To conclude this series of articles without reference to the long-continued efforts of inventors to create a successful motor bicycle would be to omit what will doubtless prove a most interesting chapter to many readers. Public interest is keen not only in the direction of motor power as applied to the cycle and multicycle, but to all other styles of vehicles used for pleasure, convenience or commercial purposes. The present chapter will therefore treat of the motor as applied to all vehicles—the bicycle, the tricycle, and the heavier structures now worked by horse-power.

EVOLUTION OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE.

The term “motor cycle” must finally become broad enough to be motor vehicle, and in five possible forms—the bicycle, single or tandem; the tricycle, single or double; the four-wheeled carriage, with seats for two, four, or six; the cab or ’bus for public hire; the truck for hauling loads.

The first form cannot be thought likely to assume importance, for notwithstanding the fact that to the practiced and regular rider the bicycle becomes so far like the lower part of the centaur that steering is almost unconscious and the balancing a matter of instinctive bodily sway, it is also true that the constant call for equipoise does somewhat “take it out of” the system, even if the demand is not thought of. To state it in another way, it must be admitted that, if various resistances were not greater on the tricycle and if one could put aside all “feeling” and could regard only physical comfort according to that supposition, the three-tracker would fatigue less. Of course, the supposition can never be real, and as the bicycle must remain the easiest to drive it will hold its place as the vehicle for self-propulsion; but when the question comes up as to the vehicle to supply its own power and to ride upon, not to drive by one’s muscles, its stability, comfort in sitting, strength, and luggage-carrying capacity, will give the tricycle overwhelming advantages, since light weight will cease to be of consequence.

The motor-driven pleasure carriage and the passenger vehicle for hire will come together; indeed, they are already here. The postal van and the delivery wagon for light goods are running in London and Paris. The heavy truck for conveying general merchandise and doing general “carting” is not yet distinctly in sight, but its coming seems to be manifest destiny.

The accompanying illustration of a bicycle with gasoline motor, from the exhibit of a Coventry firm at the Stanley Show of 1896, is interesting as a stone on the path of development rather than a permanent type. The lengthened wheel base suggests the desirability of the tricycle form, and the level gear from the pedals shows that they are intended only as auxiliary for starting; the same appears in the tricycle shown, which was also very long and was level geared. The cut of a tricycle of present shape and having a gasoline motor is also given because this is now advertised as a market article, by the same firm, but the bicycle has probably dropped out.

The Irish Cyclist of Dec. 8 last, reviewing the National Show, says that “motor cycles are practically non-existent, the only specimen seen being a Bantam, with a rather neatly constructed oil engine ignited by electric spark, which was only exhibited last year.”

The Stanley Show, in the month previous, had a considerable display regarding which the London Cyclist said:

Three electric tandems have storage batteries carried in the frame below the top tube, with a motor in the lower part of the rear frame and on the handlebar a resistance coil to bring speed under control of the rear rider; a similar tandem has been run up to a speed of forty miles an hour, and these machines are for pacing purposes only. (This is emphasized by the recent arrival in New York of the two French professionals, brothers, with their electric tandem, booked to appear on several tracks. The tandem is credited with a fifty mile rate, and perhaps it may not be necessary for any little Michael to call out to the pacemakers on it to “hit it up.”) A road tandem has an oil motor with vertical double cylinders, the gear hub, of twelve inches outside diameter, serving as a fly wheel; the motor is of two and a half horse power and the maximum speed twenty-five miles an hour. A three-quarter-horse power oil motor tricycle is meant as tractor for a light two-seated two-wheeled chaise; the same parties showed phaetons and parcel vans. The Daimler Co., the first to enter England, showed a long line of vehicles with four-horse-power motors; one was a parcel van for the Cyclist publishers, and another was the Cyclist editor’s car on which he took his vacation journey of 2,000 miles to John-o-Groat’s and back to London. The review adds that the exhibit should convince of progress, for there was not a single English-built carriage in the collection, a year ago.

THE STEAM CARRIAGE.

The motor itself is the primary factor in the problem, and seems to be the most difficult. Naturally, steam was the first power tried, as it is the oldest known of the artificially-produced powers. As tried on the highway, it far antedates the railroad locomotive. In 1797, the Frenchman Cugnot produced a three-wheeled steam wagon in Paris, which ran fairly well until an accident befel it. In the thirties, several steam wagons ran for passenger service in and near London, and on one line 10,000 passengers were carried a total distance of some 4,000 miles. Most of these vehicles did not do both the carrying and driving but used a road locomotive to draw a ’bus. In 1870, a ’bus was built in Edinburgh with solid rubber tires, capable of carrying a load of sixty passengers, but the attempt was not commercially successful. Not long after, several vehicles capable of carrying a hundred persons at a speed from three to ten miles an hour were made and sent to India.

There are a number of builders of steam automobiles in Paris, and a considerable number of the vehicles are now in use in the gay capital, mostly for such heavy work as carrying passengers and delivering goods. There are comparatively few in England; yet a London insurance journal of Dec. 22 reports a trial trip of the steam van experimentally adopted by the postoffice and intended to run between London and Red Hill. The particular machine referred to is an old one which had already done about 4,500 miles, “and has been repainted for this purpose; those specially built for the G. P. O. will be rather different in arrangement although not differing in principle. The machinery, which has a petroleum fire, seems to be thoroughly under control, the brake very powerful and the wheels fitted with solid rubber tires; it is probable that new vans may have the advantage of Foidart’s patent ball bearings, which are in the hands of the British Ball-Bearing Syndicate.”

It may be a hint that oil is taken as fuel on the London postal vans, and also that one of the wagons above mentioned did not exceed in weight that of the heaviest electric phaetons now running with storage batteries; and although steam hardly seems likely to be employed on carriages for strictly private use it might be too much to predict that the steam motor has no chance as against the others. A carriage has lately been finished, by the way, by a mechanical engineer in Rochester, N. Y., working by steam, generated by gasoline in some manner, as reported, one charge of gasoline serving for twenty miles.

AIR AS MOTIVE POWER.

Air has of course not been overlooked, and it has the advantage of possessing the quality of perfect and inexhaustible elasticity according to pressure; its greatest disadvantage is that it must be “stored” and runs down steadily by use like a compressed metallic spring, hence requiring compressing stations. At intervals in this century, plans and drawings for vehicles to be run by air have been presented by successive inventors, and a system of tram-car service thus propelled has been tried experimentally in France. An air-driven tricycle has also been built in Chicago. What will be made out of this particular motor we must wait to see.

ELECTRICITY AS POWER.

Electricity comes next in the list, and is now limited for production of current to three forms—the power station, supplying current by a trolley and motor; the primary battery, carried on the vehicle; the storage battery, also carried on the vehicle. The first may be impossible commercially, but it is not at all so mechanically. Given the lines and some workable device for insuring that the carriage shall not be too often “off its trolley,” together with provision for some minor difficulties which need not be pronounced impossible (since in an inventive and pushing Republic the impossible is the thing which becomes possible), and the thing is done. Leave this method to the future, meanwhile noting that a trolley automobile is already reported from Nevada as having been built. The primary battery, to be taken along, seems out of the practicable list in the present state of electrical development.

THE COLUMBIA ELECTRIC PHAETON.

The third form, that of the storage battery, is now most prominently put forward, at least in this part of the United States, by the Pope Co., which is now prepared to fill orders for the Columbia electric phaeton, after several years of experiment, which has included the gas motor as well. At a casual glance this vehicle is an elegantly finished phaeton with box, body and folding hood, fitted with bicycle wheels but without the pole. The wheels are thirty-two inch front and thirty-six inch rear, with stout spokes and hubs, and the tires are Hartford single-tube pneumatic, with walls a little over a half inch thick. They have a mechanical fastening to the rim in addition to the constriction by air pressure, in order to guard against being rolled off on a curve. The tires require hard inflation (at about 150 pounds pressure), which can be done only with the special pump supplied. The temporary repair as made on bicycles is hardly necessary, for the tires are made very difficult to puncture, the objections to such a tire on bicycles not applying here, and the quality of resistance to puncture makes the tire so firm that the carriage will run temporarily on the tires deflated.

The entire supporting frame or truck is of fifty-point (not 50 per cent.) carbon tubing. The sides and front are doubled, rigidly braced and brazed; the rear of the frame is single and from this hangs supports for the axle bearings, the gears and the motor. Three compound flat springs transversely fastened to the truck support the entire upper body, which is not elsewhere supported. The body-supporting springs, placed equi-distant along the frame, are pivotally suspended at each end from the under side of the side tubes. Ball bearings are placed wherever any practical gain can be found thereby; the motor armatures and various pivots, with those of the steering gear, as well as all the axles and spindles, are fitted thus. The front axle, carrying the steering wheels, is pivoted so as to allow running over obstacles, as shown in the cut, representing the regular factory tests, and every vehicle is put to thorough tests and inspections before being passed as ready.

The motor works on the rear axle, which is divided so as to be double driving on the usual plan with bevel-gears. The motor is driven by a storage battery, consisting of forty-four chloride cells in four sets of eleven each, fitted in two sliding wood boxes; the cells are sealed against spilling and the whole is carried in the body, access to them being had by doors at the back. The run from one charging is from thirty to thirty-five miles, at the rate of twelve and one-quarter miles an hour, although excessively heavy work or an injudicious management may exhaust somewhat sooner; it was found, however, by prolonged investigation, that the average daily run of bicycles falls well within this figure. Recharging may be done in the owner’s private stable, the proper connection having been once made once for all from the nearest electric-light station, and in case of a private-power plant the cost of running need not exceed half a cent per mile for current; otherwise recharging is done at any station where there is a 110-volt direct current, and this need not exceed 50 cents for each full charge. The connections which have to be manipulated are made of different sizes, so that misplacing is impossible. A small meter is placed in sight of the driver, which shows approximately the power remaining in the batteries; this having run down and the proper connections having been made, the charging process begins and the meter starts to run backward to “full” again; no attention is required, for as soon as the “full” point is reached the battery automatically switches itself out of circuit.

The driver sits at the left and steers with his right hand by means of an L lever. At his left is the “controller” lever, working over a notched arc resembling that of the locomotive reversing lever, and having four positions. When the lever stands vertical it is in the “stopped” position, and when the driver gets off he is to pull out and pocket a small safety plug; this leaves the circuit broken and the carriage cannot start accidentally or be started by any person who has not a duplicate plug. A very powerful band brake, working on the gear box on the rear axle, and capable of a very quick stop, is operated by a lever within reach of the driver’s right foot; a backing press is in reach of his left foot and a lever on the steering handle operates a bell. Having taken his seat and replaced the safety plug, the driver sets the lever forward to the first notch, which gradually runs the carriage up to a three-mile speed on a smooth level; the second notch increases to six miles; the third, which is the one meant for steady use and the most economical, goes to twelve miles; the fourth notch uses a position very exhaustive of the batteries, giving a speed of nearly fifteen miles, but is for sparing and emergency use.

The motor drives directly on the axle, without intervention of any belting or gearing. It is of two horse power, and in operation it is assumed that about one and three-eighths horse power is actually exerted at the wheel rims. The recharging takes three hours. With continued use, the total power available from any given set of batteries usually increases; but if allowed to stand still long fully-charged cells will gradually lose part of their charge, and to allow them to stand long in the condition of complete discharge is destructive to them. Each battery chamber weighs a little over 200 lbs., requiring two men to handle it. The total batteries weigh something over 800 lbs., and the total weight of the carriage is about 1,900. Its cost is $3,000.

Against this first cost is to be set the cost of keeping the pair of horses which the motor replaces. The cost of current for power is estimated to range from 10 to 25 cents per day. Of course the vehicle must not go out of reach of a source of supply; but electrical plants are to be found in most villages and a list of over 400 places of current stations available, is included in the pamphlet of instructions. The considerations in favor of electricity as a motor are certainly very strong, and within its limitations it is quite perfect, having neither odor, noise nor possible explosion. To the quietness of running and ease of control of the Pope vehicle we can personally testify, and its honesty and thoroughness of construction can be taken on faith in the well-established and well-earned reputation of the Pope Company. As to “getting out of order,” the study has been to make the vehicle “fool-proof.” Every condition involved in a practical vehicle for everyday use, by people of ordinary intelligence, has been thought of, and durability and service quite as long and as trying as could ever be exacted without actual abuse, was proved before putting the vehicle on the market. After carefully reading the pamphlet of instructions, our conclusion is that although they are somewhat extended and minute, there is nothing formidable in them and that any person fit to be trusted with a horse, or even with a good carriage, ought to be able, by paying attention to his duties and doing as he is told, to make this carriage “go of itself” and maintain its integrity without any trouble. An experimental carriage has been in use for two years in and around Hartford, having in that time made a mileage of 3,500; it was entrusted to untrained hands, and yet never met a mishap which required it to be taken home by any other power than its own.

OTHER ELECTRIC VEHICLES.

In the Borough of Manhattan the electric cab has for about a year been too familiar a sight to attract attention. The cabs are not yet many in number. The Electric Vehicle Co. have some fourteen in operation, and the company also has a hundred more in construction or under contract.

The carriage made by The Barrows Electric Vehicle Company is peculiar in being a three-wheeler; the rear wheels are 28 inch, with 2 inch tires, thus approximating the bicycle wheel except in stoutness, while the front wheel, which is of 36 inches and has a 3 inch tire, carries a 1-horse power motor and 300 pounds of storage cells, another 100 pounds of cells being placed under the seat. The electric equipment is thus some 500 pounds total, four-fifths of this being borne on the front wheel, where it serves for traction. The motor gears by a 2½ inch rawhide pinion direct to a 28 inch gear fixed on the wheel rim, and the total weight of the vehicle is 700 pounds. There are three speeds forward and two backward; the run is about three hours, or 30 to 40 miles, on one charging. The price ranges from $600 to $1,200 for regular carriages, and $300 to $500 for what are called children’s carts. Interested with Mr. Barrows is Supervisor Dunton of Jamaica Township, well known to wheelmen and father of the goods roads system in Queens County.

The Riker Company, at present of 45 York street, Borough of Brooklyn, have in use a half dozen and have a dozen under contract, at prices from $1,800 to $2,500, and say the difficulty is not to get orders, but to fill them, the reason for this being that the subject is still so new that everything must be devised and procured and construction is therefore slow. The Riker Electric Trap No. 1 won first prize on Narragansett track at the Rhode Island State Fair, Sept. 7, 1896, doing five miles in 11:28; this weighed 1,800 pounds, had a capacity of ten miles for four hours, and attained a speed of twenty-seven miles; it was crudely put together as most convenient, and had bicycle wheels with “direct” spokes, the drivers being provided with four tension rods running in a tangential direction midway between rim and hub. Wheels as now made are 32 inch front and 36 rear; speeds provided are 3 and 6 miles back and 3—6—12—15 miles forward. Distance run on one charging and cost of current per mile are about as with the Pope carriage; the general description of that will also answer for others of its class, and we might add here that no attempt is made to go into the technical description of any motor vehicle, as this could not be done except at great length and with detailed illustrations. Mr. Riker believes strongly in the carriage, mentioning its suitability for physicians, for example, because it does not involve exposing a horse to inclement weather; for safety in leaving in the streets when not having a driver with it, he makes his “safety plug,” a special lock with the Yale tumblers, so that the vehicle cannot be moved by its own power except after first inserting the owner’s key.

The gas engine has for years been in use for stationary service in England, and considerably by cycle makers, largely because of the low price of gas in the Kingdom. These engines depend on the familiar principle that hydro-carbon vapors are explosive when mixed with air in certain proportions. As employed in driving boats or vehicles, the operation is essentially the same as long familiar in shops; the engines are explosion engines, driving the shaft only by the outward thrust of the piston and commonly making only each second or fourth movement effective, the remaining movements being consumed in restoring the mechanism to its original condition, these recurring acts being known as a “cycle” of changes. Hence a flywheel is required, and the driving power is irregular and by recurrent throb or thrust rather than by the usual reciprocal movement of an engine.

In England a great impulse was doubtless given to autocars by the London to Brighton run, Nov. 14, 1896, to celebrate the date when the new “Light Locomotives act” took effect, permitting speed up to fourteen miles an hour. This occasion is claimed by an American maker to have been a race, and won by him; the Scottish Cyclist account calls it a parade, in which 32 machines out of an expected 56 took part. Mud and rain, with the pressure of traffic and spectators, “disorganized the procession,” but this is pronounced a better test of running qualities than favorable conditions would have furnished. Various tricycles, the French carriage which won the Paris-Marseilles race, landaus, dogcarts, bath chairs, delivery vans, etc., all presumably motor-driven, participated. No winner is reported or any time given.

THE GAS MOTOR.

The Winton Motor Carriage Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, now offers a light single-seat carriage for two persons, at $1,000, deliverable in sixty days. The motor is of the single hydro-carbon type, using common stove gasoline, obtainable almost anywhere; a supply is carried for a day’s run of seventy-five miles over ordinary roads, at a cost of under a half cent per mile. The catalogue says that “by an ingenious and simple arrangement the motor is absolutely under control, running at any desired speed without affecting its driving power, and, in contradistinction to other motors, variable gearing for different speeds is not necessary, except the hill-climbing and backing gear; the motor can be speeded from 200 revolutions to 900 or 1,000 per minute in about three seconds, and almost as quickly slowed down to a governed speed of 200.” A Winton carriage claims the world’s record with a mile in 1.48, on a circular track, Decoration Day, 1897. It is claimed to be equal to “actual service over all kinds and conditions of roads, up hill and down, through mud, sand and snow, at from three to twenty miles an hour,” and a challenge is out to any kind of motor carriage, by American or foreign maker, for a race next summer from New York to Chicago or over any other course of at least 1,000 miles.

The Hertel Gasoline Motor-carriage Company, lately of Chicago, but now of Springfield, and interested with the Iven-Brandenburgh Company, proposes a light and improved carriage at a moderate price, but declines to furnish any information, on the ground of not yet being ready to fill orders.

The Duryea Motor Wagon Company of Springfield, Mass., shows illustrations of the racing wagon which it claims won the Liberty Day run from London to Brighton, already mentioned; another of the one that won the $2,000 first prize in the Chicago Times-Herald race of Thanksgiving Day, 1895; also of the winner of the $3,000 Cosmopolitan Magazine race, Decoration Day, 1896. The later models only have bicycle wheels: the earlier one had wood wheels on the old wagon-wheel pattern. The earlier weights were 1,200 to 1,400 pounds; the latest are brought down to 750. Ordinary stove gasoline is the fuel, and six gallons are carried, equal to 150 miles’ running. A small dynamo furnishes the spark for ignition in the cylinder. No gas or vapor is carried outside the motors; no flame is used; if the water in the tank is gone, the motor simply stops; there is no danger of explosion or fire; the two motors are independent, and one wall work even if the other has failed; five minutes suffice for recharging with fuel and water; the carriage steers so well that it will practically pass over rocks “hands off.” Speed ranges up to thirty miles, and any rate below that may be run at will.

Here might be remarked the lightness of the Pennington tricycle used in the London to Brighton run of 1896, “for to turn out a vehicle of less than 250 pounds, yet capable of propelling itself with a load of four passengers at speeds ranging up to twenty and thirty miles an hour is decidedly a noteworthy achievement.” This vehicle was put together by clamping the tubes instead of brazing.

The Weston-Mott Company of Utica discerns the signs of the times, and now offers all kinds of wheels for horseless vehicles.

Transcriber's Notes:

The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.

The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.

Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.