Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-01-25
The Auto-Cart.

Lllienthaland others have been work
ing. They showed at least that 1t was
possible to construct a machine that
would fly, without a balloon to bouy 1t
up; but in the fact of other enormous
difficulties that are to be overcome
before there can be produced reliable
machine that will carry bricks and pig
iron and transport passengers and the
mails, they have temporarily halted,
though they have probably not given
up the problem. At any rate they have
not hit upon any new discoveries, that
are important enough in their view.
to be communicated to tne public.
In the meantime, there is a great re-
vival of the interest in the automobile
vehicle for ordinary highways. and We
are promised that Vt wln be fully
launched on its career before the new
century is ushered in, and that this
time the horse will surely have TO re-
tire. Already the traction engine that
drags round in its trail a thresbing
machine is familiar in many parts Of
the country, and the same sort of ma
chine has been in successful use for
other purposes in England for soma
years. France has an automobile
craze and vast sums are already in
vested in the manufacture of carriages
that travel without horses. Public
horseless carriages are running in
New York, and are vecoming a famil-
lar sight, while the big stores are be-
ginning to use the same sort of vehi-
cles rather extensively for delivery
purposes.
The horse will surely go this time,
say the enthusiasts. There are car
r.ages propelled by electricity, gaso-
line and oil engines; and lately an i'm
mense company has been organized
which proposes 10 propel them by
compressed air, which seems so prom
lsing that even Richard Croker has
partially dropped his politics and rae
ing interests in order to reap wealth
and commercial standing through the
new venture. Investors are so eager
to get in on the ground floor that the
stock of the American Air company
has gone soaring in emulation of the
great leading Wall street investment
securities.
1t seems rather funny that wind,
which was the most ancient means of
transportation and which held its own
on the sea until after the beginning of
he presnt century, should now at the
beginning Of another one be coming to
the front 3asssan improvement on the
means Of land propulsion; and that the
same air which more than 400 years
ago waited the eJships OF Columbus to
these shores and awakened the world
from the long sleep of the middle ages
should now, by means of the scheme
of COMPRISING II IN cylinders, be used
to propel cars and carriages and wag-
ons, and should threaten to make of
che horse a comparatively useless ami
NAL, and be the cause of refutlng the
opening sentence of the schoolboy's
faTorite composit.on; however, that is
whit may happen. But whether it
sha II be air or gas or electricity Or
stehm, it Is, safe to predict that the
auto vehicleris coming, and coming
soon.
1t will of course be classed as one of |
the wonders of the close of the cen
tury, but after ali Al is very old story. |
No sooner had the steam engine be-
come a commercial success than men
began to dream of steam wagons. AS
long ago as 1859 it was suggested to
Watt. There was one actually con-
structed in 1863, and another the year |
in France. and it is still pre-
served. In 1884 Watts patented one |
and about the same time a man named |
Murdoch constructed and tried one, |
which made from six to eight miles an |
hour. In 1904 Oliver Evans, of this |
state, constructed one that would trav-
el both on land and water under It's
own steam. In 1886 the construction
of such carriages had advanced so far
in England that some 20 OF them were |
running or under construction in or |
near London; but about this time the |
discovery of the poss. .Oilities of run
ming locomotives on an iron track
were mail manifest, and the rail-
roads killed the road wagon business, |
no doubt. on account of |
the lack of good roads upon which |
they could be operated economically.
1t will thus be seen that the autom-
obile is really much older than the |
railway locomotive. At the very be- |
ginning of railway development the |
same predictions concerning the pass
ing of the horse were made that are
being made now, and they seemed rea-
sonable, too. 1t does not follow from |
this, 4.owever, that the present predlc- |
tions will not be realized. The rail-
way locomotive stepped in because |
there was devised for it a smooth, lev
ell, hard track. The automobile is |
now. both because 1t has been
largely improved in the two genera
tions that have elasped since 1t was
demonstrated that it could be made a
success, and because we are learning
how to construct smooth and well
graded highways, both in city and
country. We will not be much older