New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-07-16
AUTOMOBILES YEARS AGO.
DRIVEN OUT OF USE IN LONDON BY AID
VERSE LEGISLATION
10 the Editor OF The Tribune


regulation Of the use Of automobile" carriages,
and occurred TO me that this may be the
time FOR a "reminiscences which indicates the
possibility that in this may be so un-
fortunate to find that history repeats it.
SELF" on occasion, TO the detrment Of progress
Automobile" carriages are no new thing.
and II may be well to understand how il has
happened that a most important type OF self
mpelling carriage should have come into rather
extensive in the early days Of steam loco
motion only TO disappear again for many years
Some years ago. complying with the request OF
the publishers OF The International Scientific
Series TO prepare a volume exhibiting the evo-
hutton Of the steam engine, "A History Of the
Growth OF the Steam Engine" became greatly
Interested II the story Of the rise and progress.
and the Ultimate extinction, OF the ef-propelled
carriage in the early days Of the modern 70
tAtiye- steam engine Of Watt and his success
sorS The story Is now perfectly well known
Il 81 mechanical engineers, but is curiously
o. 'aruinar to non-professonal readers OF even
scientific literature II is instructive. however.
IL al Intelligent citizens, and perhaps especially
suggestive 10 lawmakers and the makers Of the
lawmakers
The Steam carriage antedates the locomotive .
Isaac Newton suggested 8 rude form Of the
machine early as 1850 DIT. Robson in lob
proposed ths idea 10 James Watt and Nathan
Read Yankee inventor. IN 1870 patented such
a vehicle II France Cugnot- IN 1110, actually
bulr q staa1n carriage Of considerable size,
which I rernEuhsr seeing Z few years ago, in
the collections Of the COnservatoire des Arts e;
Meters in Paris Oliver Evans the Amer
can Watt" OF 1-75-1Sl4 bu1t rude machine
o: this character in 1904 and proposed TO the
Lancaster Turnpike Company the use Of self
propelled wagons for TRANSPORTATION on the
common ruads promising large gains through
reduced cost % freight IA lS2l-3l a number
Of successful inventors ana builders appeared
n England where The excellent roads made
their usp practicable with as many novel forms
o. steam carriage usually for use in the trans
portAtiDn Of passengers, and speedily proved the
DEVICE entirely successful ID commercial as
well ns 3 mechanical sense These carriages
usually had high pressure non-condensing en-
gines with safety boilers and were light
IL proportion to their power as to De able to
attain a speed q twenty 70 twenty-five miles /
sn hour to carry fun loads Of passengers up
the steepest hills in and near London and TO /
traverse long routes 70 other cities
USED N LONDON YEARS AGO.
In 1S:;3 about twenty Of these carriages were
running il and about London some Of which .
traversrd II the season. several thousand miles
stations Al the details Of construction and Of
performance Of these carriages are perfectly
wen known. and the most important among
them could be to-day reproduced almost n fac
smile one OF the inventors, Quincy, operated
his boilers al seventy pounds steam pressure,
but tested them up 10 $40; and others, Han
cock and James used sectional boilers" car
wing as high as three hundred pounds press
ure and no accident to passenger IS recorded
as due 10 their use. line u these steam
coaches ran between London and Windsor, an
other between London and StrauOrd, sun an
o+be- between Cheltenham and Gloucester, and
another line was established between London
.Citv- and PaddingtOn Two carriages on this
line in 1924 ran FIVE months and carried four
thousand passengers averaging twelve miles
=, bour. and one Of them later was sent to
Duhljn- whore It once made eighteen miles
A committee appointed by Parliament to set
Ne matters in dispute between these companies
and the stage coach proprietors, from the first
their bitter enemies and their opponents by all
netbods fair or foul, reported the complete
.rcrpss Of the steam carriage. The greatest
mechanical engineers Of the time gave evidence
~ ,bei- favor They were shown 10 have been
safer than the regular coaches drawn by
bo-sas 20 have carried thousands OF passen-
,e-s and 10 have traversed thou: lnds OF miles
without difficulty or accident to have sustained
.naAds by the hour OF ten miles or more, TO
hava attained on level roads speeds exceeding
,bi-tv miles an hour and to have assembled hills
havtng gradients Of from l in i to in D. to cost
lsu. E, oneration than horse propelled coaches
and TO be more manageable.
rucAr RTOCKS TO PROGRESS.