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 of détenus through the medium of stored-up electricity.
We must just glance at the subject of motor-bicycles, driven by petrol and “sparked” by electricity. They are 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 OMNIBUS
By permission of the Fischer Motor Vehicle Syndicate, London