motor Car
risges-Great Reduction In Prices Will
Follow-The Poor Man May Havo Con-
veyance Of His Own.

risges-Great Reduction In Prices Will
FoIIow-The Poor Man May Havo Con-
veyance Of His Own.
Horseless carriages at 500 each is
the hope now held out to those who
would ride-motor vehicles for the
masses and every man his own motor
man.
Experiments have been in progress at
the factory of the General Electric COM
paDy at Schenectady, N. Y, which
have brought forth the announcement
that the market is soon to be flooded
with horseless carriages at price that
will bring them within the reach of ev-
erybody. Every man who is now able
to own bicycle will soon be able to
own road cart OF landau or VIC
toria for the use of himself and his fam
lily. He will need no stable in which to
keep horses, no hostler or footman, nc
hayrack or harness, but merely shed
or back porch or cellar in which to
shelter from the weather his motorcy-
Gle or automobile or autocycle or horse
less carriage or whatever else he may
choose to call it.
having devised the motor by which
these cheap machines are to be fitted.
This is not the case, however. When
seen at his home ON the crest Of the
pretty hill at Llewellyn Park, West
Orange, N. j., on recent afternoon,
he verified the statement that the Gen.
eral Electric company was preparing to
offer cheap motor carriages to the gen.
eral market, but denied that he had de-
voted any time to them.
"Oh, yes" he said, "the boys up
there tell me they have a cheap motor
and that they are going to turn out
large number of low priced vehicles
but it is not my work. Inventing mo-
tors is too dead easy for me to devote
time to it. have dabbled at such
thing during spare moments, but purely
on my own account.
''The thing I am making is to be
used on a tricycle., to pull me up this
hill every day." And he pointed to the
steep decline leading through Lewellyn
park from his residence to the labora-
tory at the foot of the slope. THAT,
however, is only for my private use. I
am building for the purpose a tiny mo-
tor that will generate great power.
Yes, electricity. Of course, is the force.
This motor will be attached to the axle
and will be hardly large enough to be
noticed at all. That can be done easily
because I only intend using it for this
short distance. Where a motor is to
serve for several miles it must of neces-
sity be larger.
''The whole problem rests in the con-
struction of cheaper and lighter motors
Over 1000 men are at work in this
country alone trying to invent better
motors for horseless vehicles. Hundreds
of others in Europe are also engaged in
the same task. 1t is only matter of
time. The automobile is bound to be in
general use before long. Take the BIZ
cycle, for instance. The high grade
wheels which cost 800 each today will
in few years at best drop to $50, and
for from $50 to SO apiece will cost
only $15 or $50.
1.-THE same thing will be the outcome
of the experiments with horseless car
riages. The motors now cost from $3.50
to $3.50 each. The price will eventually
be reduced, if the boys in the factory
up at Schenectady have not already re-
duced it, to from $50 to $50 each. The
motors will also be made smaller and
can be more easily manipulated. Then
tricycles and light road vehicles can
be put OH the market at cost Of
500 to 1925 each. Of course the cost
Of the superstructure can be made little
or much-just as carriages cost more
than buggies-but serviceable light
vehicle to carry two or even four people
can be made. very much after the prin-
ciple Of the tricycle., at a cost of from
800 to $125.
lin the construction of the motor
there are three different kinds of power
to consider-gas, petroleum and elec-
tricity. Electricity should be the best
and cheapest. The most successful auto
mobiles made thus far are those in
which electric motors are used. They
can 60 % miles or more without being
recharged, at rate of ten miles an
hour. expect the horse to disappear al
most entirely SO far as his use for street
traction is concerned. Delivery wagons,
buses, express wagons, broughams and
all Of the heavier class Of vehicles can
be driven as easily by storage battery
as any other kind if the battery is i'm
proved sufficiently, and that will un-
questionably be done.
"Horseless carriages at such low
cost would permit the poor as well as
the rich to crowd the parks and boule-
wards on every pretty day. 1t is revo-
luton that is bound to come, and at
very early day New York Journal.