The Washington times., 1917-03-03
Motor Industry Reviewed
In Scientific Discussion
History of ''Horseless Carriage" Interestingly
Narrated odd Vehicles on Highways
Few Years Ago.

Up to 1859 the horseless carriage
existed only as an ideal, says the Sci
entific American. or the many inter
esting conceptions which had been
brought forward, none was of the
slightest permanence; and we men
tion the proposition advanced by Sir
Isaac Newton in 1850, and that, only
for its quAintness. This unique con
trivance was expected literally to
kick itself ahead by reaction against
atmospheric resistance to the Jet OF
steam which 1t blew out rearward.
The first steam vehicle which really
ran was that of Nicolas Joseph CdS'
not, 1859 and 1771. Cugnot's second
model is still to be seen. in a Paris
museum. He was followed during the
decades from 1850 to 1910 by a vast
number of more or less successful ex-
perimenters. Some OF their machines
ran and others did not; some were
playthings and others commercial
propositions; but none of them sur
vived the tests of time and of the
profit and loss account.
1t is TO be emphasized that in this
period little or no historical conti-
worked out his own ideas without any
attempt to apply or improve upon
those Of his predecessors; so that in
every respect 1t was a century of
sporadic effort rather than of definite
progress In any particular direction.
For stored Energy.
Nevertheless, the. results achieved
admit of a certain classification. In
the first place we can identify two
permanently distinct principles en-
ployed in the source of power. Most
inventors used a thermic generator,
demanding that the vehicle carry
supply Of fuel, by the combustion OF
which heat was produced, to be con-
verted into energy. But there were
always a few more daring ones who
sought to employ a reservoir Of
stored-up energy in the form of COM
pressed air, flexed springs, ETC.; and
these devices, of which the most not
able was a compressed air car that
actually ran in Paris in 1883, have
lineal. descendant in the present day
electric.
Then, too, in external appearance.
we find the proposed conveyances
falling into two well defined groups.
First in point of time comes the
road engine or steam roller type. Sec
ond, we have the true horseless car
riage, involving the addition OF power
plant and transmission to a vehicle
which retains the characteristic ap-
pearance of the horse-drawn vehicle.
At first development of power
transportation followed two entirely
distinct lines On the one hand we
find the conception of the superior
trackage to be secured by the laying
of rails: and at very early date
these were extensively employed for
horse and mule vehicles along busy
routes, and for mine and factory
trucks drawn by donkey engine and
cable.
Inventive Genius Enlisted.
On the other hand, as we have indi-
Gated, came the efforts TO produce a
suitable road engine or steam carriage
for service on the common roads. 1t
would seem from this distance that
these conceptions should have been
united at a very early date. For their
failure to become so we are at a loss
to account: we can only state the fact,
exhibited by the history of the rail-
road, that not until the decade of the
1s30's was this combination seriously
and successfully effected
Once an accomplished fact, the rail-
road made it clear why the steam
carriage for common roads had been.
on the whole, a failure There was
nothing the matter with the me
chanical principle involved; the fault
lay wholly with the execrable roads
of the period A horse can vary his
pull to meet the conditions: the early
types OF steam engine had at all times
to employ the same tractive effort.
This Is all very well on steel rails: on
dirt and mud roads II will not work,
and that settles ii. 1t was stated in
1860 that the power which would
draw twenty tons on a railroad would
draw no more than a single ton on
the common roads. On this basis the
Scientific American estimated that
there were in the whole United States
barely fifty miles of roads upon which
steam engines could be employed; and
as late as 1881 an enterprising Cali
fornian was urging the reconstruction
Of the roads OF that State so that his