We have already noticed some novel means of locomotion in the water and in the air, and now a few of the means whereby locomotion is attained as a recreation or as an exhibition may be mentioned.

For instance, here is a very curious vehicle, and the explanation of it we give in the words of the anonymous inventor:—

“My vehicle will carry four people without counting the driver. It is strong, easy to draw, and can turn in a horse’s length. The driver completely controls the animal, and no dust is thrown up to inconvenience the sitters, for by the time it rises the car is well in advance of it. It is cheap; the harness is simple and safe. The horse is sheltered from heat and rain and flies. If he should fall, there is no more than ordinary danger to life and limb than if he fell in a carriage; and, last of all, no very showy animal is needed, so long as his wind is sound, and his legs and tail respectable. Travellers in this “trap” can sit in any position, back to back, or face to face, two and two. The weight is all near the collar, and the animal is under control most perfectly.

“The estimated cost is £40; the horse about £40, or less; harness (say), £7, which contrasts favourably with the expenses of an ordinary one horse vehicle.”

Endless Rails.

These adjuncts to locomotion can be adapted to any kind of vehicle, and are in pieces about two feet long, articulated, and resting upon a base to give the necessary stability. The endless rail entirely envelopes the wheels all along the train, and the right and left rails are quite independent of each other, and as the vehicles advance the rails are put down and raised again when the carriages have passed. In front there are two distributing wheels governed by the tractive power, so that as the engine, or the animal drawing the train turns aside, the rails are still laid down parallel as before, but the hind wheels will not permit of very sharp curves.

There are wheels also at the rear of the train, and as on curves one wheel will pass over more rail than another, and in the hinder wheels a differential arrangement is used, and when one goes back the other advances as much, and so the relative distance is kept up, for the rail does not alter in length at all. The wheels have double flanges to retain them on the line.

The system, considered from a mechanical point of view, gives striking results, and very little effort is required to put the train in motion. The resistance is very small, and much greater weights can, of course, be transported upon the endless rail than upon the ordinary road.

The experiment has been tried in the Tuilleries Gardens in Paris. Three carriages filled with children are drawn by two goats without any fatigue, and in the ordinary goat carriages at least twelve of the animals would be necessary—that is, four to each carriage. The economy of this mode of transport is therefore incontestable. The usual rate is about three-and-a-half to four miles an hour, so it is not adapted for travellers, but for merchandise.

The system might be applied to numerous vehicles on all kinds of roads for horses and oxen, in mines and factories, and in colonial plantations. M. Ader, the inventor, intended the system to be applied in the Landes, where the rails would lie close upon the sandy soil, and the expense of “metalling” roads would be entirely done away with. The adoption of the endless rail method of conveyance would prove a fortune to the Landes, where pine forests abound, and the wood and resin which is lost for want of transport could be removed and sold to advantage.

The endless rail may also be used upon the ordinary road in places where the highways are out of repair.

The Smallest Steamboat in the World.

The picture (fig. 904) shows us the Nina, the tiniest steamer afloat. The keel is somewhat over twelve feet in length, and about three feet wide, the depth of water ten inches. A speed of about five-and-a-half miles an hour can be obtained with a pressure of one hundred pounds. It is a twin-screw “ship” with propellers of three blades. The Nina was built on the lines of the Nautilus, of cedar and oak, and coppered. It is stated to be a marvel of solidity and lightness. The chimney is movable, and can be lowered at pleasure if a bridge be too low. There is ample room for provisions for the occupant in a frame which can be attached to the sides or fixed astern. The boat is easily carried in sections, and can be transported easily from place to place.

The weights of the various portions are as follows:—The hull 90 lb., boiler 80 lb., engine 25 lb., machinery 20 lb.; total, 215 lb. Forty pounds of good charcoal can be packed into the sides of the boat in racks. The rudder can be so connected by wires that the feet will perform the function of steering, thus leaving the hands free to attend to the engine, so the occupant is perfectly at liberty to go where and how he pleases.

For river navigation or calm sea-steaming the Nina is admirably adapted, and any one who can be stoker, steersman, and engineer, as well as passenger and crew, will enjoy a trip in such a boat. Such a steamer costs about £250, but it might be less. It may be added that the Nina has uniformly behaved well, and was built by Fordham of New York.

A Mechanical Carriage.

A distinguished savant of the seventeenth century, Ozanam by name, a member of the Academy of Science, gave in 1693 a curious description of a mechanical carriage, which may perhaps be regarded as the parent of the velocipede and the bicycle. We here reproduce the engravings from Ozanam’s work and his words.

“Some years ago,” wrote the philosopher in 1693, “there may have been seen in Paris a chaise,” as in the picture, “and which a servant, by pressing alternately upon treadles” (as in the detail), “caused to progress by turning two small wheels hidden in a frame between the hinder pair of wheels of the chaise. The description I give as I received it from M. Richard, the doctor of Rochelle.

“A A is a roller attached to the box behind the vehicle, B is a pulley, over which the cord that works with the treadles passes; C and D are the treadles, with pedals, F F. The wheels, H H, being thus put in motion, the large wheels are moved, and when the hind wheels move forward, the foremost ones must advance also, and the sitter has only to guide the machine by the reins he holds attached to the guiding axle.”

The End.