Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-09
CAN TURN CORNERS
OBSTACLES THAT COL. RENARD
HAD TO OVERCOME.
An Entirely New Thing in Road
Hauling and in
Mechanics.
peclal Correspondence of The Evening Star.

fARlS. January 1, 1SV4
An utterly new thing in road-hauling has
been found. new thing in mechanics. So
new that every one is talking of 1t. SO
simple that every one is asking himself:
why did not think of it?''
That such a thing could have remained
undiscovered. under all our eyes, seems
| strange. Like the egg Of Columbus. Why
do railway trains run on rails? There are
several reasons: but one all-suf11cient one
would be that without rails they could not
turn corners.
You can try it yourself with four or five
or six wagons hitched together and a horse
or two hftched to the first to pull the lot.
The horses the first wagon, the second
wagon the third, the fourth and the fifth,
all in a row.
The horses pull the first wagon. the first
wagon pulls the second, the second the
third. and so on; that is to say, the horses
pull them all.
And all goes well so long as. you go
Straight ahead But try to turn corner.
Try TO describe an arc. The first wagon
gets around all right, behind the horses
on condition that you do no, turn too close
and throw it into the inside gutter. The
second wagon follows the first-with a
still greater tendency to pull inward; and
the third stu more; and the fourth still
more. Indeed, it will go flop and upset
itself in the gutter.
why this happens is so simple that I
need not tell you. It is geometry. Yes
terday l knew. Today 1 have forgotten.
But there is no farmers boy who does not
know 1t; and it is still easier to tell why
railway rails prevent the train from doing
the same thing when turning corners
Up to the present, for the reasons given,
we have never seen road trains upon our
highways. Trains must run on rails, we
said. And so in France the land of auto
mobiles where to automobile is as COM
mon as to hitch the horse, where millions
upon millions are invested in the automo-
bile industry, at most-and in case of a
panne or breakdown-they pulled one
auto with another, one and one only.
There was principle even for that Ev-
cry poor relation, every hanger-on around
the edge, every friend who has friend
who has an automobile knows that to haul
an inert auto you must have another
slightly heavier; otherwise the wheels will
slip, or skid, or, as they say in French, go
skating. r---s
All is Changed.
Now, in word, all this is changed. When
you come over here next year you will see
automobile trains for hauling freight and
produce and for passengers on all of the
French highways; for everything that
touches this great Industry goes quick in
France. You will see these trains turn
corners as by magic. You will see two Or
three well-loaded automobile wagons fit
ting past the horizon behind light little
fifty horsepower petroleum tractor.
This sensation of the automobile year In
France; this clou. or feature, Of the just
closing automobile salon is the invention
of Col. Renard, one-tirne dirigible- balloon
experimenter and later and for many years
ton of the French army at Mueden, on the
hill outside of Paris and this side Of st.
German.
In was Col Renard who. in 1885. COM
,r,ttt, he tha fh.af,
inventor of a specially light electric motor,
to build the cigar-shaped dirigible balloon
called La France" and departing in 1t
from the Mueden Park it cannot be denied
that they got back to Mueden without
touching ground. Thus the name of Col.
Renard will live In ballooning annals.
Commandant Krebs, his old associate.
now retired from active service In the
army, Is the present director of the we'll
known Panhard automobile house and the
inventor Of the KrebS carburator, owned by
the Panhards, itself sensation of yester-
day. You know that II you want to stop
an ordinary petroleum auto In front OF your
door and yet not stop the motor you will
get certain shaking, while the great ma
chine sobs and trembles like giant under
emotion. Well, with the Krebs carburator-
if the motor be well "equilibre"-it will not
shake that way, or almost.
To Garry Passengers.
Now for the automobile train Of Colonel
Renard. During the past month hundreds
Of thousands of Parisians and foreigners
have gazed on the light and elegant sam
pie exposed In the salon. AS it was design
ed to carry passengers, a well known
excursion house snapped it UP to use
it In their business, and within short time
it will be running between Paris and Yer
sailles Paris and Fontainbleau, over the
old kings highway.
To glance at 1t you would say: Here we
have kind of train consisting of an ordi-
nary f1fty-horse power petroleum auto in
front and, hitched to it, three four smart,
light-running carryan wagons, seating ten
people each How can such a light auto
pull all that? Why don't its wheels skid?'
Its wheels don't skid because the auto
mobile does not really pull the train.
There are really two Inventions, or one
invention and one discovery.
1. 1t is true that all the power and all the
direction comes from the front auto. 1t is
like an ordinary auto-almost. 1t has its
motor, It's change of speed, it's several
brakes, etc, etc, but please take notice
that out of its change of speed, in place of
having one transmission like an ordinary
automobile. 1t has two-one going to the
back wheel al In an ordinary auto and the
other going straight to all the other wag-
ons.
Have you ever seen chainless bike? You
know these slanting cogs? Santes-Dumont's
long steel connecting rod transmits the
power from his motor (stuated in the CEN
ter Of his airship keeD to his screw pro-
peller Cat the stern) by the same curious
cog device.
In this train you must imagine sensa-
tionally long connecting rod of very rigid
steel that runs the whole length of the
train, on which the wagons are threaded,
so to speak. Look between the auto
and the first wagon, or between any
two wagons. You will observe what seems
to be a double coupling. The bottom one is
the real coupling. The top one is this con-
Meeting rod. y e.
And so the power IS transmitted from the
automobile in 'front.' by means of this re-
volving rod, to the hind wheels of each of
the wagons, by means Of the cog device of
the chainless bike. 80,
You will ask how such rigid rod can
turn corner? 1t will be impossible to de-
scribe on paper the ingenious contrivance
which in French is called a cardan-jeint 1t
is not precisely new; but very likely you
never saw It. will therefore ask you to be-
lieve me when tell you that it permits the
rod to be articulated while remaining rigid
Thus you understand how the train pulls
itself. That is what 1t does, because the
head auto does not pull 1T, but contains and
transmits it's force to the back wheels of
each wagon-the same force with which it
moves itself. because the long connecting