New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-06-12
FIFTH AVENUE STAGES.
Satisfactory Substitute for Horses
Not Yet Found.

When stranger from the West first visits
Fifth-ave. to gaze at its cavalcade Of wealth and
fashion. he is likely to stagger after moment
or two stare down the street with bulGiug eyes.
mutter incoherently. and sway to and fro as IN
vertigo But It is not vertigo, heat or strong
drink which has overcome him. He is in
sane. He is not dying. He is simply looking
for the first time in his life at old Ffth-ave.
stage
On regqnng his senses. such individual
viii ask a string Of quections What museum
has this escaped FROM" Was it used by the
Mound Builders?" DO you have TO belong to
an order to ride on it, These and other
queries he may ask and add: Beats anything
ever saw Been all through the Rockies. but
| our coaches out there are only infants compared
with this Methuseah."
AS soon as the stranger learns that the stage
is for the public. however. and that such stages
have been rolling up and down Fifth-ave. for
many years, his mind undergoes profound re-
action, and he exclaiTns:
Now, rememberi This is the very way my
mothers grandfather saw New-York He said
it beat every other way. Sure enough"
For the reason that the horse stages Of Fifth
ave cause so much wonderment in up 10 date
Nev-York. almost every mail brings to the off,
Gals Of the company which operates them an
account OF some type Of automatic vehicle.
In the last year inventors have submitted
nearly a hundred different propositions, and
many, IN their anxiety to work change. offer
to run their vehicles gratutously for month
half a year.
The officials Of the coach company ready adj
nit that the horse stage is an eyesore, that 1T
should have been relegated to oblivion long
go, and instead type Of automobile
substituted, which would be more truly IN
cord with the aristocratc associations Of this
fashionable thoroughfare. But the officials say
they cannot find automatic vehicle that is
practically Again and again the hopes Of the
community have been aroused by the assurance
that the old stage would be sent for the
last time to the stable and a stylish automobile
coach run in it's stead. but such hopes have only
been doomed to wither and die.
About two years ago the company put into
operation dozen electric stages. two Of which
were doube-deckers, after the fashion Of the
London bus, with a spiral staircase behind. that
passengers might climb to and from the roof
seats with ease instead of clambering up over
hub tire. horse and driver, is the custom
the horse stage. The double deckers carried
thirty-six passengers each, half inside and
half outside The others carried sixteen in
side and eight in the two cross roof seats back
OF the chauffeur.
One by one these electric stages have been
Withdrawn, so that only half of them are
running. They have been inpractcable the COM
pany says for the reason that their storage
batteries too heavy and cost too much to
replensh. The storage battery Of a double
decker weighs two aud half tons-such an
enormous weight that it has to be hooked to
and unlocked from the bottom Of the vehicle by
means OF hydraulic Jacks: and in spite of their
great weight the batteries soon weaken, and
every fourth trip between Washington Square
and Eighty eighth-st they have to be recharged,
a process which takes six seven hours.
But the company has now discovered two new
types OF automobile stage which it believes
may prove 4 success. 1t is now experimenting
with a bus which is driven by steam and cleo
tricity. ard another whose power consists OF
gasolene and electricity. Either OF these We
than the electric double-decker now in use al
| though il will look much the same. In the one
q steam engine using kerosene oil runs a dy-
namo which furnishes power for the motor and
/ in the other the dynamo is by a gasolene
/ engine Either mechanism does not involve
recharging frequently than once a day.
and the inventors sly that neither the kerosene
/ nor gasolene will smell The company hopes TO
! place order for several vehicles Of one TYNE
or the other within three months.
Whether not the hopes of the public will
/ be again doomed TO disappointment. the problem
Of running automatic buses in Fifth-ave. is con-
tinually becoming difficult. Never has
! the street been more crowded. According m
actual tally. there is vehicle crossing Thirty