The Detroit times., 1914-01-20
MOTOR CAR
HAS FORGED
AHEAD RAPIDLY
Beginning Founded Seemingly
on Dreams, but Gigantic Indus
try Now Stern Reality
PROGRESS IN % YEARS
HAS BEEN METEORlC
Machine Has Been Developed
Into Efficient, Luxurious and
Ubiquitous Vehicle

NO great factor ia mOueIh ClNAi%a
ton presents more paradoXes IN us
evolution than the automobile. None
has Witnessed such pyrotechnic al
most magic, development IN SO brlet
time as the motor car has expert
| enced IN the last two decades. hardly
one has made SO many brave begin
nings IN the last three centuries only
! 70 die out after "a sporadic ana Trans
| itory development
The horseless carriage IS not, as
the man IN the street Is apt 10 sup
nose. an entirely modern cOntrlyance.
Every one who has attained his ma
ioritv can remember What seemed 10
him the beginnings OF The automobile
as indeed they were in the sense or
the vehicle as We now know H. me
motor car, IL seems TO US, Is the prod
uct OF single short generation Ii
has sprung from crudity To complete
ness In less than % years. II has
become trite TO rank It's growth with
the modern wonders of the world.
These things are bewilderingly true.
Yet back OF the handful OF years IN
which the wizard OF progress has
evolved the car OF today out or thin
air. as It we're lie a dozen half-forgot-
ten isolated attempts or brief per
iods OF endeavor to produce mechahl-
cal substitutes for the carriage horse
and the draft animal, Therefore
while IL is perhaps proper to call the
automobile young, 10 must be remenl-
bered that It's foreshado~ ings we're
not few; that 1t mad predecessors III
most worthy OF the term ancestors
Before recalling some or those dim
fAr IN
part only IN dry reference books and
AN occasional mirth-provoking picture.
II might be well 70 realize fully the
position OF the automobile in this
newly begun year 1914 That realiza-
tlon can be brought home III few
brief statistics.
One Car for Each 100.
Roughly speaking, 1000 900 cars are
in actual service IN the United States.
The population IS. say, lOO,OO0.O00
persons. II Is evident. therefore, that
for every 100 OF population an auto
mobile is IN use. In 1913 approx,
mately 800 900 motor cars were built.
The estimated production for 1914 is
between $4,000 and $4,000 The
value OF the cars TO be built in this
country this year will be IN the neigh
borhood OF $500 900, 900. Automobiles
worth not less than $4,000 900 are
gathered In two exhibitions in New
York this week One factory during
the height or it's production season
last summer turned out 1000 auto
mobiles a day for considerable
period You may buy O motor car
today for 1915, or il you prefer, you
may spend $4,000 for one, and you
may have it at practically any price
range between and In any form, pow
or or design.
All this is the achievement OF 20
years In 1894 a gasoline automobile
was still a nine days wonder.
But the odd thing about 1.-THE
whimsical things that more than a
hundred years ago horseless carriages
actually operated upon the road, cans
Ing quite as much wonder and specu-
lation, while about the first quarter
OF the last century passenger service
isn elf-propelied vehicles was carried
on sporadlcally with some success.
The vehicles OF that day were not
much ike the automobile OF the pres
emit. but they ran, after fashion, and
the wonder OF il was that they
dropped so quickly out OF sight and
almost ont OF mind 70 await practical
development for threescore years
Attempts Centuries Old.
The fact is. man has been trying
10 Danish the horse for long time.
As early as the thirteenth century
Bacon prophesied that horseless car
lriages would ere long be common
sights. Or. Johnson in his day,
.scoffed at the cOntrivances OF straps
and springs tried upon the streets,
land early IN the seventeenth century
Johann Haustach OF Nuremberg built
"A spring driven carriage, which would
'travel in a straight line. AZ about
the same time a similar contrivance
was patented in England and in 1850
Sir Isaac Newton proposed a steam
Marriage to be driven by the retroac-
tive effect OF a jet Of steam from
nozzle at the rCsr OF the vehicle, a
principle OF propulsion later actually
used In some early steamboats,.
A carriage, the motive power OF
which was clockwork. was shown be-
fore Louis XIV. OF France in l74s. In
17697O, Frenchman Nicholas Jo-
ssph Cugnot, built two steam car
riages the larger OF which is still
preserved at Paris and was designed
10 transport artillery. The engine OF.
This machine consisted OF two single
aCuuky lo-ihNh ~ AAAiNNio DpNA
by pawls the single front wheel, in
front of which was suspended tank
shaped boiler Fourteen years later
one Murdoch. an assistant OF Watts,
built carriage operated by grass
hopper engine and in 1902 Oliver
Evans built a steam carriage, which
was put on exhibition In London, hav-
,ng been driven from Camborne a
iiatance OF 90 miles
hancocl<'s Steam Carriages.
Upon the heels OF this achievement
here followed Il period OF activity in
steam carriage construction in\ which
DR. Walter Hancock OF England
played leading part Hancock II
was who patented a boiler Of novel
design in 1927 which was applied 10
three-wheeled vehicle with It's single
driving wheel in front driven by
aair OF oscillatinE cylinders. This
Wheel was so attached TO the main
rame OF the carriage that steering
pf a fashion was possible. The We
,icle ran many hundred miles and
vas succeeded by an improved model.
nodestly named the Infant" This
hechanical baby WAS an innovation
n design. its two rear wheels being
he drivers az Ia the modcrn motor
lar. IL had two other things in com
non with the car OF the present gen