Arizona republican., 1900-09-21
THE AUTOMOBILE EVOLUTION

This example of the early attempts to solve the problem of mechanical pro- pulsion of vehicles is sufficient to show that the automobile is not entirely creation of the nineteenth century, but that it engrossed the attention of in ventors more than 130 years ago. The success attained by the workers in this field at different periods was directly IF proportion to the degree to which the form of power used had been perfected at that time. The first inventors at tained but slight success. owing to the fact that in their time the steam engine was in crude form, but as the con- struction of the latter improved, so did ttat of the vehicles operated by 1t.
 Before the days of steam the power Of wind mills was used to propel vehicles and with such success that In the six teenth and seventeenth centuries wind propelled wagons or "charvoIants," as they were called, were very numerous upon the flat plains of the Netherlands.
 The first authentic record of a self propelled carriage dates back to the middle of the sixteenth century. The inventor was Johann Haustach of Nu- remburg. The device is described as a s and it is said that it attained a speed of 1000 paces per hour. about one milr anG a quarter. Springs have been tried by many inventors since that time, but always without success from the sim pie fact that the amount of energy that can be stored in a spring is practically insignificant.
 In 1763 a Frenchman by the name of Cng-n0t devised r1a hot pelled by steam, and a few years after the date of his first experiment con- structed for the government a gun car- riaoe.
 A steam carriage invented in the nineteenth century was to be operated by compressed air and perhaps was the f1rst effort to utilize this form of stored energy for the propulsion of vehicles. It was not a success. but its failure was due to the fact that the inventor la bored under the delusion that the laws of nature could be circumvented by skillfully contrived mechanical devices. so as to obtain something from noth- ing. The body of the carriage was used as a reservoir for the compressed air and within the wheels were placed a number of pumps, the short bars pro- iant'np from the peripheries being the ends of the plungers. The expectation was that as the wheels revolved the plungers would be depressed and thus the air would be pumped into the reser- voirs, and this air would operate the engine that propelled the vehicle; hence the apparatus would supply its own power and realize perpetual motion. If this attempt to controvert the laws of nature had not been relied upon better results might have been obtained.
 A highly ornamental coach was invented by pr. Church about 1892. Tn addition to being ornamental it was of massive construction and large capacity. being able to accommo- date fifty passengers. It's operation is said to have been very satisfactory. high rate of speed being attained and all grades on ordinary roads being cas- fly mounted. The inventor swampsd himself in endeavoring to compete with railroads. The dash board was carved deliberately in the form of lions, and the bell shaped affair that protected the massive front wheel WAs also dec orated elabOrately.