Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-29
PRESENT-DAY AUTO
PRODUCT OF YEARS
First Scientific Hint of Horse
less Carriage Credited
to Roger Bacon.

Although the automobile has devel-
oped very rapidly, says student OF
transportation, this machine perhaps ex-
perienced a more difficult evolutionary
period in its early stages than either the
airplane OF dirigible Probably the first
scientific hint of the wonders that were
to be in the way of horselesS carriages
was made by Roger Bacon, who in his
"Opus Magnus" declared: "One may
also make carriages which, without the
aid of any animal, will run with re-
markable velocity" 1t is probable also,
the student said, that the earliest motor
car ever described in print was that
designed and built about the middle Of
the seventeenth century by Jesuit
missionary in China. This machine. an
improvement on the wind coach OF the
natives, was driven by jet OF steam
playing on mill wheel connected by
gearing with one Of its axles.
Delay in Developing Idea.
It seems incredible. yet historical rec
ords show that it was century later
before any notable progress was made
in the horseless carriage. 1t was at this
time when the London Daily Advertiser
of March 4, 1742. announced the arrival
from Bern, Switzerland, Of q chaise
that travelled without horses. year
later the same newspaper said: This
curious machine chaise that travels
without horses ran from Hampstead to
Tottenham Court, distance OF about
miles, in less than 40 minutes in
the sight of several hundred people"
In April of the same year this machine
was described as lone Of the most COM
plete pieces OF mechanism ever IN
vented"
The next step in the development Of
the horseleSS carriage was the an.
nouncement by the London Public Ad-
vertiser of May is, 1853, of patent Tor
a "four-wheel carriage that goes with
out horses and will carry four or flve
persons at the rate of 6 miles an
hour" Still more celebrated was the
sailing chariot invented little later by
Simon Stevin of Bruges, Brussels. This
machine was thus described in the Sec
ond volume of "Tristram Shandy":
"'Tho' I cannot guess says the elder
Shandy, upon what principles OF phi
losophy the inventor has achieved 1t,
vet certainly his machine has been con-
structed on very solid ones"
Primitive Models Exhibited.
With the coming Of the nineteenth
century, models of the primitive auto
mobile run by steam appeared In rapid
succession. Drawings of these old steam
carriages are, however, scarce and rare,
as they are eagerly snapped up by
automobiles who make hobby of col
lecting all memoranda referring to the
infancy of their favorite' recreation.
One of the most famous Of these old
drawings, now preserved in a Glasgow
museum, IT, was pointed out. is that of
an accident which occurred in Scotland
in 1843. The drawing was designed by
an eyewitness of the catastrophe, and
shows the unlucky passengers as they
were shot into the air as the boiler OF
the carriage burst.
some premonitory glimpse, not only
of the automobile but also Of the air
plane, 1t was stated, may have been
presented to the mind of Alexandra
Dumas (1802-70) when he penned this
passage in 1.-THE Brigand": For those
who are carried onward by the hand of
God. all the rules of motion are trans
posed, and when they have reached
their goal It seems to them that they
have made the journey, not on foot, not
on horseback, not In q carriage, but IN
some fantastic machine, rolling through
cities, villages and fields like q locomo-
tive. emitting smoke and flame; or in
o balloon sailing so rapidly through the
air that plains, villages and cities van
ish like mere specks lost in space"