“My vehicle will carry four people without counting the driver. It is strong, easy to draw, and can turn in a horse’s length. The driver completely controls the animal, and no dust is thrown up to inconvenience the sitters, for by the time it rises the car is well in advance of it. It is cheap; the harness is simple and safe. The horse is sheltered from heat and rain and flies. If he should fall, there is no more than ordinary danger to life and limb than if he fell in a carriage; and, last of all, no very showy animal is needed, so long as his wind is sound, and his legs and tail respectable. Travellers in this “trap” can sit in any position, back to back, or face to face, two and two. The weight is all near the collar, and the animal is under control most perfectly.
Fig. 902.—Side view of vehicle.
“The estimated cost is £40; the horse about £40, or less; harness (say), £7, which contrasts favourably with the expenses of an ordinary one horse vehicle.”
Endless Rails.
These adjuncts to locomotion can be adapted to any kind of vehicle, and are in pieces about two feet long, articulated, and resting upon a base to give the necessary stability. The endless rail entirely envelopes the wheels all along the train, and the right and left rails are quite independent of each other, and as the vehicles advance the rails are put down and raised again when the carriages have passed. In front there are two distributing wheels governed by the tractive power, so that as the engine, or the animal drawing the train turns aside, the rails are still laid down parallel as before, but the hind wheels will not permit of very sharp curves.
There are wheels also at the rear of the train, and as on curves one wheel will pass over more rail than another, and in the hinder wheels a differential arrangement is used, and when one goes back the other advances as much, and so the relative distance is kept up, for the rail does not alter in length at all. The wheels have double flanges to retain them on the line.
Fig. 903.—Endless rails.
The system, considered from a mechanical point of view, gives striking results, and very little effort is required to put the train in motion. The resistance is very small, and much greater weights can, of course, be transported upon the endless rail than upon the ordinary road.