Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-12
FOR HUNDREDS
OF YEARS HAS
1T BEEN TRIED
HORSELESS DRAWN VEHICLES
ANCIENT AMBITION
SELF-MoVING MACHINES DATE
FROM 200 g. c.
Greatest Progress in Motor Machines
Made Within the Past Fifteen
Years, and Yet in
Infancy

The horseless drawn vehicle which
is to be seen upon our streets today
passes with but little thought from the
multitude of the enormous amount OF
study and brains that have been CEN
tered upon the accomplishment Of
economy in conveyance and accom-
panying it with speed in transportation.
There are but few possibly that have
given the question of our self-propeiled
vehicles of today the thought as to how
they originated or how far back in the
era Of time the date of beginning is
recorded of self propelled vehicles. The
very first steam engine-that of the
Herlo of Alexandria b. G.. 200-produced
rotary motion by the reaction of d
couple of steam jets issuing from Il
bronze sphere mounted upon trunpions.
Also that the first engine used for the
imparting of rotary motion to other
machinery was that of the Italian
Branca and consisted of kind of wind
mill, against the vanes of which a jet
of steam was caused to impinge, and 1t
is interesting to note that the first
steamed-propelled horseless carriage
was driven by jet of steam, for it ap-
pears that over three centuries agu a
Jesuit missionary among the Chinese
Father Verbiest-set up a jet and
vaned wheel arrangement similar to
Branca's engine upon road carriage,
which it propelled through the inter-
Passing over the attempts made by
various nationalities to perfect a road
machine that would transport passen-
gers and freight without the aid of
horses the next practical innovation
was in 1863 when Nicholas Joseph Cug
not constructed and ran a model in
1863. Upon this vehicle the French mill
itary authorities improved and wished
to use it in the moving of heavy mill
tary ordnance This never proved sue
cessful, and horseless vehicle problems
remained a dead issue until in 1922 Sir
Goldsworthy Gurney commenced his
work upon a horseless road Iocomation
problem, and he was a man of scientific
attainments, but disclaimed being a
practical engineer, but entered upon
the subject from a conviction OF its
great Importance. His ideas were, how
ever, that the machine, like the man,
should be propelled by system of legs,
of which for his machine he was to
have ten leg propellers.
1t is a noteworthy fact that on the
very day Gurney was accomplishing his
project paper was being published by
"a practical mathematician proving that
a steam road carriage could never be
made to propel itself at all.
The first attempt to propel vehicles
by means of stored springs was made
in Paris in 1914 and by an Englishman.
This carriage was intended to convey
passengers from Paris to Fontaine-
bleau and back in one day, and it was
advertised that if this could be accom-
plished there would be great economy
in the matter, as at that time hay and
feed were quite high. The carriage
worked finely in the room, but the
labor of winding up the springs, which,
of course, was performed by men, was
SO great that the economy in the feed
was all exhausted In the expense of
the men. and this project had to be
abandoned.
With more or less success and more
or less failure, the subsequent years
passed along without much progress
being made in the development of the
horseless drawn vehicle, and. in fact,
ii was not until in the nineteenth CEN
tury that anything practical de-
veloped that gave hope to the aban-
donment Of the horse drawn vehicle for
that of other power.
In 1870 a clockwork omnibus was
actually tried on the streets of New
Orleans, and In the same year French
inventor gave out that his ''h0rseiess
vehicle would transport three passen-
gers at the rate of nine to ten miles
an hour and that his springs required
winding but once an hour. which coull
be done while the machine was in
motion"
The next Improvement upon this
antique method was the announcement
that springs would be carried under
the floor OF the carriage and would be
wound up at stations provided for the
purpose along the route Of the car
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