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When Pioneer Automobilists were Stoned and Mobbed, and their Motors

Driven from the Roads

A

By MALCOLM MCDOWELL

Author of "Shop Talks," Editorial Staff TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

UTOMOBILISTS, who have been fined for fast running, stoned by irate farmers, pestered by officious constables, and lampooned by newspapers, may take comfort in the knowledge that their originals, some seventy-five years ago, passed through the same experiences-only more of them. The first quarter of the last century developed an automobile craze fully as virulent as the fad of to-day. In the 1820's and 1830's, steam wagons to run on common roads, turnpikes, and toll roads, became so popular with the higher classes in England that the directors of stage coach companies and breeders of horses took alarm. They used their influence to slip a number of little bills through parliament, permitting toll roads to levy tolls designed to be prohibitive on steam carriages and wagons. steamers were compelled to pay five and ten times as much toll as was charged the largest six-horse stage coach.

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Some of those early automobiles-they all were "steamers"-carried an ingly high boiler pressure. The ordinary steam pressure was 75 to 150 pounds to the square inch; but some of the crack automobiles, driven by their titled owners, carried boiler pressures running as high as 300 to 400 pounds. The chauffeur of to-day, who does his seventy and eighty miles an hour, is called reckless; but what would you call the man who, with the crude, experimental machine of seventy-five years ago, forced his boiler to carry 300 pounds pressure in order to reach the unprecedented speed of 20 miles an hour?-And there were no pneumatic tires in those days either.

Straddled a Steam Kettle

Those pioneer automobilists built their own machines. They had none to show them the "why" and the "how." Yet they straddled a steam kettle suspended from a springless frame, this kettle straining, throbbing, and vibrating with a pressure never before dreamed of; and they drove this crude machine with the roughest kind of steering gear, controlling the direction of iron-tired wheels over rough country roads, solving problems at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Taking everything into consideration, that is faster than the highest speed attained to-day by the up-to-the-minute racing cars.

When Motorists Took Long Chances

In the year 1831 the English parliament named a "select committee on steam carriages" to investigate the claims of the original automobilists that excessive tolls were levied against vehicles propelled by steam. The makers and owners of steam carriages rallied, and put up such a strong fight that the committee made a favorable report; but the toll road

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owners, stage coach companies, and farmers had the most influence, and none of the prohibitive tolls were removed. The evidence presented to this committee showed that when the automobilist of those days took his steam carriage for a day's run he also took large chances. One. of the carriages ran into a farmer's wagon; and the angry agriculturist roused the country, mobbed the engineer, broke his machine, and compelled him to lay up for three days making repairs.

Stones for Auto Drivers

All over England the drivers, hostlers, post boys, and guards employed by the

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velopment of steam motors. The favorite weapons of these gentle folk were stones-large, round missiles, which were showered from behind the safe security of hedges upon the heads of the daring steam carriage operators.

Mr. Gurney, an eminent engineer, who built a steam carriage in 1827, was making a trip in his machine from London. to Bath. At Melksham the stage coach people started a riot. Mr. Gurney was injured; and his machine was so badly damaged that, as he expressed it in his testimony, he "limped into Bath twodays later."

All Autos Forbidden

Another engineer, a short time after, ran over a man with his machine; and the Court of Sessions promptly took his machine from him and entered a solemn order prohibiting the operation of any more such dangerous contrivances in that district, under severe penalties.

The automobile seems to have been born, in the form of an idea, in the year 1759, when a Glasgow student threw out the suggestion that the steam engine -then a very crude, low-pressure affair -might be applied to the moving of wheeled vehicles. This student afterwards achieved fame as Dr. Robinson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. Ten years later, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, a French

engineer built the first automobile. The machine was a three-wheeled affair; and its course was quickly run, for on its second or third trip it turned a corner too fast and toppled over with a crash. The city officials of Paris refused to permit Cugnot to repair his machine. To keep it from harming anyone, they locked it up in a church, and there it stayed for some years.

First of All Autos is Made Cugnot's steam carriage, carrying four persons, made but two and a-quarter miles an hour; and its boiler was so small that after running ten or twelve minutes

Julius Griffiths of Brompton, Middlesex, England, in 1821, and was built for him. by the celebrated Joseph Bramah (the "Patent Brahmin" of Sam Weller in Pickwick Papers).

Bump the Bumps in England

Sir Charles Dance was one of the most enthusiastic of the original English automobilists. He had a steam carriage built, which he ran between Gloucester and Cheltenham four times a day regularly for four months in 1831, during which time it carried nearly 3,000 people and traveled 3,564 miles. These trips were frequently interrupted by accidents

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the steam gave out, and everyone had to climb down and wait until more steam was made. But this crude device, the first self-propelled vehicle ever made, demonstrated the fact that the student Robinson's suggestion could be put into practice. Several abortive attempts to apply steam wagons to use on common roads followed Cugnot's experiment; but it remained for Trevithick and Vivian, the Welsh engineers, to build a high-pressure locomotive and actually run it on rails and thus gain the fame which rightfully named them as the fathers of the modern locomotive. This was in 1804.

The first steam coach ever constructed expressly for the conveyance of passengers on common roads, was invented by

to Sir Charles and his machine, caused by piles of stones which were purposely laid across the road. For a while Sir Charles fought prejudice and persecution; but, when parliament passed a bunch of anti-automobile bills, the titled automobilist gave up in disgust, after having made 315 successful runs with his machine.

In that same year a steam carriage was made by Ogle and Summers, which got up a speed of 35 miles an hour. This machine used a boiler pressure of 250 pounds to the square inch, and ran over 800 miles without a single accident. According to a list published in 1834, of which the following is a copy, there were built or building in London and vicinity,

in December of 1833, the following steam carriages and drags:

Auto Output of 1833

Name.

Hancock...

....

Gurney, Stone, Gibbs, and Maudsley

Ogle..

Squire..

Fraser..

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1 Infant-his own; built; experimental one.

2 Era-for a company: built.

3 Enterprise-for a company: built.

4 Autopsy-his own built.

5 A new one-building his own. 1 A drag-built and altered by the said engineers for Sir Charles Dance, Kt.

1 A carriage-his own: built; experimental one.

1 A carriage-himself and others; experimental one.

1 A carriage-himself and others building; experimental one. Gibbs and Applegath.. 1 A drag-themselves; experi

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common roads were touring England in steamers. In 1859 the Marquis of Stafford, assisted by some practical engineers, started a small steam coach on the turnpike roads in the north of England. The following account of the enterprise, published in the London Times of February 11th, 1859, gives some idea of the machine:

"The Marquis of Stafford is in possession of a new kind of steam engine for running on the road. It weighs little more than a ton, and is capable of traveling at from fourteen to sixteen miles per hour. It runs upon three wheels, and is guided by a handle in front, similar to a velocipede. The scheme appears to be a novel one in this district, and will no doubt be the means of opening a field for further inventions of the kind."

Ran Nine Miles an Hour

The Engineer (of London), in noticing the doings of this little engine, said:

"On Monday last (March 7, 1859), Lord Stafford and party made another trip with the little engine from Buckingham to Wolverton. His Lordship drove and steered; and although the roads from constant rain were very heavy, they were not more than an hour in running the nine miles to Old Wolverton. This is now the third trip the engine has made from Buckingham to Wolverton and back, twenty miles, beside other runs. Lordship has repeatedly said that it is guided with the greatest ease and precision; in fact, Lord Sefton, who had not traveled with it before, drove it several miles.

His

"It runs easy, being mounted on springs, and quiet, excepting the roar of steam from the blast pipe; and, as this can be shut off at will, but little difficulty has yet been experienced in meeting horses.

"It weighs 2,134 lbs. light, and 3,360 lbs. when fully loaded; and consumes six to seven pounds of coal per mile, and evaporates one.

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gallon per minute. It was designed by the maker to run at ten miles an hour; one mile in five minutes has been attained, at which it is perfectly steady, the center of gravity not being more than two feet from the ground."

through them all without any inconvenience to the general traffic or alarm to the horses. So perfectly was it under control, that it was stopped more quickly than an ordinary carriage and horses could draw up, which was

C.F.T.Y.DEL

STEAM CARRIAGE OF EARL OF CAITHNESS, 1860. Speed, 18 miles an hour.

H.RIMBAULT.Se

Was a Great Hill-Climber Although it had no sporting supplement, the Times had an eye out for good news, for, in its issue of August 1st, 1860, it copied the following report of an automobile run from the Banff Journal:

"The Earl and Countess of Caithness, and Mr. Ross, started from Inverness in his steam carriage. Owing to its being market day, the road was filled with horses and conveyances of all kinds; but the steam carriage passed

done as often as there seemed any danger of horses being frightened. The run to Beauley, fourteen miles, was done in one hour and twenty minutes, including fifteen minutes for water, and numerous other stoppages. When there was a good length of straight road, eighteen miles an hour was done with great ease. The carriage went up hills, and down steep declivities, in the most satisfactory manner; and they reached Clashmore successfully the same day, after a run of near seventy miles. The carriage is being run over the steepest roads in Scotland, and is proceeding to Barrogill Castle, a distance of eighty miles."

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