The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-01-24

No great factor in modern civiliza
ton presents more paradoxes in it
evolution than the automobile. Nom
has witnessed such pyrotechnlc. al
most magic, development in SO brie
"a time as the motor car has expert
cuced in the last two decades; hardly
one has made SO many brave begin
nings in the last three centuries only
TO die out after a sporadic and trans
tory development
The horseless carriage is not, as the
man in the street is apt to suppose. an
/ entirely modern continuance. Every
one who has attained his majority can
remembec what seemed TO him the
beg;nnings OF the automobiles in
deed they We're i'm the sense of the
vehicle as we now know it, The motor
! car IL seems 10 us, is the product of a
single short generation IL has sprung
from yrudity 10 completeness I'm less
than twenty five years. 1t has be-
come trite 90 rank its growth with
the modern wonders of the world.
These things are bcwIderinglv true.
Vet back of the handful of years i'm
which the wizard OF progress has
evolved the car of today ont of thin
air, as IL were, lie a dozen half-for-
gotten Isolated attempts or brief per-
iods Of eudcayor 10 produce meChani-
cal substitutes for the carriage horse
ana the draft animal. Therefore,
while 1t is perhaps proper To- call the
automobile Young il must bo romem-
bered that ITS forcshadowmgs were
not few that e had predecessors al
most worthy of the term ancestors
Before recalling some of those dim
beginnings, preserved for the mos
part on, i'm dry reference books and
an occasional mirth-proyckiug picture
it mieht Dee well To realize fully the
position OF the automobile i'm this
newly begun year 1914 Tha, rcaliza-
tiou can be brought home m few
brief statistics.
One Car for Each 100.
Roughly speaking, 1000 600 care are
m acwal service in the United states
The population is, say. loo,ooo,o 900 per
sons. 1t is evident therefore that for
every 100 of population an automobile
is in use. IN 1913 approximately 300,
00c motor cars were built The esti-
mated production for 1914 is between
100000 ana $4,000. The value of the
cars tu be built in this country this
year will hc i'm the neighhorhood of
sjoo,ouo,Ooo. Automobiles worth not
less than SLo0oo00 are gathered in !
TWO exhibitions i'm New York this !
,crk. one factory during the height |
If It's production season last summer
turned out LOCO automobiles "a day for |
a considerable period. You may buy |
70 motor ear to-day for Sa15, or if You
prefer yen may spend yl0oO0 for one,
'nd you may have it ot practically
and price range between and i'm any
form, power or design
All this is the achievement If twenty
years. In 1894 a gasoline automobile
was stiIl a nine days wcndcr
Eut the odd thing about 1.-THE
whimsical things that more than
auadrcd years ago hurscIcss carriages
actually operated upon the roads, caus-
ms quite as much wonder ana specu-
alton, while about the uust quarter Of
he last century PASSENGER service in
vehicles was carried on
'pordioally with some success. The
chici"s of that day were not much
ike the automobile Of the present, but
hey ran, after a fashion, and the won
Ter OF it was that they dropped ont of
light $50 quickly and almost out Of
uird to await practical Development
COR lhreescorc years.
Attempts Centuries Old.
Tn" fact is. man has heen trying To +,
iau.sh The horse for a long time. As
arly as the thirteenth century Bason
.rophcsicd that horseless carriages
would ere long be common sights. Dr. L
Johnson ,u his day, aConci at the /.
.outriyanceS of straps and springs
ric3 uuUn the streets, and early in the
.rycuto"r,h century Jonann Haustach ,
4 Nurcmberg built "a spring driven
Wiia-c which would travel IN
traght 'uo. At about the same time ,
similar cuutriyauce was patented i'm
.uelud and ion 1850 Sir Isaac Newton
proposed steam carriage Go be- driven ,
~ The retroactive cucr- of "a jet OIL
team from nozzle at the rear of the t
ehiclc, principle of propulsion later !
,tuaily used in some early steam ,
,oars.
a carriage, the motive power OF
'hi.h was clo,kwurh, was shown be.
.ouis Nv, of France i'm l14S. In 1862 /
20 % Frcuchman. Nlcholl. Joseph Cug- I
not built two steam carriages. the !
anger Of which is suu preserved at
'aris and was designed To- transport
'rtillory The engine o. this machine
ousistcd OF two single acting, I3-inch I
ylndcrs operating by pdWl the single ,
ront wheel IN front of which was sus- Z
ended tank shaped boiler Fourteen
cars later one Murdoch, am assistant /