CHAPTER XXII.
THE CYCLE IN WAR—STEAM AND ELECTRICITY.
No more important and interesting phase in the development of the wheel has recently occurred than the consideration and partial adoption of the cycle in military affairs. Already this subject has engaged the attention of English and continental war departments. At first the tricycle was adjudged the most promising form of man-motor carriage for the army, but latterly authorities have directed their attention to the more sensible and practical plan of adopting the Rover-type Safety. Some advantages could be named favoring the tricycle, but certainly, with the slight effort needful to master the rear-driver, if the cycle ever attains any prominent place in the military field, it will be in the form of a single-track machine. In all countries where reasonable roads can be expected the cycle must succeed in this warlike department of usefulness; not that we ever expect to hear of the charge of the cycle corps, or of a hand-to-hand sword combat upon the “festive bikes,” though such things are within the pale of possibility; what we do expect to hear of in the next war is the cycle scout and forager and of the cycle corps getting there ahead of the cavalry. With a light bicycle that can be lifted over small obstructions, an expert could go almost anywhere that it would be practicable to take a horse, and when you consider how much easier it would be to conceal your cycle, in case a little excursion on foot were necessary, and how much less danger there would be when no provender or shelter is required for the steed, certainly the idea is feasible. It has been said that a horse can go where a cycle cannot;while this is sometimes true, on the other hand, there are places where the cycle can be taken when the horse would have to be left behind. For instance, a steep rocky cliff might be surmounted by the man and his bicycle, since the latter could be easily drawn over after him; in fact, he could go with his machine over almost any place which it would be possible to clamber himself, while by no means would this apply to the horse; in short, we feel assured that war cycling promises great development in the armies of all civilized nations, and to this end the most solid, powerful, unbreakable, and at the same time light, wheel must be striven for by any maker who would advance the art in this direction, and reap the consequent substantial returns to his exchequer.
This heading is not entirely germane to the subject of man-motor locomotion, but we will take advantage of the fact that in all mechanical motors that will ever be applied to bicycles and tricycles there will have to be an auxiliary apparatus for the feet. This is obvious, since in any break-down the rider will need some means of getting home. As the ocean steamers retain some apologies for sails, so the cycler will have to retain his foot-power mechanism in any machine he might adopt for individual transportation, though the main motor power be steam or electricity, one of which may finally be adopted in cycles. That every rider will care for this extraneous assistance is doubtful, as the element of exercise would be eliminated to a great extent. For practical uses aside from exercise, as in the transaction of business, etc., other motors than that of human energy would be a boon in the present cycle, but they would never be used to the exclusion of the legs. Already many experiments have been made,some quite successful, both in steam and electricity, but the steam I think affords the greater prospect of success, because the necessary conditions are naturally more nearly complete. Whatever motor is used, it will be necessary to have supply-stations at intervals along the road, which would require but little effort to establish for steam, since oil and water can be obtained almost anywhere now, and positive arrangements could easily be made to have the necessary supplies kept at all the cross-roads stores. All that is required is that some one shall put a practical steam bicycle upon the market, with all parts as light as possible and with oil for fuel. The main principles have all been worked out separately, and what we need now is a combination of the most improved methods and a go-ahead man to push the business.
Electricity is as yet too indefinite in its development, in this direction, to encourage the hope that it can, at present, be made available. The only prospective means of utilizing it as a road-motor is by the use of secondary or storage batteries, which would require dynamos scattered along the road for recharging them; but the slightest thought will show that this expensive arrangement is hardly a possibility considering the enormous distances and length of roads, especially in this country.
We have only to mention compressed air and springs, in order to dispose of them; the former does not promise much, and as to the latter, all efforts in that direction which have come under the writer’s notice have been quite nonsensical.