FIG. 26. ELECTRIC CARRIAGE ENTIRELY OF BRITISH CONSTRUCTIONBy permission ofHenry F. Joel & Co., London
FIG. 26. ELECTRIC CARRIAGE ENTIRELY OF BRITISH CONSTRUCTIONBy permission ofHenry F. Joel & Co., London
FIG. 26. ELECTRIC CARRIAGE ENTIRELY OF BRITISH CONSTRUCTION
By permission ofHenry F. Joel & Co., London
as to really merit comparison with traction engines, began to run to Victoria Station.
But an extraordinary and rapid change has come over popular taste, and nothing is needed to bring motor-cars into universal use, save a lowering of their cost; for even the cheapest are rather beyond the means of people with moderate incomes. This may be one reason why they are so fashionable, though the King’s marked predilection for travelling by them has done much to make “motoring” the correct thing; and His Majesty has recently consented to become a patron of the Automobile Club.
Before the advent of the motor-car, Society, though tired of “biking” and craving for a novelty, could not tolerate the notion of being seen in any other than a well-horsed vehicle. Society now thinks differently, as evidenced by a stroll in the Park during the season. There, in the midst of graceful landaus and other equipages drawn by the most splendid horses in the world, may be seen endless electric and steam barouches, broughams, victorias, and cars, all perfectly noiseless, and magnificent petrol motor-cars (notnoiseless!), resplendent with brass and oxidised silver fittings and upholstered in morocco, whose fair occupants are smartly dressed in tailor-made motoring gowns or, on warm days, in ordinary carriage toilettes.
Some of the fashionable hotels own big cars and run them in lieu of coaches for their customers’ benefit to various places near London; while, to the vexation of omnibus companies, motor waggonettes, duly authorised by Scotland Yard, ply to and from Putney and Piccadilly Circus, always “full up” with people, no longer the butt (as they used to be), but the envy, of pedestrians. And these public cars, though notperfect, are an advance upon omnibuses, and do not break down more frequently than horsed conveyances.
In the country motor-cars have become indispensable, more especially to landed proprietors, with houses always full of visitors who, with their luggage, have to be conveyed to and from the station. They are much used for race-meetings and for conveying shooting parties to the covert side, stubble, or moor, in comfort, golfers to the links, and fishermen to the riverbank; picnics would be failures without them; and delightful excursions to all kinds of outlying places are arranged by the host, proud of “motoring” his guests, who thus are made acquainted with bits of beautiful scenery they would otherwise have remained ignorant of; as in the case of the King’s and Queen’s visit to Chatsworth last January, when a feature of the programme was a series of motor-car tours in North and West Derbyshire. In fact, the motor is a most important factor in English country life, and the art of managing it is gradually superseding that of riding, driving, and four-in-hand coaching. Eheu!
Horseless vehicles are not actual novelties. They have merely been in abeyance while the perfecting of our iron roads has proceeded. The earliest practical specimen emanated from an inventor named Guyniot a hundred and thirty years ago, but nothing commercially serious came of it, and the idea slept. In 1786 William Symington produced his steam-engine, to run upon an ordinary road. It had the condenser and the ratchet-motion used in his steamboat, an invention of which he was the originator. The boiler and funnel were in the front, a coach on C-springs between them, and the steering gear, with a kind of bicycle handle-bar, at the rear. The machine, it was said, worked well.
Then, in 1821, a steam-coach by Griffiths attracted much attention, being the first self-propelled vehicle to ply for passengers on British roads. It had a boiler with water-tubes as now used in the Serpollet and Belleville systems for motor-cars. In appearance it somewhat resembled the Symington, but carried a double coach mounted on railway springs.
Walter Hancock’s three-wheeled steam-coach of 1828 looked like a tricycle with a big funnel, and was propelled by a pair of oscillating cylinders working the double-cranked axle of the steering-wheel.
In 1859 the Marquis of Stafford had a steam-coach built that weighed less than a ton. With its chain-action it anticipated the modern bicycle: in front it had a kind of bath-chair seat facing the steering gear. In this vehicle Lord Stafford and party of three made trips at from nine to twelve miles an hour over heavy roads without any difficulty, it being easy to guide and remarkably steady. In these steam coaches the funnels appear to have been placed in the rear.
All these ideas, though from one point of view crude, undoubtedly represented
“...such refraction of eventsAs often rises ere they rise.”
“...such refraction of eventsAs often rises ere they rise.”
“...such refraction of eventsAs often rises ere they rise.”
The motor-car industry in Great Britain is flourishing, and it is estimated that out of a total of some ten thousand horseless carriages in the country one-tenth are of home manufacture (the remainder being French or American), a small proportion, truly, but a great increase upon the number built in 1890; and at the Reliability Trials of the Automobile Club last September (1902), thirty-five of British make took part in the contest, and only twenty-six of Continental or American origin, amost satisfactory feature to those who are eager to see British makers second to none in motor-car construction, especially, as the aim of the competition was to encourage the building of machines that would be thoroughly dependable in all conditions of road and weather.
FIG. 27. A “CROWDUS” ELECTRIC CARRIAGEBy permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London.
FIG. 27. A “CROWDUS” ELECTRIC CARRIAGEBy permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London.
FIG. 27. A “CROWDUS” ELECTRIC CARRIAGE
By permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London.
At the last Crystal Palace Automobile Show, national vanity was certainly gratified. Not only was the exhibition the largest ever held in the country, but was a concrete example of the remarkable progress of an industry which, so far as these islands are concerned, started lamentably late in the day. There were brought together at the Crystal Palace about seven hundred and fifty motor-propelled vehicles of every class, ranging from the powerful steam lorry, capable of transporting a load of 7½ tons, to the latest “flier,” light and elegant of construction, and costing anything up to some £3,000. Motor tricycles and bicycles formed a strong section. The cosmopolitan character of theexhibition is shown by the fact that among the two hundred or so exhibitors were the leading English, French, Dutch, Italian, and German firms.
By general consent the show was regarded to have made plain the fact that in efficiency and reliability the English maker has drawn at least level with his foreign rival, while, so far as the production of motors forcommercialpurposes is concerned, he still stands far ahead.
Automobiles are of all sizes up to magnificent 40-or 60-horse-power racers. For town use there are broughams, victorias, landaus, and landaulettes (open or closable for country work), the phaeton with four seats, placed two by two, looking forward, and the tonneau—a kind of small omnibus with a movable back—with the two rear seats in the corners.
Sometimes cars are run with six seats arranged in three pairs, with plenty of room both for the driver and the coveted box-seats. Most cars of either pattern have a glass front screen, while some have a fixed roof as well. The greater number are driven by the use of petrol, the machinery being in front under what is called the “bonnet,” and the ease with which the oil can be obtained has great advantages for a touring expedition.
Steam is also employed for motor-cars, and is practically noiseless, but there are obvious objections to its use, however skilfully the working parts are constructed.
In London, electromobiles are extremely popular, and no wonder, for there is no smell, no vibration, and no noise; the speed attainable is great, and they are under perfect control, advantages involving the use of storage batteries, the recharging of which is a lengthy operation, seldom taking less than five hours. But, as Mr. Llewellyn Preece observed about twelve months
FIG. 28. AN ELECTRIC VICTORIA WITH BRITISH STORAGE-BATTERIESBy permission of theElectric Power Storage Co., Ltd., London
FIG. 28. AN ELECTRIC VICTORIA WITH BRITISH STORAGE-BATTERIESBy permission of theElectric Power Storage Co., Ltd., London
FIG. 28. AN ELECTRIC VICTORIA WITH BRITISH STORAGE-BATTERIES
By permission of theElectric Power Storage Co., Ltd., London
ago, “this condition of affairs is gradually disappearing; private electric carriages are now to be seen in London, and their number is increasing. Cars can be obtained capable of running to Brighton, Portsmouth, and other places within seventy or eighty miles of the metropolis.” (i.e.on one charge. They may be called “short-tour cars.”)
Electric town-cars are generally of the landaulette type—for theatre-going, and for paying visits in such inaccessible suburbs as Stoke Newington, Balham, and Hampstead. They carry from two to four passengers, can attain a speed of fourteen miles an hour, and will run forty miles without recharging.
A long-distance electric car, to compete with petrol, has yet to be made, but it will shortly be possible to obtain one of moderate weight at a reasonable price that will cover one hundred and twenty miles on a single charge; and, as a matter of fact, tours of more than a thousand miles (from London to Glasgow and back) have been satisfactorily accomplished.
The perfect motor-omnibus, and, for that matter, the perfect ’bus of any kind, has yet to arise, and is suggestive of Darwinism in the length of time required for its evolution. But can London and the long-suffering traveller wait ten million years or so—putting up meanwhile with the inconvenience of existing vehicles—until the omnibus companies wake up, or are superseded by more enterprising business adventurers?
Why, for instance, should all omnibuses be stuffy? There was a reason for it when their floors were covered with straw and they were shut in with doors. But now there are no doors, and there is nothing to harbourdamp; yet even when the passengers sitting at the entrance of the omnibus are assailed by icy blasts, those at the far end are in an atmosphere of mustiness strongly suggestive of stables. Then, on days when the roads are greasy, these vehicles crawl along, often taking an hour and a half to travel from Fulham to Liverpool Street (a distance of about six miles). Upon such minor nuisances and annoyances as the exiguous space (about 2 feet 6 inches) between the seats, ticket-giving and ticket-examining, the jarring of brakes, the rattling of loose coach-bolts, the lurching of the top-heavy structure, the windows that will not open, the glare and dust in summer, the Cimmerian darkness in winter and at night, the stout people who take up too much room, the wet umbrellas and odoriferous waterproof cloaks, the exasperating and often unnecessary stopping every few hundred yards to the distress of the poor animals, it is needless to dilate. We experience them every day of our lives.
But better times are in store for the horses, and better times for our children (perhaps even for ourselves), who will see in London’s streets electric omnibuses in which it will be a delight to travel.
Between Oxford Circus and Cricklewood (not far from Hendon) are now running improved motor-omnibuses built in Scotland for a London syndicate, to the requirements of the Chief Commissioner of Police. It will be remembered that some years ago a very large Thorneycroft steam ’bus plied for custom. It carried thirty-six passengers, but, turning the scale at three tons, it was of illegal weight as a vehicle, and should have come under the definition of a traction engine with speed limited to four miles an hour, and preceded by a man with a red flag. So it was ultimately withdrawn.
But the new “Stirling” steam omnibuses are only 32 cwt. when empty. The engine is of 12 horse-power, and is geared for three forward speeds of 4½, 9, and 14 miles per hour, with one slow reversing speed, while by a clever contrivance the driving machinery ceases to act if 14·2 miles be exceeded, both steering gear and brakes being under perfect control. Handsomely fitted up, with large windows that can be taken bodily out in hot weather, and with comfortable leather-covered spring seats, the new ’buses are a decided step in the right direction.
At the last meeting of the London General Omnibus Company the deputy-chairman stated that there was no kind of motor traction that would pay the company to take up. If anything was done in that direction it would be in the use of petrol. Steam was of no use, because of the great vibration, and he doubted if the Government would permit 15,000 such omnibuses to run over the streets. In his opinion the time to take up motor omnibuses had not yet arrived.
But the London Road Car Company has taken a different and more far-sighted view of the situation, and a combination of petrol and electricity is now to be tested by it.
Cars of the Fischer combination pattern have arrived from America. Each has a 10 horse-power petrol engine which drives a dynamo, the current from which is used to work a motor acting directly on the wheels.
This may, perhaps, seem a needless complication, but there is much method in it. A 10 horse-power engine is not sufficiently powerful to drive a fully-laden ’bus up a hill at any reasonable pace, but there are many places where a ’bus will run by its own weight, and needs no engine. The new car is provided with accumulators.When little or no power is required by the motor, the current is switched on to the accumulators, so as to store up a reserve for hill-climbing. So when necessary, the car draws on the reserve in the accumulators, and with them and the dynamo develops not 10 but 20 horse-power, enough to take it up and over any hill that ’buses climb.
FIG. 29. A “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUSCapacity fifteen passengers; weight, 2 tons 13 cwt.; speed, 12 miles an hourBy permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, Ltd., London
FIG. 29. A “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUSCapacity fifteen passengers; weight, 2 tons 13 cwt.; speed, 12 miles an hourBy permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, Ltd., London
FIG. 29. A “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUS
Capacity fifteen passengers; weight, 2 tons 13 cwt.; speed, 12 miles an hour
By permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, Ltd., London
The manager of the Road Car Company is of opinion that the new vehicles will carry from twelve to twenty passengers. Owing to the greater speed of the motors, however, the passenger accommodation provided by, say, half a dozen such cars would be greater than that of a similar number of omnibuses, for the service would be more frequent. Not much increase of speed can be hoped for in congested areas, but outside these the motor should be able to run half as fast again as the horsed ’bus.
There exists, however, no reason why a still more improved and refined omnibus service should not be started, electricity alone being adopted, instead of steam, petrol, or a combination. Runs of seventy and eightymiles without recharging are perfectly feasible by using standard long-distance batteries, and would suffice for the daily journeys of the omnibus, while the recharging could be effected with little or no trouble after working-hours.
Motor-omnibuses, besides working on the regular routes, can be run on the tramway time-table system on tramway sections where there is little traffic; while for developing scantily-populated districts and accustoming people to travel, automobile public conveyances are perfect agencies, the very fact that they can choose their own route accentuating this great advantage; and on special occasions, for instance when exhibitions are held in places inaccessible by tramways, they will be a source of considerable profit.
Our provincial towns (take Eastbourne and Hastings for example) are beginning to wake up on the subject, and many of them have adopted or contemplated the starting of some form of horseless omnibus, in several cases the motive power being electricity. Across the Atlantic automobile ’buses are run by the Fifth Avenue Stage Company of New York City down Fifth Avenue, and have proved most popular; while in Chicago there are three lines of electric omnibuses successfully competing with the street cars for patronage. They are double-decked, seating forty passengers, and when they are “full-up” express speed is put on, and there are no more stoppages until the down-town district is reached.
As to four-wheeled cabs, they are hopelessly behind the times, though excellent ones may be evolved out of the landaulette type of electromobiles. During sixty-two years of sullen toleration on the part of the public, the growler has improved but little, and it remains a mystery why in the streets of the world’s metropoliscomfortable and comely private vehicles cannot be hailed for hire, as in other cities.
New and improved cabs, such as the “Brougham,” the “Clarence,” and the “Chesterfield,” from time to time appear in our streets, and inspire hope that a general reformation is about to take place, and that neat little coupés will be universal. But in some unaccountable manner, after a brief season they disappear from public view—as did the lemon-coloured electric broughams of a few years ago—relegated to some mysterious region where vehicular failures find employment when banished from Modern Babylon.
THE question of mechanical traction in war is of the gravest importance, the increasing size of armies and the large area they cover when in action, necessitating the employment of some form of haulage other than that of railways or horses.
For bringing up guns and their ammunition at a critical moment automobiles are of the greatest value. At the Motor-car Reliability Trials last autumn there was present a military officer of considerable experience who was much impressed with the possibilities of the motor in battle. If, he argued, sixty cars could run down from London to the South Coast easily in three hours carrying an average of four passengers each, the same number of horseless vehicles could convey sixty machine-guns to Brighton in a similar time. A corps of these might, he said, have proved extremely handy in the late South African campaign. To illustrate this, he pointed out that quick-firing guns carried on automobiles might possibly have ended the Boer War after the action of Poplar Grove. He was present on that occasion, and could speak with authority. All the enemy had been routed out of their far-reaching trenches and were in full flight. Then was the time to push home the attack,but cavalry and infantry were thoroughly done up by the great flanking movement and were unable to follow up their advantage. In full sight of our army, the Boers scuttled away along the plain with only a few desultory shells fired after them. “Now,” said the officer, “if we had only possessed a few automobiles with guns on that occasion we should have scored very heavily. The veldt was level enough for the purpose. A big victory at that critical moment might have thoroughly demoralised the Boers, already much disheartened by Cronje’s defeat a short time before at Paardeberg, and so caused them to surrender without much ado.”
No doubt the gallant soldier took rather a sanguine view of the situation; but of one thing he might have been certain, viz., that at that time neither an unenterprising War Office, nor a Colonial Department capable of requisitioning ordinary infantry from Australia to act against the wily mounted Boer, would for one moment have thought of sending motor-cars out for the purpose he suggests!
Not only for light artillery, but for heavy guns, motors can now be used in warfare, and Lord Roberts had a road-train constructed for South Africa sufficiently armoured to withstand rifle-fire, and powerful enough to draw a couple of heavy guns with their crews and ammunition, the motive power being steam.
In the prosaic work of conveying stores, motor-tractors with lorries are fast becoming integral parts of our complicated war-system, and the report of the trials held at Aldershot in December, 1901, is decidedly in favour of their employment on a large scale. The tests were severe, and included two days’ running (with full loads) of thirty miles a day, and a march of 197 miles (also with full loads) in six consecutive, days on roadsboth hard and soft, and even over boggy ground, the gradients being various, and in places very stiff. The first prize was awarded to the Thorneycroft Steam Waggon Company, but although the committee believed that these steam lorries were serviceable and useful for the present, they were much struck with the great possibilities of machines burning heavy oil. Their observations were as follows:—
“Compared with horse-draught, these trials have shown that self-propelled lorries can transport five tons of stores at about six miles an hour over very considerable distances on hilly, average English roads under winter conditions. The load transported by each single lorry (five tons) if carried in horse-waggons of service pattern would overload three G.S. waggons, requiring twelve draught horses, besides riding horses, whose pace would not ordinarily exceed three miles an hour. Moreover, the marching of 197 miles in six consecutive days would not have been accomplished by horses even at that speed without the assistance of spare horses.”
To this report appeared the following appendix of considerable importance:—
“The committee, in carrying out the tests, travelled in motor-cars, and as a result of their experience they remark, ‘The committee desire to bring to special notice the incidental demonstration afforded by these trials of the great possibilities for staff work, and for work in connection with the command of long transport trains, of the motor-car. No vehicles drawn by horses could have possibly covered the distances or kept up the speeds required; portions of the roads, sometimes miles in length, had to be traversed and retraversed several times, and at speeds beyond the capabilities of horse-flesh. Riding horses would have been knocked up to an extentnecessitating large relays. The staff officer, moreover, instead of being fatigued, is always comparatively fresh at the end of the day.’”
No wonder that the Army, from the Commander-in-Chief downwards, is quickly becoming devoted to motoring. The quantity of work that can be got through by means of the automobile is a revelation to those who have been used to travelling by means of horses.
FIG. 30. THE “HERCULES” TRACTION ENGINE, AS USED DURING THE CRIMEAN WARBy permission ofSampson Low, Marston, & Co., London
FIG. 30. THE “HERCULES” TRACTION ENGINE, AS USED DURING THE CRIMEAN WARBy permission ofSampson Low, Marston, & Co., London
FIG. 30. THE “HERCULES” TRACTION ENGINE, AS USED DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR
By permission ofSampson Low, Marston, & Co., London
During the Crimean War, Boydell’s traction machine was used to haul open trucks on the road and across country. Its engine, the “Hercules,” was fitted with a curious arrangement, which, by means of rails attached in six sections to the wheels, enabled it to lay down and take up its own track as it went along.
In the South African campaign the military traction engines did some excellent work, and, as they rolled over the plains, startled the Kaffirs out of their senses at the unwonted sight of what they probably thought was some new and monstrous form of rhinoceros.
It has yet to be decided what is the best motive power for lorry cars in warfare, both oil and steam motors having, as compared with those driven by electricity, the disadvantage that the machinery moves by a series of shocks. Doubtlessthe ideal power would be one that acted evenly. The electric motor is superior to all others in the regularity of its action, and its steering is most readily effected. All that is wanted to adapt electric traction to military purposes is a perfected storage battery, and the day may not be far distant when extensive use will be made of light accumulators capable of being safely carried and of being recharged as readily as a steam engine can be supplied with fuel.
In England the use of steam for agricultural machinery has hitherto been confined to the purpose of ploughing and threshing. But coal in some districts is dear, and farmers are beginning to find that oil engines are more economical, there being no loss of fuel in the sudden stopping of work during wet weather; but petrol has a nasty trick of not vaporising readily when it is frosty, and here electricity steps in with an admirableforce-motif.
With a dependable electro-motor, the farmer may work his self-binder all day long in the harvest-field, and at-night send it up to market with produce. Moreover, the motor may help to plough and harrow in the winter, and when there is no work to be done it costs nothing, having—unlike the horse—no stomach to fill.
In fact, the successful adaptation of the motor to farming may solve the ever-present labour problem, and do much to resuscitate the agricultural industry, while fruit and vegetable growers may find it invaluable, making them independent of high railway rates and bad train service. But, although the application of the automobile to agriculture is only in the experimental stage, it cannot be doubted that, in some shape or other, it willcome to the cornfield, the orchard, and the market garden, while the modern farmer will welcome it gladly.
FIG. 31. A TEN-TON ELECTRIC TROLLEYBy permission of theAnglo-American Motor Car Co., Ltd., London
FIG. 31. A TEN-TON ELECTRIC TROLLEYBy permission of theAnglo-American Motor Car Co., Ltd., London
FIG. 31. A TEN-TON ELECTRIC TROLLEY
By permission of theAnglo-American Motor Car Co., Ltd., London
Probably it will begin, as was suggested by Mr. Rider Haggard before the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture at Norwich, in the shape of an agricultural post. His plan was to enlarge the present system of parcel-post so that one hundred packages, each of 100 lbs. in weight, should be carried in the same way as parcels of only 10 lbs., and that produce of any sort, such as a crate of apples, the carcase of a sheep, a basket of flowers, etc., should be delivered the next morning to whatever part of England the goods were consigned.
The prosaic use of motors is increasing rapidly. In our streets are frequently seen steam or petrol lorries for the heavy goods of brewers, stone-merchants, builders, contractors, engineers, asphalt-paving companies, etc.; substantial vans for wholesale manufacturing houses and great establishments, such as Bryant and May’s, Maple’s, Harrod’s, Whiteley’s, and Barker’s; lighter vehicles for smaller tradesmen, carts for county council and borough council work; a few fire-engines and ambulance waggons; while in the country any number of motors are used by shopkeepers to deliver their goods for miles around.
FIG. 32. AN ELECTRIC TRADESMAN’S-VANBy permission of the Automobile Co. of Great Britain, London
FIG. 32. AN ELECTRIC TRADESMAN’S-VANBy permission of the Automobile Co. of Great Britain, London
FIG. 32. AN ELECTRIC TRADESMAN’S-VAN
By permission of the Automobile Co. of Great Britain, London
In fact, the mercantile use of motors has grown so much, that before long we may even see “Black Maria” delivering and picking up its daily quantum ofdétenusthrough the medium of stored-up electricity.
We must just glance at the subject of motor-bicycles, driven by petrol and “sparked” by electricity. Theyare beginning to be much used for getting about quickly, for trailers, and as sporting machines for “breaking the record.” In September last year, at the Crystal Palace, some extraordinary results were obtained by them in the matter of speed, one of them covering no less than fifty miles in an hour and eight minutes!
Sir Martin Conway’s opinion, humorously delivered this year to the Society of Arts, respecting “stupid cyclists” and motor-cycles, is worth recording. He said that the first thing on which he desired knowledge concerning motor-cycles was how he was to fall off, as he fell off every machine on wheels some time or other; next, how long it would take a man to understand the parts in a motor-cycle, or whether they were hopelessly removed from the range of the ordinary stupid person; then, how the thing vibrated; and, finally, which of them did not break down. He said that he had been told that the pleasure with a motor-car was considerable when it went, and the annoyance even more considerable when it did not go.
Motors are everywhere, and are used for every purpose. There are motors in the Equatorial Free States of the Congo, where there is no energetic policeman, stop-watch in hand, to time the “driver” and summon him; and one day—who knows?—there may be motor-cars in use at the North Pole.
The motor has even been the indirect cause of political upheavings, for it is said that the revolution in Morocco came to a head because the fanatical tribal allies of the Pretender resisted, amongst other European articles, the introduction of automobiles into the country, and opposed their use by the enlightened emperor, as too progressive, and not in accordance with the Mussulman faith.
FIG. 33. ANOTHER TYPE OF THE “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUSBy permission of theFischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London
FIG. 33. ANOTHER TYPE OF THE “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUSBy permission of theFischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London
FIG. 33. ANOTHER TYPE OF THE “FISCHER” COMBINATION OMNIBUS
By permission of theFischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London
Meals are sent out in motor-vans by the London Distributing Kitchen Company from its well-equipped premises near the Army and Navy Stores, the breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners being placed in air-tight baskets in aluminium receptacles. In Manchester, for some time past, “meals by motor” have been an accomplished fact, and most popular and lucrative the scheme has proved.
Motoring has its romantic side. For instance, in France—the birthplace of the automobile—abduction by motor has been initiated, and our lively neighbours may possibly contemplate the revival of that mediæval custom of wedlock by force. This young lady, however,seems to have been a not unwilling party to the transaction.
Going to school by motor has also been made practicable across the Channel. For some months the Ecole Lacordaire, in Paris, has been running a Serpollet steam omnibus, which collects the pupils and conveys them to and from the school. The day’s run gives a total of sixty miles. Monsieur Serpollet has lately carried out an interesting test with the vehicle. He made a run of sixty miles with twelve passengers, and the cost for petrol was 1s.2d.per passenger, or rather more than four miles for a penny. The omnibus averaged eighteen miles an hour.[8]
TO motorists the pressing question of the day isspeed. In England the motor-car was in its infancy when the present law came into force. Before its birth, no mechanically propelled carriage could travel along the highway faster than four miles an hour; but six years ago a determined attempt was made to adapt the law to the exigencies of modern traffic. Fourteen miles an hour was decided upon as the maximum speed, and the Local Government Board subsequently reduced the limit to twelve miles. But these regulations are now out of date.
A few years ago there was a great outcry against cycle speeds. That has died out, not because cyclists ride more slowly, but because the public has come to realise that, with a readily controllable vehicle like the bicycle, the greater speeds are not dangerous. Similarly the public is now much exercised in mind concerning speeds of twenty to twenty-five miles an hour by motor-cars. It will not be long before they realise that these velocities are quite safe under certain conditions, and that the motor-car might almost under any circumstances be allowed to travel twice as fast as a horse, indeed even faster. It is said that this year thespeed of the motor-car is expected to approach a hundred miles an hour. The Hon. C. S. Rolls came very near to attaining it at Welbeck last February, when he made an attempt on the flying kilometre record. The best of four runs gave the time of 27 seconds, which is a speed of 82⅘ miles per hour, and 1⅕ seconds better than Mr. Jarrott’s run over this course last year. Whether it will rank as a world’s record is not certain, as the road in the Duke of Portland’s park has a slight favouring gradient. The French official record on the Dourdan road is twenty-nine seconds, a speed of seventy-seven miles per hour, accomplished by both Fournier and Augières. Mr. Rolls drove an 80 horse-power Mors, which he entered for the Paris-Madrid race.
Estimates of speed differ in the most extraordinary degree, and the Hon. J. Scott-Montagu gave to theCarthe following humorous table, the result of an inquiry at a police court:—
Motorists are evidently assumed to be made of money, if we may judge by the following statement made by a correspondent ofMotoring Illustratedthis year. He says, “One curious result of a car case, in which I was fined £10 for ‘scorching,’ is that in less than a week I have received upwards of seventy begging letters from charitable societies or individual beggars. Motor ownerand millionaire are apparently one and the same thing in the popular mind.”
Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, who is entitled to speak with authority on the subject, frankly admits that there is much justification for the irritation in the public mind against motor-cars. He strongly condemns rash driving, but, at the same time, maintains that when motor-car owners obey the law and observe the courtesy of the road, they ought not to be looked upon by coachmen, cyclists, and pedestrians, as the enemies of mankind.[9]Nevertheless, he firmly believes that the dislike of motor-cars will die away in due time, just as did the dislike of cycles. The utmost caution ought, he concedes, to be exercised by drivers in the crowded thoroughfares of large towns.
On the question of their importance generally in relation to British industry Mr. Leopold de Rothschild says, “We should foster them by every means in our power. At the beginning not a single one was produced in this country, but at the present moment some of the machines turned out in English workshops rival those of the very best French make. In recent contests on the Continent, too, English cars have more than held their own. It is sometimes complained that the machines make a great noise. That defect is being gradually cured. Then it is urged that they raise a tremendous dust as they speed along. That evil is also being remedied, and will disappear altogether if the experimentof pouring petroleum on the roadways should prove successful. Where the motor-car is extremely useful, I consider, is in enabling people to go across country to attend hunt meets and visit distant golf links. Then, again, see what encouragement is given to wayside inns. When in Scotland the other day I visited a friend who lived twenty-five miles off, and did it comfortably between luncheon and dinner, and that, too, without endangering the life of myself or anybody else. I regard the motor-car as a source of intense enjoyment. Allow the owners greater freedom, but take care that in return they loyally observe the regulations which are framed by competent authorities for the safety of the public.”
Who can place a limit to the development of motors! The time may arrive when tram lines will disappear, the roads themselves being of steel and forming a broad rail upon which self-propelled coaches, omnibuses, cabs, and cars will ply in every direction, and far and wide into the suburbs. This is the idea of Mr. A. A. C. Swinton, who also thinks that eventually motor-cars will drive tram-cars out, because, as he says, “Tramways are merely a smooth place on a rough road, with a groove to keep the wheel in a smooth place,” and as one day the whole road will be smooth the tram-rails will disappear.
Something similar, I take it, was in Mr. Balfour’s mind when, in 1901, writing to the Warden of the Browning Settlement in Camberwell on the subject of homes for the workers, he said:—
“What I am anxious people should bear in mind is that trams, railways, and ‘tubes’ by no means exhaustthe catalogue of possible improvements in transit; indeed, I am not sure that they are the means of communication for relatively short distances which some years hence will find most favour. What I should like to see carefully thought out by competent authorities would be a system of radiating thoroughfares, confined to rapid (say, fifteen miles an hour or over) traffic (that is absolutely essential), and with a surface designed, not for carts or horses, but for some form of auto-car propulsion. If the local authority which designed and carried out such a system chose to run public auto-cars along them, well and good. But this would not be necessary, and private enterprise would probably in time do all that was wanted. In such a thoroughfare there would be none of the monopoly inseparable from trams, the number of people carried could be much larger, the speed much greater, the power of taking them from door to door unique, while there would be none of the friction now caused when the owners of the tram lines break up the public streets. It may be urged—and, perhaps, with truth—that at present the auto-car industry has not devised an absolutely satisfactory vehicle; but we are, I believe, so near it that the delay ought not to be material.”
“It is, of course, obvious,” he continued, “that the present difficulty of locomotion in our streets is almost entirely due to want of differentiation in the traffic. We act as the owners of a railway would act if they allowed luggage trains, express trains, and horse-drawn trams to run upon one pair of rails. The radiating causeways, as I conceive them, would be entirely free from this difficulty. Neither the traffic of cross streets, nor foot passengers, nor slow-going carts and vehicles would be permitted to interfere with the equable running of fast cars. Therewould be no danger and no block; and as the causeway would be connected at intervals with the ordinary road and street system of the district, and would melt into that system at either end, every village in which there were enough residents who had to be in London at a fixed hour every day could have a motor of its own. It might be well worth a manufacturer’s while, I should suppose, to lodge his workpeople out of London, and to run them to and from his works.”
No electrician living can predict with certainty what the motor-car maynotresult in.
One thing only is probable—that our metropolitan streets will soon be congested with vehicles to such an extent as to leave no space for horses. And then will come the complete victory of the automobile.
“And knowledge shall be increased.”—Danielxii. 4.
“And knowledge shall be increased.”—Danielxii. 4.
“And knowledge shall be increased.”—Danielxii. 4.
“DON’T give yourself away,” shrewdly remarked an eminent engineer, as I discussed with him the outline of this work, and the probability that in the near future, gigantic ships, as long as the Crystal Palace, and propelled solely by electricity, would traverse the seas. “I have not yet come across any form of accumulator that could be adapted to such a purpose, though I admit that the next quarter of a century may produce some startling results. Still, I would not, if I were you, write about it.”
My friend, like many scientists, was cautious, and did not like to commit himself; but I am not professionally restricted, and may freely indulge in a dream containing many elements of reality, and “take the wings of fancy,” nay, may also “take the wings of foresight,” and try to describe a mail-packet of the future.
But before entering into particulars of that phenomenon, thePrincess Ida, and to prepare ourselves for the contemplation of her large proportions, we should note the evolutionary process which has gone on steadily for the last seventy years, and rapidly duringthe close of the Victorian Era, in regard to the size and tonnage of ocean steamers.
To go far back for the purpose of comparison—i.e.to the days when Britain as a maritime nation was in her infancy, or even to Tudor and Stuart times, when theGreat Harryfloated proudly in English waters, and Elizabeth’sArk Royaldefied the Spanish Armada, or when Phineas Pett reconstructed Charles the Second’s navy and planned those famous men-of-war, theRoyal Sovereign,Royal Charles, andRoyal Prince—is misleading, because up to Nelson’s time the practice of building ships with an extravagant amount of “sheer” (the fore-castle and stern towering upwards to protect the fighting men, and producing the outline of a doubled-up old shoe), together with the pronounced “tumbling in” of the ship’s sides, rendered it difficult to arrive at any correct estimate of length and beam. Approximately, 1,500 tons might represent theGreat Harry’smeasurement, and 150 feet her length, the CaroleanRoyalbeing about the same.
This method of shipbuilding began to be modified while Pepys was at the Admiralty, but it was very gradually abandoned, and had almost disappeared at the beginning of the century, theVictory, slightly over 2,000 tons, and some 152 feet in length, showing but a slight trace of it in her high poop.
In 1834 a merchantman of 1,000 tons was considered a big craft, the largest on Lloyd’s register for that year being 1,500 tons, upon which there was not much advance until the “fifties” and “sixties,” when all the adventurous of England’s manhood were irresistibly attracted to the goldfields of Australia, and vessels of large tonnage began to be laid down on the stocks. Of such were theBritish Empire, 2,676 tons; theDonaldMcKay, 2,636 tons;Red Jacket, 2,000 tons; and many others of from 1,000 to 1,800 tons registered tonnage. These in their turn gave place to iron “sailers” of immense capacity, the tendency being to build them bigger and still bigger—“five-masters” of from 3,000 to 4,000 tons—it having been found that they are worked more economically than smaller craft, and are able to compete with the larger vessels of other countries, and with the syndicates that threaten to monopolise the nation’s carrying trade. Foreign examples areLa France, 3,624 tons, and thePreussen(biggest in the world), 4,700 tons.
In steamers the development of size has been great, and astonishingly so since the universal adoption of the screw-propeller. For instance, the paddle-wheelWilliam Fawcett, that pioneered the P. and O. Company, built in 1829, was but 74 feet long; the CunardBritannia, that took Charles Dickens to Boston, was a paddle-boat of 1,154 tons, and 207 feet long; theGreat Britain(1843) was 3,400 tons register, and regarded as phenomenal.
Presently the shipping world arrived at the awakening period of its history, when steamers of from 350 to 500 feet long, and of from 4,000 to 7,000 tons, began to be common; but old stagers shook their heads, and asked where and when this enlargement was going to stop. Time went on, and splendid mail boats, such as the CunardScotiaandPersia, in their day considered perfect, were looked upon as obsolete, and even their successors, theServia, 7,392 tons and 515 feet long, theEtruria, 7,718 tons and 502 feet long, and others of similar dimensions, soon ceased to be wondered at. This was eighteen years ago. Then, by leaps and bounds, so great was the competition between the different Atlantic liners, and so strong the demand for speed,that 10,000 tons was soon reached in the White Star Company’sMajesticandTeutonic, and exceeded by the Cunarders,CampaniaandLucania(1893), of 13,000 tons each, 620 feet in length, and over 65 feet in beam.
But Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, who had been building 12,000 ton boats, metaphorically without “turning a hair,” were determined not to be beaten, and produced their newOceanic(1899), 704 feet by 68 feet,i.e.nearly as long as the Haymarket, and about as broad as one portion of Piccadilly. In her, it was thought, finality had been reached; but last year Belfast witnessed the launch of a still bigger vessel, theCedric, 21,000 tons gross register, 700 feet long, and 75 feet wide—the largest steamer afloat! Even she is destined to take second place, as ere long two ships belonging to the Cunard Line will dispossess theCedricof her premier position. These wonderful creations will be 750 feet by 76 feet, with an estimated sea-speed of 25 knots.
Thus we clearly see how enormously the dimensions of steamers have increased; for instance, theBritannia(1840) was 1,154 tons, and 207 feet long, and had accommodation for 115 cabin passengers, no “steerage” being carried. But theCedricis nearly 3½ times longer, and carries 3,000 people across the Atlantic, besides her crew of 350 hands. In the same ratio of progression, ships (they will not be calledsteamers, butelectrofers) 2,500 feet long, with comfortable quarters for 75,000 human beings, will be the order of the day!
I have not referred to the poor oldGreat Eastern—orLeviathanas she was originally named—680 feet long, and of 16,000 tons register. She was before her time, and, like other big steamers of that day, far too heavy in her plating to be driven economically at even moderate speed.
Great dimensions and swiftness have been rendered possible by improved engines, but chiefly by the employment of steel in their construction, which so materially reduces thevis inertia, that in the case of thePennsylvania, built by Harland and Wolff for the Hamburg-American Line, although a mighty carrack of something like 585 feet, and 62 feet by 42 feet, her actual dead-weight is only 8,000 tons. Still more remarkable will be the reduction—about one-half—when aluminium with some form of alloy—copper, perhaps—comes into general use. Torpedo-boats have been built with this metal, and have run with great smoothness. It exists in every clay and shale formation, and is scattered throughout the world in immense profusion, our London clay consisting principally of silicate of alumina. Electricity is used in manufacturing this beautiful metal, that requires no paint to defend it from rusting; and, although it has hitherto been a costly article, the time is not far off—so it is said—when the price will come down to £19 a ton, or less.
A recent and novel application of aluminium to building purposes is to be seen at Chicago, where a house sixteen stories high is fronted on both sides with it, instead of bricks or terra-cotta.
Berthing the monstrous ships of the future is a problem met by a radical and world-wide alteration in the dimensions of docks, supplemented by quays running out into deep water, which in London would extend on both sides of the Thames, on the north from Tilbury to the Albert Docks, thus converting the old river, like the Clyde, into a long water-street lined by sea-walls, and kept constantly dredged, and connected with London by special lines of railway.
But what is to be the propelling power of the futureleviathans? Not steam; but electricity, applied to the machinery from storage batteries. Why not?
Sceptics in the past argued that it was manifestly impossible that vehicles would ever be horseless, or that communications would one day be transmitted by telegraph, not to speak of the time when even the wires for that purpose would be dispensed with; while the suggestion that artificial light would be obtained through any other agency than candles or oil-lamps, and that sail-less ships would be propelled against wind and tide, seemed savouring of Bedlam!
Yet all these seeming impossibilities, and many more, have become realities. So, too, will electrical marine propulsion, and, although we live in a more enlightened era than our ancestors, few persons even now perhaps realise that ships will be navigated without either sail or steam power.
By this time, however, the public have become so familiarised with scientific marvels, that they have ceased to wonder at anything. For instance, there is nothing really more marvellous than that hundreds, or even thousands, of horse-power should be borne by a copper wire, or a moderate cable, and despatched to a distant point with the speed of lightning for traction purposes; but, without knowing what the nature of the force is, we cease to be astonished at it. In point of fact, it is not more occult than heat or light, the attraction of gravity or cohesion.
Therefore when it was announced last year that Edison had solved the problem of how to store electrical force effectually, everybody took it for granted that he had been, or would eventually be, as successful in thisdirection as in multiplying electric light and applying it to a thousand new purposes.
The “Wizard of Llewellyn Park” is necessarily a sanguine inventor, but he has taken the right and only satisfactory way to determine the question—that of varied and long-continued experiment. Electricity differs from all other forms of power in two respects—it can be stored, and transmitted to a distance. The task of transmission has been, and is being, rapidly achieved. The far greater object of light and efficient storage, the most momentous problem awaiting solution in the whole range of practical physics, may very shortly be solved.
In brief, Edison’s storage battery cells are composed of tiny bricks of specially-prepared iron and nickel. In charging and discharging, oxygen is driven from one metal to the other and back again through the action of a potash solution, and without corrosion or waste. Renewal of the water supply is all that is needed to keep the cells in good condition, and a process of recharging has been improved, so that less time is consumed than for the recharging of other batteries. No wonder he believes that the application of storage batteries will ultimately be extended to trains, and especially to ships.
The claim of the Edison Accumulator is that it will occupy about the same space as the present battery, and that it will weigh only about seventy per cent. as much, and will be more durable. Men conversant with the theory of electrical science are not so thoroughly impressed with the work accomplished as is Mr. Edison. The tests that have been made have been more than duplicated, it is said, by the batteries now on the market. We may assume, then, that either Edison’s or somebody else’s method of storing up electricity for the propulsion of sea-going vessels will be perfected.