The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-01
Automobile News
HISTORY OF THE MOTOR CAR


 The motor car industry was but a vision in the seventeenth century and it was years later before this vision as it stands today is practically all the development of the. last quarter of a century. It hardly seems possi-. ble that the first automobile factory in the United States was started P years ago;s nevertheless this was fact. Today there are over 500 fac- tories with an estimates yearly out put Of $50, 600 cars. This certainly is a fuIhllment of the prophecies of Rog-. CT Bacon, made in the thirteenth cen tury, that steamships, horseIess car- riages and flying machines would soon be common. The first experiments with horselessz carriages that met with any degree of success, were made in the 17th century. Johann Haustach of Nuremberg, constructed 9 carriage propelled by springs at this early date. There was steering device attached to the mechanism. but the car would travel in a straight line when wound up. Tn 1919 another spring driven carriage termed in the patent paper as B "cart without horses was pat ented in England. and in 1644 a French patent was issued to one Jean Theson on four-wheel carriage propelled by foot-power on the same principle as was later used 1on the bicycle.
 Tn 1748 carriage, propelled by clock work, was exhibited before Louis XV of France.
 Several others experimented along the spring drive line up to the year 1900, but with little success It had been discovered that steam could be used as a motive power and clock work devices were discarded in favor of the new found power.
 Steam was first used in road car rfage in fPekin, China, in the year 1630 History credits Father Verbi- est, a missionary, with achieving this feat. This was followed in 1880 by Sir Isaac Newton's steam carriage. Tn 1769 Nicholas Cugnot, backed by the French government, constructed steam gun carriage.
 This was a three-wheel contrivanee equipped with a two-cy1inder engine that carried two and one-half tons and travelled three miles per hour. The French revolution put a stop to further development along this line
 Tn 17s4, James Watt patented an in vention for driving carriages by steam but did nothing toward building or experimenting.
 Tn 17s7, Oliver Evans, of Maryland. invented a steam road wagon and Ma thanie1 Reed. in 1790, at Pecousic, Mass, constructed combined road wagon and boat. Evans and Reed were the first ones to really build steam carriages in this country that would successfully prope1 themselves under their own power
 The first steam carriage in which the crank1haft was geared to, the drive wheel was invented by Richard Ire vithick in England in 1902.
 Tn 1922. Sir Go1dsworthy Gurney began working upon six-wheeI steam Carriages and in 1881 Gurney car riage route was established between Che1tenhan and Colchester, England. This carriage was capable of running 2 miles hour. After four months time the service was discontinued be- cause of public opposition.
 While Gurney was working on his
 carriage Walter Hancock established steam omnibus line in 1929. His was the first chain transmission ye- hic1e invented. Five of these car riages were run between Paddington
 and Stratford in 1886. In 12 weeks
 12,760 passengers were carried. This
 line was practically forced out of bus mess by the English government. Tn that year a toll law was passed with taxes so high none could afford to run
 cars. Because of this law further deveIopm ent of the horse1ess carriage was prohibited and very little along | this line was done until the repeal o1 | the law in 1846.
 Turning to France we find in 1878 1 a steam carriage was built by Anne dee Bo1lee of Mans. France, and two years later he constructed sTaNou- velIe. This car was run @ distance of 745 miles in 90 hours as late as 1895. In 1886 the. first gasoline engines were used on road vehicles. These were the invention of Carl Benz and Gott1ieb Daimler, of Germany. In 1889 the two-cylinder engine was in vented by Daimler, and Messrs. Pan
 hard and Levassor, of Paris, imme-
 diateIy acquired the patents and built around the engine the first real gaso- line motor car. Then factories be- gan. springing up in France, Germany, England and the United States, and SC
 successful were the gasoline motors
 that in 1894 and 1895 the power ma chimes were proclaimed a success