New-York tribune., 1908-04-05
Three wheels and the boiler in front.

and figuring out the date OF JonahS So1ourn In
the whale to follow up line that would have
insured favorable mention of him at the com
ing carnival
Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769, prevailed on
the French government, through ducal friend,
to give him subsidy to build steam gun car
riage. This machine had three wheels. and a
large boiler like a covered soup kettle over
hung the front end rather precarously. There
were two cylinders and the carriage could make
three miles hour with load of two and
half tons. 1t a bad time to introduce the
automobile The Revolution came on, and the
French people became more interested in the
invention of DR. GuillOtine which cut short the
ambitions of many would-be travellers.
Meanwhile, in England, William Murdock. a
pupil of James Watt, father of the steam en-
gine, scared the life out of pious country folk
by travelling the roads at night aboard weird
three wheeled monster that spat red flame and
smoke. Some years later two Americans tried
their hands at a hOrSeleSs vehicle, one of them
being ambitious to combine boat and road
wagon. 1t was a good combination, except that
the boat would not float and the wagon would
not go.
The English were busy on the problem. al
though they not sure whether they were
making an automobile a locomotive bicycle.
coach body on a gigantic tricycle. driven by
steam. A bright thought came to David Cor
don in 1894. Not wheels. but legs, were needed
in a self propelled vehicle. Nature would not
have put legs beneath all animals. except
snakes. unless they were the ideal form of pro-
pulsion. Possibly David was inspired by a spec
tacle not unknown in modern times-a fat man
breaking through the bottom of a cab and NOV
ing his legs with great rapidity and efficiency
as they hit the ground At any rate, David in
vented steam car driven by bunch of me
chanical legs. About this time Sir G. Gurney
had the leg idea in a modified form being con-
tent with two supplemental limbs beneath his
six-wheeled steam coach. He thought the legs
would be useful in hin climbing, and would take
the strain off the rest of the machinery. After
a while he dispensed with them. There must
be something fascinating about legs, because
they have been very lately revived at least,
feet have-in traction machine being tried
out by the British War Office at Aldershot
There are thirty two feet on two endless bands,
within which eight wheels revolve and ii is as
serted that the machine can cross bitches and
gallop across the toughest country with ease.
However, returning to ancient times, there
were models of the GUrney coach that proved
quite successful. one of them making regular
trips between Gloucester and Cheltenham,
distance Of nine miles, in three-QUarterS of an
hour Thousands of passengers were carried
during four months period in 1881 until pop
uIar prejudice and the railroads interfered
Walter Hancocks steam omnibus of 1929 had a
high pressure engine and the first to
a chain for the transmission of power He in
situtcd a regular service between StratfOrd
and Paddington in 1886, making a record in
five months Of 4.2CO miles and 600 passengers
The Autopsy was the cheerful name of one
vehicle. Comic prints of the period by Leech,
Cruikshank and others represent hunting par
sons on teakettles and people in Hyde Park
rting on strange horscess cars. The rail
roads and horse coach proprietors were Jealous
Of the automobile. rustics objected and blocked
the highways viii stones. Finally Parliament
in 1896 passed an act placing such heavy tolls
ana restrictions on automobile road cars that
there was practically no prt gress in English
invention for half a century. when the act was
reVo aIeG.
France took up the problem. Amedee Bollee
exhibited two steam automobiles in the Paris
exposition of 1878, and two years later built
the omnibus La Nouvelle, which in the Paris
Bordeaux rae of 1895 made 745 miles in ninety
hours Ict Scrpollet, in 1885, invented the
flash boiler. III which steam instantly gen
Grated by water Grven into superheated tubes
Two Germans Daimler and Benz independently