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.
POPE ELECTRIC PHAETON
UNDER TEST.
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.