The Portland daily press., 1899-06-23

than itself. An electric cab, snch as ara
now In use in New York. weighs, with
its driver, well towards 1900 pounds ant
carries two passengers only; II these pas
sengers and their belongings weigh 4Ul
pounds. then tue paying load Is aboui
one-tenth of the total load. which Is b
highly uneconomical condition Of affairs
The wagon should In all cases be Us light
as possible, and it can be very light in.
deed. Hertei showed in 1895 gas en-
glue driven-wagon which weighed only
KS pounds. This was too small and
light Tor practical use, but Hertel " now
building two passenger carriages, weiy b.
Ing less shan 400 pounds empty, and tbs
STANLEY steamnwngon, latest model, Is said
weigh about 375 pounds empty. whitney
of Boston, n tireless experimenter with
steam wagons, believes that a vehicle
weight of l0OG or 12O0 pounds best ILLS all
OF the conditions. He says heavy wagon
''stays on the road better than light
one. There seems to be no reason for
giving o wagon more weight than
strength demands, especially when IL Il
fully realized that every added pound OF
wagon weight Is an added load on the
wheel tires, and also causes an increast
Of wheel stresses In various directions
when turning corners. 1t is very 'cleai
that mechanically driven wagon should
be as light as possible, say not TO exceed
400 pounds for a two-passenger wagon
with o motor capable of exerting about
eight horsepower for q short time nj
least, as Is demanded in going up hills
and over muddy roads. Ii is said to be
possible to produce an explosion motor to
give eight horsepower inside OF 1Ol
pounds weight The Stanley steam
wagon boiler and sngines weigh about
125 pounds, and can work fully MP to
eight horse power for short time
There Is one point Of the greatest i'm
portance which the student inotocyc de.
siRner generally finds IL convenient to ig.
more. and tSat Is the spring support OF
the motor. 1t Is much easier TO connect
the motor rigidly to the driving wheel
support than to ;nterpose springs to carry
the weight of the motor, and the tempta-
ton to carry thu motor directly on the
driving wheel axle, or at most to give this
motor only very limited spring move
ment ON the axle support, is very great
This proceeding places the weight of the
motor and driving parts as dead load
on the wheel tires, and a pneumatic tire
does not endure dead loads with much
fortitude. 1t might seem, since the tire
has to carry all the load finally, that II
makes little difference how that load Is
supported on the wheel axles. This view
Is pronounced erroneous to the last de.
gree. All load carried on either pneu.
matio or solid rubber tires should be
spring supported, and the more flexible
and yielding this spring support is made.
the longer will be the life of both tires
and axle bearings. The prime considera
tions in motorcycle designing, as shown
by practice up to the present time are,
first, reduce load as much as possible,
and, second, carry every ounce possible OF
the load on good springs.
Because the gas engine does best when
running at full power and speed, 1t has
often been proposed to connect dynamo
to the gas engine shaft of a road wag on,
and when running on q level or down
hill to use the dynamo to charge a stor
age battery to help out in hard places,
and many are cherishing this plan as q
happy thought In the first place, IL
would double the weight Of the wagon II
storage battery enough 60 be of any use
were installed. In the next place, a
wagon can generally use all the power ii
has, as it does not take much increase OF
velocity to consume great deal of power
in the way of overcoming wind resistance.
Emphatically, the simpler and lighter
the road motor wagon can be made, the
better.
There is. however, one combination Of
the gas engine and dynamo which gives
excellent road wagon results. This Is
shown in Hertel's latest wa 20 IS, and
consists of n dynamo Weighing 40 or II
pounds. driven by the gas engine motor
and used TO feed a storage battery weigh.
ing about Is pounds only, which supplies
the electric igniting spark for the motor,
and also furnishes electricity for two
large lamps. This seems to be a very
meritorious combination, as both the
lamps and the igniting spark are needed
features, and an electric lamp gives the
driver less trouble than any other, pro-
vided good current supply is assured.
Hsrteps dynamo and storage battery add
only about 25 pounds weight, which can
well be endured In view of the advan.
tages gained.
The preferences of the steam motor ad.
vooates seem to be about equally divided
between water-tube boilers and plain CYL.
Under boilers with vertical fire-tubes. The
weight is about the Same for a givsn
power; some of the water-tube boilers are
brazed up of copper and some are made
with a multitude of screwed joints. The
gas engine has no boiler and needs nc
water, but 1t does not reverse, and, al
generally made, 1t requires gasoline for
fuel. but we'll known and very successful
forms of the internal combustion engiut
use kerosene oil for fuel. which is per
fectly safe, and which can, it il asserted
be burned in an engine cylinder so per.
fectly as to avoid evil odors. The explo
sion engine can be made more oheaply
and In less weights for the same power
than steam wagon motor, even when
the needful change-gear is included II
the Weighing. All road wagons demand
backing movement. and should have al
least three forward speeds; the proportion
OF 3, and -, the backing movement be.
ing 8, Is common driving scheme
The great point In favor of the gas en-
CINE as opposed to steam for wagon mo
tor, Is the fact that small-cylindered gas
engines run without using any waiel
whatever, while the two-passenger steam
motorcycle must have 100 pounds of clean
water for every rs miles of travel. The
steam engine is better driver than The
gas engine, as 1t will reverse, and car
vary the power it exerts very largely.
Otherwise, the points of advantage are
all in favor of the explosion motor, and
its reliability under severe conditions ap.
pears to have been we'll demonstrated or
a recent run from Cleveland. o., to New
York over long stretches Of the worsi
road In the country.