The Opelousas courier., 1900-02-24
FIRST AUTOMOBILES.
CURIOUS EXAMPLES ON FILE IN THE
PATENT OFFICE,

Ihe First Wagon Ever Propelled Sue
cessfally by the Use OF Machinery Dates
From the 18th Century-The Steam
MAR and h Electric White Horse.
I'VE will be able to construct ma.
chimes which will propel ships with
greater speed than a whole garrison of
rowers, and which will need only one
pilot to guide them; we will be able to
propel carriages with Incredible speed
without the assistance of any animal,
and we will be able to make machines
which by means of wings will enable
us to fly In the air like birds"
These Q the words of that far
seeing philosopher of the fourteenth
century, Roger Bacon. An autobain-
list who visits the patent Office in Wash.
ington will fully believe that this
prophecy, which in Bacon's time was
considered the imaginations of a Eighty
mind. and which has since been fully
realized in the case of the steamship,
is about to be fulfilled in the locomo-
ton of the road vehicles.
To make researches in the patent
office for the purpose of examining the
various patents relating to the horse
less carriage, an ~autobainist must have
unlimited time, as there are many
hundreds of patented parts that would
take a lifetime to examine thoroughly,
so it is only in this our ability at pres
emit to deal with the question in a his
torical and a general manner
Among the numerous drawings of
horseless. vehicles was a cut of the
first wagon ever propelled successfully
by the use of machinery. It was con
structed in the sixteenth century by
sJohann Haustach of Nuremburg, who
was described as a manufacturer of
chariots going by spring, and making
two thousand PAGES an hour" The
vehicle itself was large and clumsy,
being deliberately adorned with gilt
and rough carving. Tt resembled a
heavy circus cart of the present day.
The motive power was derived from
the potential energy of q coiled spring.
As the wa on vas without any steer
ing apparatus, it could only be run on
a straightaway course, and as many
accidents resultedfrom this deficiency,
the civil authorities forbid the run
ming of the wagon on the public roads.
Another means of horseless locomo-
ton which I found in this Office, and
which came into use about the same
time as the spring-propelled carriage.
was the wind-propelled vehicles of the
Dutch. These carriages, or l should
say. wagons, for they closely resem-
} bled the heavy road wagons of the
American farmer, were propelled by
mean of two square sails. The sails
proved a success on level lands and in
going before the wind, but there vas
trouble when the wind was against
them. and the only way out of the diff
Guilty was to resort to the horse again.
The first steam-propelled vehicle
was experimental with by a Jesuit
missionary among the Chinese, one
Father Verbrest. The time given for
this experiment was in the thirteenth
century. The vehicle was propelled
by a jet of steam, for it appears that
Father Verbrest set up q jetand vaned
wheel in 9 vehicle of light construc-
ton. The jet wheel was affixed to a
vertical shaft gearing attached to one
of the axles.
Thus one is able to trace the growth
OF the horseless vehicle from the
period in which the power of steam
was discovered to the present day of
electric and gasoline motors. Upon
investigation I found that the first
patent was granted to a Mr.. B. Lang
don of New York, on Feb. %, 1917.
The motive power was supplied by the
means Of steam, and I afterward
learned that the whole affair proved a
complete failure.
About the earliest patent granted
for a complete carriage propelled by
q gasoline motor was granted to j.
ffl7on Of Chicago. He applied for his
patent as early as 1879, but let it lay
in the patent Office until 1894.
The first record of a complete cleo
trio motor carriage that I could find
was a patent granted to M. w. Deway
Of New York, on Dec. /, 1891. Ac-
cording to Mr.. Mitchell, the chief
clerk Of the bureau having the records
OF the horseless vehicle patents, there
are at the outside not more than $50
complete patents for horseless car
riages. The employees having exper-
fence in the patent Office say that the
minds OF the inventors ell run in the
same channel, according to the craze or
the fad ofthe day, and that now the in
ventors oil over the world are daily
sending to them for information con-
corning every mean of locomotion
without the means of the horse.
Everything in this world has its
ridiculous side, and many patents
have been granted for ingenious but
prefectly useless arrangements for
locomotion. These patents are spoken
of by the patent Office officials o
curios of the horselessF vehicle.
The first OF these curiosities that
came under my notice was that of the
steam man. This curious steam loco
motive is about eight feet high and
resembles an armed knight Of the
oIden times. He has articulated
limbs, which move in imitation of the
human legs. In his mouth there is .
pipe, through which steam is constant
" emitted while his hands. which hang
down aleng his sides, are the shafts
Of a carriage. which serve TO steady
the figure upon its feet. The body Of
the man contains the boiler, the heat