The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL.
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsgTN. Director.
Washington, d. c.,
THE ANCESTRAL FLIv.


istence has just been given promi
nent place in the National Museum
perior car of today.
This vehicle was made in 1893 by
Charles Duryea. 1t is literally an old
fashioned phaeton carriage with an
engine fastened at the back and a
long steering rod which worked up
and down sideways conspicuous in the
'front.' To start the engine, the driver
had to go to the back of the car and
crank. He had to get out to shut off
the engine when he stopped the car.
But in many ways this primitive au-
tomobile is closely related to the su-
period car of today.
Duryea saw that his motor wagon
could not turn corners easily on ordi-
nary wagon axles. He therefore made
use of a differentia1, so that the out
side wheel could revolve faster than
the inside wheel in making turn
a fundamental principle of every mod
ern car. He used a spray carburetor.
not very unlike the modern carbure-
tor; electric ignition, water cooling,
and other features which later makers
improved but have not replaced.
This car saw hard service for a few
years Then from 1897 to the present
it has stood in a Massachusetts barn
where children played around it and
sat on its cushions, and dust cobwebs,
and rats helped along its appearance,
of antiquity. Fifteen years ago the
inventor offered his historic automo-
bile to the National Museum; but at
that time the government had to crowd
its thousands of exhibits into one in
adequate building and rather than
accept the gift and then store it away
in a warehouse, the curators refused
it. Now it has been dug out of its
oblivion, carefully shipped to Wash
ington, and set up in state, in roped-
off enclosure, in the hall with our
early locomotives and airplanes and
other pioneer vehicles.
This is not, of course, the worlds
first automobile. Automobiles run by
steam were tried out in France in the
eighteenth century. They We're never
satisfactory and they had little in
common with the gasoline automobile.
But even in the history of the real
gas-propelled vehicle we find that
German inventor was running his car
in 1884. before American inventors
dared attempt anything so startling.
Sudden Rise of the Auto.
Then, all of a sudden, automobiles
appeared in different parts of the
United States. The time was pro-
pitious for a revolution of traffic, and
the inventors were getting busy. So
rapidly did the first machines appear
that it is a matter of proving the
months, or maybe the exact days, on
which several of the first cars APP
peared, in order to settle the question
of which is the original American
automobile. This exact information
has not been supplied by some of the
inventors claiming priority for their
inventions. 1t is possible that it can
not be obtained, and that mystery will
always enshroud this epoch of our
history.
Meanwhile, only when indisputable
proof of it's existence at a certain time
is given, will the museum authorities
consider using an historic vehicle as
an exhibit. Duryea has proved that
he built his first earn in 1891, and was
using it by the end of September or
the first of October, 1892. The next
year he took it apart and used its best
features to make a better one-the car
given to the government.
Until Duryea proved the history of
his model, Elwood Haynes was popu-
larly given credit for making the first
appearances in an American ear.
Haynes planned his invention and had
it built in 1894, and on these grounds
he claimed the title of the father of
the American automobile.
Gottfried Schooner, of Milwaukee,
is still in the competition for the title.
He sets forth. for the benefit of all
whom it Lay concern, in a sworn
affidavit, that ne built an automobile
in 1890 and ran it on the streets OF
Milwaukee in 1892. Here is one
instance where wv Al
ito months. Duryea ran his car in
1892 and Schooner claims to have
run his in the same year, but Schloe-
mer gives no month and it is not
definitely known whether he can
prove the exact history of his ma
chine. A Texas man also writes that
he produced a self-propelling vehicle
in 1890, but. details and abolute
proof are lacking. In view of the
facts as they are generally known
now, if anybody deserves to be called
the Columbus, or Washington, or the
Daniel Boone of the American auto
mobile, it is Duryea. s.
Duryea's Career.
From his boynood on an Illinois
farm, Charles Duryea was interested
in mechanics. A description OF a
bicycle in a popular scientific maya
zine led him to make the first bicycle
he had even seen. When he had to
write a graduation thesis at schooi
he chose rapid transit, and described
the near approach of the horseless
carriage and air transportation.
Shortly after leaving school he went
to the city to work for bicycle COM
pany. He became a licensed steam
engineer and he built gas engines He
was intensely interested in everything
that pertained to mechanics, motors
and engines, and finally he was ready
to sift and apply what he had learned
to his favorite dream. the horseless
carriage.
For his first attempt he used car
rage body and concentrated his eff
forts on his motor. He experimental
secretly in an upstairs workroom
Even when his machine was ready for
trial run he hesitated to take 1t on
the street for fear of frightening
horses and so antagonizing the pub
lie. Finally, be brought his model
downstairs in an elevator and made
his final tests on a vacant lot Even
there people came to cape and pro-
test. but when he started the engine
the sudden splitting and ehugging of
the motor sent the crowd flying in
terror.
People became accustomed to the
phenomenon of the horseless vehicle
slowly. 1t took Duryea two years to
sell IS cars when he started out to
,pouuIariZe his invention Yet he says
that his first commercial demonstra-
ton machine, the third model he