Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-14
IN PRACTICAL USE
Automobiles Are More Than a Fad
With the French.
CARRY FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS
Various Styles: Of Motors That Are
Now in Operation.
SPEED AND ECONOMY
CARRY FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS
SIP ED AND ECONOMY
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, October /, 1890
One of the commonest errors of tourists
Is to imagine that French automobilism is
bound up in the petroleum motor and the
life of sport. Undoubtedly ia vie sport
i've with its footing horns and pedestrian
peril puts itself very much in evidence, and
the avenue Of the Champs Elysees has be-
come dangerous race track for the reck-
less whirling of the rich; but it is no exag-
geration to say that-apart from the manu-
-tenths of the Frenchmen
making money out of automobilism have
nothing to do with the petroleum motor.
The four steam systems in vogue-the Dion
ct Bouton, the Serpollet, the Weidknecnt
and the Scotte-suppiy the power for all
those jolly little omnbuses. break and road
train lines that are reopening the French
countryside, neglected since the days when
the all-conquering railroad changed the life
of people.
A thousand individual industries are thus
being opened, to the benefit of the French
farmer. An enterprisng youth with an
automobile van picks up produce that the
discouraged farmer would never risk send
ing by the tyrant railroad to the uncertain
French market. Stage coach routes, re-
opened by individual spectators, are found
to pay under the new conditions of econo-
my. For excursions there is nothing like
the automobile omnibus; and cheap country
resorts ind in them exactly what they
needed to connect with the railway.
Steam autom bibles are certainly the most
dlff1Cult to operate, because of the attention
to the boiler. On the other hand, they are
capable of developing, at need, much great
er horsepower than the indicated average,
son ething practically impossible with the
teuf-teufs. In word, they require rather
engineers than touch the-button amateurs
Nevertheless, the Serpollet steam system
heated by petroleum, is claimed to require
no greater engineering skill than Dion ct
Bouton essence tricycle.. while Boosting any
number OF advantages a weight carrier
economy of combustion, great hill-climb-
ing power, and easily varied speed. From
the point of view of cleanliness, everything
Is on the side of the steam automobile.
Tubular Boilers.
The Dion ct Bouton steam motor is
chiefly remarkable for it's boiler. Only a
few days ago a British naval authority
again acclaimed against the French fool
ishness of tubular boilers. Whatever the
case may be with regard to battle ships,
these toys are doing good work over the
hills of France. Composed of tubes and
cylinders presenting the greatest possible
surface to the combustion of the gas coke
which is It's fuel the Dion ct Bouton boiler
transforms it's small quantity of water al
most instantly into steam, and this steam,
wet at first by reason of the rapidity Of its
development, Is dried by it's slow passage
over other heated surfaces. thanks to
which its efficacy Is very much increased.
These boilers are constructed from PA to
40 horse power. Employed with the new
three-cylinder compound motors, the COM
bination has little In common with the old
fashioned locomotive The Dion ct Bouton
omnibus, that took the heavyweight prize
at Versailles, carried sixteen passengers
and LOCO pounds of baggage at an average
speed of nine miles an hour during a six
days trial over all kinds of roads. 1t cost
$4,000.
What characterizes the serpollet system
is Its complete abandonment of coke in IA
vor of liquid combustibles-lamp petroleum
in the case OF two, four and eght-place
tourist voitures, and heavy oils for omni-
buses and vans The motive power is
still steam, however, and the Serpollet
boilers are even more complicated than
those of Dion ct Bouton. The owner of a
twelve-place Serpollet omnibus, who is
making $40 day in and out of St. Ger
main, allowed me to make up the follow
ing table of daily expenses. The vehicle
cost $500, built to order last year when
the demand enabled the manufacturers to
make their own terms. 1t is a fifteen-horse
power motor with commercial speed Of
eight miles an hour:
Daily eXpenses-Interest at per cent on
$1,000, u cents; sinking fund and repairs,
10 per cent, $130: conductor $780, fuel
wood alcohol, .06; petroleum, .05: heavy
oil, .10), q cents; greasing, 81 cents; oilers
and waste, 16 cents; general expenses, 10
per cent, 48 cents; total cost of running
omnibus. $685.
A Special Economy.
The petroleum residues. called heavy
oils, have long been employed in Russia
and believe, In the United States, as fuel
for locomotive engines; but their price
makes them impossible in France. Their
equivalent, however. is now extracted from
the tar product coming from the manufac-
ture of gas, and their cost, of from $15 to
han, c-fyra
fuel than coke. AS their employment dis
penses with the fireman who would other
wise be needed on heavyweight steam au-
tomobiles, the system claims special
economy, though some of the Dion ct Bou-
ton omnibuses also dispense with the fire.
man. The Serpol!et boilers, like the Dion
ct Bouton, afford a superheated and dried
steam that reduces the condensation in
the cylinders almost to nullity. There is
no waste of fuel, of steam, of effort. The
omnibuses glide by noiseiessiy and with
out smoke or odor.
The Weidknecht steam omnibus, which
now does a regular passenger service be-
tween the Place de Ia Concorde, Paris, and
the suburbs of Neuiily, Is the heaviest We
hicle you can see freely operating on the
streets of Paris. There are clumsier su
perheated steam and compressed-air loco
motives operating tramways in the city, but
the 30-pIace Weidknecht is novelty to be
running loose. People are not yet habit
uated to it, and it causes dark forebodings
for the twentieth century among the pessi-
mistic Yet no one can deny that 1t Is
merciful to spare the beautiful Paris ave-
nues the Disagreement Of tracks.
Road Steam Engines.
Coke is used, to produce as little smoke
as possible The waste steam is made to
escape by the same chimney, to increase
the draught, and the hot gas acting on the
steam serves at the same time to make it
almost invisible. The great production of
steam by this system permits the motor to
develop a continuous force of twenty-five
horse power which can be Increased to
thirty-ive horse power at need, SO that the
thirty-place fs-Neailly omnibuses take
long per cent sinclines at the rate Of eight
miles an hour. In a state of society where
economy is everything this is the power
admitted to be absolutely necessary to an
automobile omnibus pretending to do first
class work-oney horse power per passen-
ger. On good roads the expense per mile
Is thirty-fivs quarts Jof water and from
eight to thirteen pounds of coke. The
Weidknecht and the. Scotte omnibuses are
really road steam engines, and the Scotte
company actually ran road train at the
last Versailles heavydweight meeting. In
a word, the heayier the business the nearer
the approach Isl to the old steam locomo-
tive, the order seeming to be. light petro-