Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-06
USE OF AUTOMOBILES
Extensive Display at the st.
Louis Exposition.
IN THE DEATH VALLEY
PROPOSED TO DIsPLACE ANIMALS
WITH MACHINES.
German Exhibit Regarded by Experts
as the Best-Where Ameri-
cans Excel.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM T.. COhl1o
Special Correspondence OF The Evening Star and
Chicago ord-Herald
ST. LOUIS, September %. 1904
There were no automobiles motor cars
or any kind of horseless carriages at the
worlds Columbian exposition. Those lux
uries, now becoming so general, were I'M
known in this country, although they were
being experimental with in France. There
are now not less than 5000 machines of
various patterns in use in the United
States. and we have here at St Louis two
acres of them, including 14O cars of va
rious patterns in the American section.
and forty in the French section. The ex-
hibit is made under the auspices of the
National Association of Automobile Manu-
facturers. One hundred and ten factories
in the United States are turning out about
10000 machines a year.
The first automobile ever made in the
United States was completed in 1895 at
Kokomo, Ind The first patent applied for
in the United States was by George F. Sell
den Of Rochester. N. Y, but 1t was not
granted until 1896 Fifty factories are still
manufacturing machines on that patent,
although there have been great many
improvements. No other mechanical de-
vice was ever adopted so promptly by the
public, not even the bicycle, and, notwfth-
standing their brief history, horseless
trucks and carriages are now used for all
kinds of transportation and locomoton in
all parts of the earth. They are to be
found in every civilized country and even
in the uncivilized wilderness.
Five years ago I wrote from Cuzco.
Peru, that Patrick Howley, who has con-
cession from the Peruvian government to
run line of stages from the terminus of
the railroad at Puno to the old Inca cap
ital Cuzco, In the heart Of the Andes had
inS Of he nrdf-
nary mule vehicles, and they have proven
entirely satisfactory. A motor omnibus
leaves PunO and another leaves Cuzco every
other morning, and run over the Canine
Real, the ancient highway Of the Incas,
constructed through the passes of the An
des LOCO years ago, and they carry freight,
mail and passengers at the rate of twenty
nve miles an hour.
Automobiles Used in Mining.
In the artistic exhibit which Alexander
Garland, the commissioner from Peru, has
installed In the mining building you will
md beautiful samples of gold from the San
domingo mine, which lies in an Andean
wilderness near Caravaya, Peru, not far
from the shores of Lake Titicaca. The
Santo Domingo mine is owned by people
living in northwestern PENNSYLVANIA and
the manager Is Chester Brown. For long
time he was confronted with difficulties
winch seemed insurmountable, because It is
eighty miles to the mine from the nearest
railway, and it could not be reached except
by trail over the mountains which reach
ed an altitude SO great that horses mules
oxen and other draft animals cannot work
and can scarcely survive.
The problem was solved by the adoption
of automobile trucks Mr. Brown built
cart road from the railway to the mine,
and for the last five or six months has had
six enormous automobiles bringing out ore
and taking in machinery so that the mine
a
The gold goes almost exclusively to the
mint at Lima, where it is coined for, the
currency of the country. Peru, which has
been the greatest producer of silver except
Mexico, has adopted a gold basis. This
would have been practically impossible but
for the large output of Mr.. Browns NINE
In the Death Valley.
That is the only place know where auto
mobiles are used for such a purpose, al
though 1t is understood that the company
which is mining borax in Death valley
southern California has given an order for
the construction of a dozen machines capa-
Die OF carrying five tons as a load. The
borax lies in an awful place, genuine
death valley, where hundreds of people
have died of thirst. The borax deposits are
In sandy basin more than 800 feet below
the level of the sea; there is no water
within reach, and every wagon that is sent
In for cargo hauls a tank of water behind
furnish the motive power
You can see one of these wagons over in
what is called 1.-The gulch," beyond the art
gallery, where modern processes of min
ing are illustrated true to life. There is an
enormous wagon rugged for twenty mules
and a water tank chained to the rear axle
Every now and then the representative of
the borax company hires some animals and
hauls 1t around the exposition grounds. 1t
is believed that automobiles can be worked
In that dreadful place much more eco
nomically than animals, and machines are
being designed and built especially for that
purpose.
1t is interesting to know that Mr. Brown
ana his associates have taken up large
tracts of rubber land near their mines on
one of the tributaries of the Amazon, and
are constructing a roadway over which
they propose to transport rubber by auto
mobiles.
These gentlemen have also recently dis
covered petroleum on the banks of Lake
I1tcaca and are making preparations to
develop that source of wealth for the bene-
mt of the Peruvian people 1 suppose they
will use automobiles in that business also.
Automobile Trucks.
There are several examples of automobile
trucks among the exhibits, and the sta
tisties show that they are being adopted
rapidly In cities and manufacturing towns.
1t is claimed that they are much more eco
nomical than horses, and for a year past
there has been practical test of the horse
less omnibus upon the exposition grounds
Sixty storage battery cars, some CARRYING
eighteen and some twenty-four people, have
been in use since the LIST of last October
when the people first began to come to see
the buildings. They make the entire circuit
of the grounds in professions, packed with
people, from o'clock in the morning until
II o'clock at night 1t is the best way to OBJ
tain an outside view of the buildings, and
the round trip about three and a half miles,
costs 25 cents. These cars have constantly
been going through the crowded roads and
million people. yet only one man has been
injured by them SO far as known. He was
an aged countryman who, being absorbed
by the scene around him, did not hear or
did not understand the danger signal, and
the car backed over him. He spent few
days at a hospital and was then shipped
home as good as new.
The mail on the grounds is collected and