Evening star., 1917-12-23

DETROIT, 1917.
00 q THIN the past few months
NAX the chief automobile fac
\V\v tories in the United States
have been put to work on war
orders Some of them are making mo-
tor trucks. some armored cars and 9TH
ers rapid automobiles for carrying dis
patches Many of the shops are making
ambulances and some, I doubt not. al
though 1 cannot tell where, are manu-
featuring the mighty tanks or forts
upon wheels. which roll over the coun-
try crushing down everything in their
way.
Long before we entered the war De-
troit was making automobiles and
motor trucks for the French and the
English. One of its firms supplied 5000
cars to the armies in France and an
other exported 81 100000 worth OF war
ambulances One of the makers of
high priced cars has already shipped
5000 trucks to Europe, and anotner'
which makes $500 automobile, has
sent 5000 of his vehicles across the
ocean. An establishment making
well known cheap machine recently
completed one order for 10000 ambu-
lances and another company is turning
out $50 airplane motors every day. The
government is having the machinery of
many of the factories adapted to special
war wofk. Some are making muni-
tions, others are constructing gas en-
cines for the use of the Army and Navy,
and, in fact, the whole motor car in
dustry has been brought to the aid OF
the nation in our fight with the Ger
mans.
To show you what this industry
TX
some of the latest figures concerning
1t. 1t grows SO fast that it is almost
impossible to overestinlate 1t. 1t
amounted to nothing twenty-five years
ago, and ten years since it was a baga-
telle. in comparison with others of our
great industrial forces. Today the
government officials admit that it
stands next to steel and ships in I'M
portance and they are rapidly mobiliz-
ing its machine shops aand men.
The automobile and motor car estab-
1ishments of the United States are now
scattered over thirty states of the
Union. There are ASS of them. There
are over eighty in Michigan. fifty in IL
linois, sixty-four in Ohio and forty-hve
in New York. Pennsylvania has thirty
three. Minnesota, twenty: Massachu-
setts eighteen. and California. sixteen,
with less numbers scattered through
out other parts Of the country. In ad-
many plants making automobile bodies,
accessories and parts .
These establishments have in their en-
ploy the most skilled army OF machinists
ever gotten together. There are 980.000
of them, and added to this number are
double as many men connected with the
subordinate industries, which make parts.
tires and other things dependent upon the
automobile trade. There are vast num-
Der making gas engines which can be used
on airplanes. boats and vehicles of other
kinds and the whole force is almost as
important to our army as the men in the
field.
Our motor cars now number more than
1000. 900. This means one car to every five
families in the United States, and it is es-
timated by Logan Waller Page, the head
a motor vehicle of one kind or another to
almost every mile of public and country
road In the union. The statisticians Of
the World Almanac say that our auto
tance Of Il, 900. 900. 900 miles. which is equal
to 100000 times around the earth, or 166
times the distance between the earth and
the sun. The figures seem incredible. but
/ take them from the almanac which lies
before me. During that year we burned
more than .000. 600 gallons of gasoline
in our motor cars, and wore out more
than s12,000.0o0 worth of tires. This is
truly something Of a business to have
grown up in twenty-five years.
And now just word about the history
of the motor car. The attempt at its in
vention is by no means new. The idea
was conceived long before the invention
of the bicycle: and as early as 1850 when
Boston was but few scattering houses
with cow-paths as streets, Sir Isaac New
ton proposed steam carriage to be
moved by the reactionary discharge of a
Jet of steam directed from the rear. About
q hundred years later Watts took out
patents adapting his steam engine to car
riages running on land, and 1t was after
thA ~ ha hat
Oliver Evans obtained patent in Mary
land for the exclusive right to make steam
road wagons. 1t was a little before the
Declaration of independence was signed
that a Frenchman, Capt. Nicholas Joseph
Cugnot. invented the first motor propelled
road vehicle that actually ran. and
model of his steam carriage is still to be
seen in one Of the museums of Paris
This man was the father Of the automo-
bile He was rewarded for his invention
with a pension Of less than $500 a year
and he died poor. His invention never
became practicable.
The next advance was by an English
man named Trevithick. who built
steam automobile which did better than
the car of Cugnot, and this was follow
ed by the machine patented by Oliver
Evans. who mounted an engine on a
four-wheeled wagon and drove it
around the circle where the city hall of
Philadelphia now stands. and then down
to the Schuylkill river, where the en-
Eine was taken off and connected with
q paddle-wheeled boat, which 1t made
to move down the stream. About thirty
or forty years later an Englishman
named Hancock established coach
line run by steam over tho ordinary
roadways He kept his car running for
twenty weeks and during that time car
ried more than $4,000 passengers