In the fitting-shops the multitude of parts are assembled to form the chassis or mechanical carriage of the car, to which, in a separate shop, is added the body for the accommodation of passengers. The whole is painted and carefully varnished after it has been out on the road for trials to discover any weak spot in its anatomy. Then the car is ready for sale.
When one considers the racketing that a high-powered car has to stand, and the high speed of its moving parts, one can understand why those parts must be made so carefully and precisely, and also how this care must conduce to the expense of the finished article. It has been said that it is easy to make a good watch, but difficult to make a good motor; for though they both require an equal amount of exactitude and skill, the latter has to stand much more wear in proportion. When you look at a first-grade car bearing a great maker's name, you have under your eyes one of the most wonderful pieces of mechanism the world can show.
We will not leave the de Dion-Bouton Works without a further glance at the human element. The company never have a slack time, and consequently can employ the same number of people all the year round. They pride themselves on the fact that the great majority of the men have been in their employ for several years, with the result that they have around them a class of workmen who are steady, reliable and, above all, skilful in the particular work they are engaged upon. There are more than 2,600 men and about 100 women, these latter being employed chiefly in the manufacture of sparking plugs and in other departments where there is no night work. They are mostly the wives or widows of old workmen, and in thus finding employment for them the firm provides for those who would otherwise be left without resource, and at the same time earns the gratitude of their employés.
Note.—The author gratefully acknowledges the help given by Messrs. de Dion-Bouton, Ltd., in providing materials for this account of their works.
THE MOTOR OMNIBUS
Prior to the emancipation of the road automobile in 1896, permission had been granted to corporations to run trams driven by mechanical power through towns. The steam tram, its engine protected by a case which hid the machinery from the view of restive horses, panted up and down our streets, drawing one or more vehicles behind it. The electric tram presently came over from America and soon established its superiority to the steamer with respect to speed, freedom from smell and smoke, and noiselessness: the system generally adopted was that invented in 1887 by Frank J. Sprague, in which an overhead cable supported on posts or slung from wires spanning the track carries current to a trolley arm projecting from the vehicle. The return current passes through the rails, which are made electrically continuous by having their individual lengths either welded together or joined by metal strips.
In America, where wide streets and rapidly growing cities are the rule, the electric tramway serves very useful ends; the best proof of its utility being the total mileage of the tracks. Statistics for 1902 show that since 1890 the mileage had increased from 1,261 to 21,920 miles; and the number of passengers carried from 2,023,010,202 to 4,813,466,001, or an increase of 137·94 per cent. It is interesting to note that electricity has in the United States almost completely ousted steam and animal traction so far as street cars are concerned; since the 5,661 miles once served by animal power have dwindled to 259, and steam can claim only 169 miles of track.
Next to the United States comes Germany as a user of electricity for tractive purposes; though she is a very bad second with only about 6,000 miles of track; and England takes third place with about 3,000 miles. That the British Isles, so well provided with railways, should be so poorly equipped with tramways is comprehensible when we consider the narrowness of the streets of her largest towns, where a good service of public vehicles is most needed. The installation of a tram-line necessitates the tearing up of a street, and in many cases the closing of that street to traffic. We can hardly imagine the dislocation of business that would result from such a blockage of, say, the Strand and High Holborn; but since it has been calculated that no less than five millions of pounds sterling are lost to our great metropolis yearly by the obstructions of gas, water, telegraph, and telephone operations, which only partially close a thoroughfare, or by the relaying of the road surface, which is not a very lengthy matter if properly conducted, we might reckon the financial loss resulting from the laying of tram-rails at many millions.
Even were they laid, the trouble would not cease, for a tram is confined to its track, and cannot make way for other traffic. This inadaptability has been the cause of the great outcry lately raised against the way in which tram-line companies have monopolised the main streets and approaches to many of our largest towns. While the electric tram is beneficial to a large class of people, as a cheap method of locomotion between home and business, it sadly handicaps all owners of vehicles vexatiously delayed by the tram. At Brentford, to take a notorious example, the double tram-line so completely fills the High Street that it is at places impossible for a cart or carriage to remain at the kerbstone.
Another charge levelled with justice at the tram-line is that the rails and their setting are dangerous to cyclists, motorists, and even heavy vehicles, especially in wet weather, when the "side-slip" demon becomes a real terror.