The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-08

VI SApSl iiliSl4l nave commenced " bSdi
fruit. and the horseless carriage and
wagon, however uncommon, is no
longer a curiosity. Twenty and more
different manufacturing concerns, in
the West and in the East, have start
ed building vehicles of various types.
and are finding a ready market for
their wares.
Surveys and Victorias, hansoms and
runabouts are to be seen in the streets
and out in the suburbs of not a few
American cities and towns, while New
York has so public motor hansoms
and coupes in service, is building 20
more and will soon have her antiquat-
ed Fifth avenue horse stages, the butt
of many a joke, replaced by horseless
omnibuses of the newest designs.
OF sudden. and coincidental with
the practical perfection of motor car
riages, the popular impression of them
has shifted Never did public senti-
ment change more quickly. Now it is
conceded on every hand that the au-
tomobile is to be the vehicle of the
future. Hitherto only the far seeing
had looked upon them with complacen-
cy. To-day no one speaks of danger
in connection with a horseless carriage
and all are beginning to accept them.
The motor cabs of New York have
more business than they can do. Were
a. hundred in commission it would be
none too many. There is talk of mo-
tor coupes and hansoms in other cities.
of regular horseless hack service in all
the great municipalities, and with this
grows the desire for private vehicles.
This article is to announce the birth
of the motor carriage and wagon for
popular use, the passing of the age of
experiment and to celebrate this ly
bringing together for comparison. in
words and by pictures, some of the
more interesting types of automobile
vehicles sin actual. practical use. The
field has been thoroughly winnowed
and the work of manufacturers far and
wide has been sought out.
First of all there is apparent the
wonderful grace and beauty of the We
hicles designed, when the problems
that had to be met are considered.
Motors that were heavy and bulky at
best had to be provided for some space
furnished in which they could be stow
ed away. AS designing goes on, as the
horseless carriage evolves il is certain
that motors will be built of less size
and weight, and then each vehicle will
have finer and more graceful lines.
Again, it is now plainly evident that
new industry has been created, and
an industry in such state and with
such a demand behind it that it at
once affords safe opportunities for cap
ital on a large scale.
Several of the manufacturing conpa-
mics have already spent more than
100000 apiece in experimenting. These
swere the pioneers from whose expert
ence makers of the future will profit.
No figures have as vet been compiled.
of course, of the amount of capital at
present invested, but it must foot up
unto a fairly respectable total amount.
rf-These must necessarily be random
notes, for the field of automobiles is
too wide to cover completely in the
limits of single article. Little more
can be attempted than to show the
great advance in two and half years,
from the days of pure experiment. the
Chicago Times-Herald race for a first
prize of $1,000 in 1895, the Cosmopolitan
Magazine race for a first prize of So 900
in 1896, to now, the era of a practically
perfected machine.
q Discussion is by no means yet stilled
as to certain oft mooted points of con-
struction and propulsion. In technical
details and in the design of the vehicles
themselves there is the widest divers
dty. Electricity and gasoline divide
honorS when it comes to motive power.
The devotees of each are insistent re-
garding their claims, one party asert-
ing that batteries once exhausted can
he charged readily, the other that gaso-
line is the better commodity since it
gan be purchased at nearly every
-erossroad. AS a matter of fact the
best vehicles of each have very nearly
the same speed and the same advant-
ages. The maximum of each is prac-
tically Is to IS miles an hour though
for some carriages as high as 80 miles
DIS claimed All can regulate their
speed, from the maximum down to
very nearly two miles an hour, and
the best designed of the lighter vehi-
Giles can climb a % per cent. grade, the
most a standerd locomotive can ac-
complish being a grade of per cent.
The field is to-day fairly evenly d-
vided between electricity and gasoline
as motive powers. There are as many
prominent manufacturers along one
line as the other. Nearly all, more
over, turn out all varieties of modern
vehicles, the plan of the motor carriage
manufacturer to-day being to build
wagons closely approXim ating the
Fashionable styles. Thus there are bug
gies, Nictorias, hansoms, coupes, run
abouts, T carts, and even broughams,
an electric brougnam having this adj
vantage at least over the horse
brougham (however beautifully this
may be finished) that it is we'll lighted
and heated. The heating feature is a
new one for motor carriages, but the
apparatus is quite practicable and has
been placed actually in use.
An electric brougham, perhaps the
acme in the line of horseless vehicles.
of three and a half horse power, costs
$780, not a high price for a carriage
of this class, compared with the
brougham to be obtained at the lead
2 ing carriage builders. OF course very
few electric broughams are yet in use.
The electric coupe. to all intents and
purposes a miniature brougham. is.
however, and may daily be hired in
New York. 1t works admirably it
should be said. and in testimony of
what electric vehicles can do in bad
weather the experience of New Workers
in the severe snow storm of late No
yember should be mentioned. On the
first night, when nearly all the cars
We're stalled and horse-draNn vehicles
could move but few blocks and tnen
with difficulty, the public electric 2abs