Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-06

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image of the 1899 motor car greets
the eye of every American these
days, as the marvel Of modern civili-
cation nears its golden jubilee.
However 1t comes to him, the
average citizen derives from the pic
ture that thrill which always Is
his when something brilliant and
new climbs over the motor horizon.
How different this reception than
that when the motor car first began
to seek the attention of public
which met its hating, timid over
lures with scofflng and jeers! 1t
was in the early COS that the half
hearted, temporizing faith of few
Missionaries crystalized, became con-
viction, and sent them marching
bravely through a wilderness of me-
chanical mysteries to the motor car
of today with. the taunts even OF
those from whom they had a right
to expect sympathy ringing in their
ears.
Technically, it may not be ac-
. curate to ascribe to this group the
real genesis of the automobile. 1t
= might be awarded to Nicholas Cug-
not, a Frenchman who, in ITO, built
vehicle propelled by steam en-
. CINE. Or it might go to Oliver
Evans of Philadelphia. who, IN 1870,
, built a steam car that ran several
blocks before it broke down to run
no more. In between, both in this
country and abroad, there were
many similar attempts, but none Of
them were either successful or sus-
tanned.
Half Century Claim Valid.
There is unquestioned validity in
assigning to this season nearly a
half century ago the birth of the
spirit, as well as the product, which
unfolded into the American motor
car industry.
Surrounded by cars which split
the wind, climb over bumps with
out humping, travel at 80 miles an
. hour and perform similar miracles,
1t is interesting to go back to those
pioneer "horseless carriages" which
were successful chiefly in breaking
human hearts.
A couple of years before Elwood
Haynes toured the streets of Koko-
mo, Ind, in his first automobile,
Charles Duryea, Springfield, Mass,
3D. was making occasional brief trips
in a primarily experimental vehicle.
Duryea did not think of his first
creation in terms of its commercial
possibilities.
Haynes, who enjoyed the assist
ance of the two Apperson brothers
in the construction of his first car,
. definitely thought of it as a COM
mercial enterprise. That first
Haynes car had an engine OF one
@ horsepower. 1t weighed 900 pounds.
In other words, its ratio of power
= to weight was one to 900 as COM
pared with the ratios OF today. The
contrast is enough to make one
wonder how the Haynes creation
ran at all. History says it did run
at times. When all of the crude
mechanical units of which it was
composed were functioning at their
best and the road was perfectly
level, the car had top speed of 6
miles an hour.
That, of course, is not literally
true. Actually the car never did
run 6 miles in any one hour for
Haynes proudest boast was that
the machine would go a mile and
half without stopping.
IT, HoyyneS, orovJif e.
be written that he perceived the
impossibility of such hopeless bal
ance between power and weight. He
cut the ratio by exactly 825 pounds
per horsepower. It was accomplished
in the introduction in 1896 of
3O0-pound automobile that had
four horsepower engine; in other
words, one with a ratio Of horse
power to each IS pounds of weight.
The perfection of the accomplish
ment, however, was marred by the
fact that 10 of the cars 300
pounds were in the engine fly
wheel.
The Haynes was not the only car
in the field by the year 1896. Others
were the Ford, Oldsmobile, Duryea
and the King.
A retrospective glance at them
indicates their designers were not
altogether lacking in responsibility
Tor the most famous jeer Of the
times, the cry, Get horse!" In
stead of recognizing that they had
something entirely new in transpor-
tation media, the early car builders
copied the buggy as their model.
Charles Duryea called his car a
power buggy" When the car was
ready for the market in 1895, the
manufacturing company adhered
strictly to the horse-age nomencla-
ture. 1t was called the Duryea
Motor Wagon Corp.
While their buggy like lines may
have indicated some dearth OF imag-
ination on the part Of the early
car builders, this was not their fun
damental weakness. The cars great
fault lay in their crude and unre-
liable engines.
AS they were in the case OF trans
mission development, European de-
signers were ahead of the Amer
leans in the development OF en-
gines. The motors they employed
not only were more reliable. but
developed greater power. While
Haynes was struggling to get his
vehicle to travel at miles an hour
on its horsepower engine in 1895,
Levassor in France was winning the
worlds first automobile race, travel
ing a total distance of 1872 miles
at an average speed of approx
mately IS miles an hour. He used
a a. horsepower engine.
Engine shortcomings were many
and varied. Valve mechanismS could
not be trusted to operate in fash
ion that would admit gas to the
combustion chamber nor, once this
much was accomplished, to get the
burned and exhausted fuel out OF
the cylinder. If the valve system
UaS unrkinp fhere u,as m certaintv