Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-11-02
EDISON'S AUTOMOBILE.
An Electric Motor That a Child Can
Manage.

Manage.
| Thomas A. Edison is at work on an
automobile which, he says, will trans
cend in utility any machine of the sort
that has yet been produced.
Of course, being an Edison produc-
ton, the new marvel will be run by
electricity.
Though the wizard will not now
make public the full plans of his
latest creation, he gave some of the
details of it to Journal reporter who
found him in his workshop.
My experiments are practically
completed" said Nr. Edison, land
within few weeks we will have motor
bicycles and tricycles on the roads
hereabouts. l have been working on
the motor for six months, and it now
| fulfills all my expectations.
THE French naphtha machines will
not be in the same class with mine,
and the inventors will hang their
heads with disgust when the one
which is now being completed is
Ilared beside those of French make.
THE mechanism of my machine is
far more practical; it is greatly con-
densed, the clumsy appearance will be
done away with and the whole affair
will be lighter.
will it take a person experienced
in electricity to run your machine?"
asked the Journal man.
Not at all" exclaimed the great in
Ventor. Anybody can run it with
out the slightest danger A child
will be just as safe on the seat as he
is on the common bicycle or tricycle."
The controversy in regard to the
speed of the French and American
automobiles and the proposed inter-
national race had directed .ne atten-
ton OF the great inventor to the pro-
blem of long distance travelling, and
he positively asserts that when COM
pleted his machine will have running
capacity of from twelve to fourteen
miles an hour, and that the motive
power would last to travel $50 miles
without re-charging.
las the demand increases" he con
tinued, and should my vehicles prove
the success anticipate, l will either
build factory for their manufacture
or sell out my right to some bicycle
concern"
The very fact that Thomas A. Edi-
son is getting out horseless vehicle
will attract attention to the new
mode of progression and will lay the
spooks of danger and difficulty that
People who have not looked into the
new vehicle worry so much about.
When Edison says an automobile is
ar non-explosive as a church and so
easy to handle that a 10-year-old child
can manage it as well as an engineer.
there is no longer any reason to doubt
that the roads of the future belong to
the horseless vehicle.
| He promises an electric runabout,
such as country doctor would use,
for from $500 to s400-hardly more
than good single buggy and fair
horse cost at present. He has cut
the weight of the machine down to a
figure the reverse of alarming, and has
carried the automatic principle so far
that the process of running the vehicle
| is less difficult than driving a gentle
| horse.
To use his own words:
The automobile will displace
horses in few years in every class of
work. Our roads are now suitable for
their usage. Horses for families are
only for the rich, and when a demand
comes for the automobile they will
be cheaper, and the expense of keeping
them in order will be about one-fifth
that of keeping a horse"
As to the cost. Mr. Edison said that
when the general demand came, the
price of two-seated vehicle would be
brought down to the cost of a good
team of horses, and that a one-seat
buggy, complete, he said, would be
bought for from $500 to $500.
Edison, in discussing the proposed
international race, said to the Jour
nal that Charron could not bring his
Freneh-built machine over the road
from Chicago to New York.
why" continued Mr.. Edison, ''the
French machine would go to pieces on
our roads, or at least on the roads
which would have to be travelled over
on the course, and the Frenchman
would find that his machine, which is
practicable on the nice, smooth roads
in France. would get stuck in the mud
before reaching its destination, or
would be shaken to pieces by coming