Horses of Iron

Nice page someone has put together with a selection of old motorbikes from the Gyllene Hjulet (the Golden Wheel) in Surahammar,
Sweden´s largest motorcycle museum:
http://www.bjorns-story.se/private/McMuseumSura/McMuseumSura_eng.htm

Some items:
Colibri_1915.jpg
Colibri 1915
Factory owner Emil Jern in Gävle Sweden designed a auxiliary engine for bicycles. It was first called Furir and mounted on the front wheel of a common bicycle. Whole unit with its patent was sold to 2 Gävle inhabitants who started the Engine Factory Furir. Earlier their main product was pumps and 1919 the company was reconstructed and named Colibri. This became the first support engine for bicycles in Sweden and was sold in large series.

Colibri.jpg
Colibri
Colibri was also available as a frame mounted engine 1919. It had several similarities with FN from this time. 1921 a twin was manufactured. This was mounted across in the frame. The company went out of money 1923 and the remaining spare parts were sold and advertised as long as to 1928.

Sinclair-Goddard_1952.jpg
Power Pack 1952-
English roller drive support engine. Manufacturer Sinclair Goddard London. Was equipped with one gear and could be lifted from rear wheel contact. Prize in Sweden 1953 385:-.

Official museum site here:
http://www.mcmuseum.se/Engindex.htm
 
Interesting sidecar on an old Norton, seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/3393040009/in/photostream/
Norton_coffin.jpg
Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Museum of Norfolk Life
Gressenhall, Dereham, Norfolk, England, UK

Not coffin up

Maurice Taylor, Holt, Norfolk
Last Updated: 9:12PM BST 13 Sep 2003

The motorcycle hearse mentioned by Christopher Booker (Notebook, September 7) may be the only operational vehicle of its kind in Britain, but an excellent example can be seen in the Norfolk Rural Life Museum at Gressenhall.

The hearse is drawn by a Norton motorcycle, and consists of a sidecar chassis with wooden platform on which the coffin is laid. It was the brainchild of a local worthy to provide a speedy and cheap method of transporting the bodies of departed inmates for interment to the parishes of their origin.

It seems that this was too much even for the guardians of the day, and the vehicle was never used for the purpose for which it was intended. The same cannot be said, however, for the coffin, which was of the re-usable variety with a hinged side from which the pauper's body could be slid into its final resting place.
 
The Steam Car Club
The Club was formed in recognition of the ever increasing interest in steam cars and the need for a standalone club dedicated to that need. It has since grown into the largest and most respected Club in Europe and possibly the World, it has produced for many years the best known magazine in the World THE STEAM CAR which is now in full colour!

The membership spans many countries including Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe. Membership is open to all. You don't need to own a steam car, and whether you have an old or modern car or a steam bike; it's your interest and knowledge that is valuable.

The club through its web page, forum and links page (with hits of over 30 million to date) has developed a method to help all Steam Car users, covering maintenance, restoration and the general running and advice including encouraging the regular examination of the boiler pressure system. Advice and support for anyone interested is always available. JOINING The Steam Club of Great Britain is the best route for enthusiasts specifically showing an interest in steam cars. Another important activity of the club was the building of its ever increasing historic archive, and pattern register thus aiding people with technical support for all cars in preservation. The archive has been built up over many years with the help of the Science Museum and Stanley Museum as well as Auburn Heights in America and many other organisations and people to which we are grateful. Preserving our heritage with steam on the road is essential.

Amazing collection of steam vehicles in their Steam Car Register:
http://www.steamcar.net/steam-car-register.html

Stuff like:
Pearson and Cox 3hp-1912
Pearson_and_Cox_3hp_steam_1912.jpg

Haleson Steam-Bike-1903
Haleson_Steam-Bike_1903.jpg

Hildebrand 1.5hp-1889.
Hildebrand_1889.jpg

The Hildebrand is interesting. Lots of references on the web to the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller "first production motorcycle" in 1894, not so much that Hildebrand had a steam bike together five years before that...

Other folks have been building copies of Richard Trevithick's steam machines from 1801-1802 using the original plans:

The Camborne Loco from 1801:
camborne-2.jpg


London Coach Engine 1802:
trevithick-4.jpg


Walter Handcock's Steam Coach of 1832.
enterprise-4.jpg
 
Bramham_1922-1924.jpg

8HP trike... Front wheel drive... and steering? Musta been complicated.
 
Seen in the Belgium seaside resort town of Blankenberge...


Presumably the His-and-Hers steering wheels saved a lot of disagreements...
:lol:
 
MOTOR BICYCLE.

Many cyclists are awaiting 1902 in the hope of a reliable motor bicycle being placed on the market at a cheap figure. A well-known English cycling writer says that "the price of motor bicycles for next season will remain about the same as that obtaining this year." It is well to realize this, in view of the airy statements made in some quarters that we may expect to see huge reductions before very long. These announcements are often given on mere hearsay, and when repeated go a good way towards repeating the £5 bicycle fallacy so persistently pushed forward a little while ago. The statement, in fact, is calculated to do considerable harm both to the trade and to the public. While heartily desiring that the price of motor bicycles be as low as possible, we do not want to see the shoddy article, dangerous to life and limb, placed on the market. At present the first cost of motor and fittings, with the special frame and motor tyres, is too high to allow the £25 motor bicycle to be thought of.

2012 News Flash! Cheap ebike batteries coming real soon!

:lol:
 
A Motor Bicycle Wrecked.

On Saturday afternoon a motor car that was said to be travelling on the wrong side of a street in Rockingham ran down a motor bicycle on which H.W.Bean and his brother Stan were riding. The latter was thrown clear, but the former was thrown under the car, the wheels going over his legs, which were badly bruised and lacerated. Stan Bean was also bruised and lacerated. The driver of the car did not stop. The motor bicycle was wrecked.

Early hit-and-run...
:x
 
`Couple of news bits...

M.DELAURIER has devised a new compound liquid for exciting electric piles. It consists of 20 parts of proto-sulphate of iron in 36 parts of water, 7 parts of sulphuric, and one part of nitric acid. This he declares to be the most powerful and economical exciting liquid, attacking iron, zinc, and other metals, without any evolution of hydrogen or bi-oxide of nitrogen.

The velocipede mania is spreading. It must have its run like any other fever. It may become chronic, though some wise heads are predicting a speedy crisis and collapse; or perhaps the collapse is to come before the crisis, or they may be simultaneous! Just at present, however, the inventive genius of many countries seems to be concentrated upon the construction of velocipedes of every novel style. If announcements may be credited, there is - or is going to be, which amounts to the same thing in this fast age - a monocycle, which can be driven sixty miles an hour; a bicycle warranted to run a hundred miles an hour on a single rail of a railroad track; and probably tricycles and quartercycles of indefinite speed. The machines are gradually being furnished with all conveniences, even to lanterns and lunch-boxes! Nobody feels terrified, even when such accidents occur as did recently in Cincinnati; when a young man taking a velocipede lesson in the fourth story of a building, lost the control of his machine, and was precipitated through a guarded hatchway to the cellar beneath. Such an occurence only incites story-makers to circulate reports that in certain cities the velocipedes are driven so fast that every collision results in the total disappearance of both rider and machine! No fragments are ever found!

Very early daze of ebike tech...
 
The centenary of the birth of George Stephenson was celebrated with great display at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and on a lessor scale in Chesterfield, London, Berlin, Vienna, and Rome. It is singular that at this moment the eyes of the world should be turned on electricity as the new motive power. An electrical tramway is now running in Berlin, and electric bicycles at Paris, while some surprising experiments have been made with the storage of electricity.

`Guess the Europeans were so excited about Stephenson as it was the railways that had "taken off" as motorized transport since George had designed his first steam railway locomotive in 1814:
Stephenson-No.1-engine_1814.jpg

Credit for the first road-going locomotive usually goes to Richard Trevithick. From Wikipedia:
The Puffing Devil
Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne. He named the carriage 'Puffing Devil' and on Christmas Eve that year, he demonstrated it by successfully carrying several men up Fore Street and then continuing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon. His cousin and associate, Andrew Vivian, steered the machine. This is widely recognised as the first demonstration of transportation powered by steam. It inspired the popular Cornish folk song "Camborne Hill".

Nice pic of Trevithicks' Puffing Devil, with a row of other late 20th-century puffing devil designs in the background:
RichardTrevithick_Puffing_Devil_1801.jpg

Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
The horses stood still;
The wheels went around;
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

White stockings, white stockings she wore (she wore)
White stockings, white stockings she wore
White stockings she wore:
The same as before;
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

I knowed her old father old man (old man)
I knowed her old father old man
I knowed her old man:
He blawed in the band;
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er, I did
I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er, I did
I 'ad 'er, I did:
It cost me a quid
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

He heaved in the coal, in the steam (the steam)
He heaved in the coal, in the steam
He heaved in the coal:
The steam hit the beam
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

Oh Please 'ave a baby by me
Oh Please 'ave a baby by me
I'm young and I'm strong:
Won't take very long
Going up Camborne Hill coming down

Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
The horses stood still;
The wheels went around;
Going up Camborne Hill coming down
 
http://www.victorianlondon.org/transport/horseless.htm
THE HORSELESS CARRIAGE.

BY A PASSENGER.


YES. There can be no doubt of it. Everyone has read and heard about "automotors" by this time, or seen pictures of them in the illustrated magazines, but somehow these have got mixed up with engravings of submarine boats or flying machines, and all have stood still. One has looked like any vehicle in Long Acre, and the other suggested a new patent reaping-machine. It is not till you have sat on the box of a phaeton and been for a spin along a dusty road at the rate of some ten miles an hour without whip, reins, or anything to drive in front of you, that you can realise, however faintly, the future of a "horseless carriage." I have just returned from a short excursion in one of them, but the length of the trip has nothing to do with its effect upon the passenger sitting on the box with no animal trotting before him below the splashboard. "It takes two gallons for eighty miles," remarked the coachman by my side, as he whisked round one of the corners of the road. He spoke of them as if they were a seasoned "pair," safe to do so long a day's work, but they were harnessed somewhere "inside," in the rumble, and they certainly made themselves felt there to some extent, especially when we stopped for a moment to pick up a man at the roadside. Then they gave the vehicle a pulsation not unlike that communicated to a gig by a blown horse when pulled up after a sharp trot. But our motive power came from senseless petroleum instead of sinews, and a "relay" was ready in a can, rather than a wayside stable, and was fed with fire, not oats.

The impression, however, produced by the "drive" is not measured by the perceptible throbbing of the hidden engine (that, indeed, suggests a panting horse), but by the revelation of a new method of wheel progress which promises to revolutionise the whole world of man's movement upon the face of the earth, let alone the trade of all carriage builders, harness makers, and stable keepers. When men began to travel by "rail" they certainly had a new sensation, but there was the old one of having something in front "pulling" you. The name of "horse" remained, only it was called an iron one. And then a special road had to be made for it and for that which it drew. Without this it could not start nor work, and often it took years of toil before the road could be ready. When made, moreover, it would not be diverged from for a moment without danger; but your swift "horseless carriage" is not "drawn" at all, and needs no track to be provided for it. Given the carriage, the roads of the country are at its command. The bicycle, too, though it has appeared in swarms, is really no new thing, but a butterfly - which has broken the husk of the old go-cart. Its motive power is the same, being only a fresh application of the rider's legs. Of course we all know that the horseless carriage is, in fact, no recently modern invention (indeed, the wisdom of our ancestors is committed to the truth of the saying that there is nothing new under the sun), for it has been running in France for the last two or three years, and even some half-century ago efforts were made to bring it into use in Scotland but it is virtually a revelation to the British public which has slowly taken it in, and is beginning to realise the revolution in road traffic which it heads.

Who can conjecture the changes likely to follow in its train? At present, so to speak, only a little puff of smoke or steam is left behind it, to disappear in a minute, but before long a manifold material procession is bound to come after the first English automotor. And this prodigious development will be the result of one of the shortest Acts of Parliament the Legislature has ever passed in these realms. The ponderous traction engine which we have all seen grinding along the country road, when touched with the magic wand of law can be potentially transformed into a multitude of vehicles, spinning or steadily advancing along the countless tracks which cover the land. What will be the good of laying down sleepers for "light railways" by the side of the turnpike or the lane when a short automotor train threads them, picking up the farmer's produce here and there on its way to the nearest station? Perhaps we shall even see a roomy horseless truck among the implements of some farmyards, ready to carry his sacks far more quickly than a crawling team. But it is in the passenger traffic of the country and the town that we may expect to see the greatest locomotive change in store for those who go about on wheels. Railways will take their place among the old-fashioned methods of procedure, and perhaps our grandchildren will smile to think of stage coaches having been ever talked of as prehistoric, since they may possibly be seen running again . . . horseless. Then, may be, too, the deserted wayside inns on the old main roads will have a new lease of life, and the horn (steam this time) be heard heralding the approach of the "Highflyer" and the " Rapid."

But city streets, they say, will be most notably invaded. When I reached the London terminus, after my trip with the two gallons of petroleum, and saw the crowd of omnibuses and cabs waiting harnessed for their fares, and presently heard the tramp of countless hoofs as we drove home, I wondered what the thoughts of all those horses would be if they knew those which were then filling my mind. Some say that one great drawback to automotors will be the alarm caused in the minds of these patient toiling creatures, but possibly they will take an unexpected cheerful view of a revolution which sets them free from bit, blinker, and whip. And they might well chuckle to think of the little appreciated help they give in the guidance of a loaded omnibus through crowded streets. As it is, the best driver owes more than he might admit to the intelligence of his horses. They see where to go, and what to avoid, as well as he. But an automotor has no eyes, and it will need the creation and training of a new set of coachmen to steer down Bond Street or Cheapside when one is full of carriages stopping suddenly to deposit shopping ladies, and the other is choked with crowds hurrying to and from the city. We hear much now of "street accidents," but what may they become should London be invaded by the "horse-less carriage"? And then think how it would be if one of them were to bolt. We read of active policemen catching the reins of a runaway, and saving the lives of those sitting helplessly behind it, but who would snatch at the nose of an iron cab over which its driver has lost control? There are "cons" as well as "pros" in the outlook of a street invasion by blind unfeeling motors It is in the use, however, of private ones on country roads that many contemplate their adoption with safe promised enjoyment. A "Tour on Wheels " will bring a decidedly new sensation: no anxiety about uncertain stabling, or sudden lameness no tiresome carriage of hay or oats; no breaking of harness in out-of-the-way places. Of course there is the chance of an inside pipe going wrong, or a cog coming off, and then - where are you. far from an intelligent artificer to repair the damage, or manufactory where you can buy what you want?

Again, there is no "loving" of a reservoir; you must feed it, indeed, but it does not care to be patted. You can't give it a carrot or lump of sugar before you start. Perhaps some ingenious inventor will enable a motor to neigh instead of "toot," but it can never become an affectionate companion who knows your voice and likes to be stroked. There is bloodless satisfaction in steering the best horseless carriage, however swiftly and safely it may carry you where you would go.

Perhaps it is in the application of the new motive power to bicycles that we shall see it most enjoyably appreciated, for no living love has yet been felt for the "bike." I suppose the rider will be enabled occasionally to use his pedals for a change, instead of the quart of oil beneath his saddle. This being so, a field of fresh career is open to the wheelsman, without the vexation of delay by reason of accident to his boiler or oil tank, for he would only have to fall back on the power of his legs, and, barring extra weight to be carried, be not much worse off than he was before.

I have said nothing about the present stage of manufacture reached in the making of "motors," for, of course, they are yet in their infancy, and we may well expect as much improvement to be made in them as in any new mechanical discovery. Those in experimental use now will, if widely employed, come to be looked on with the same curiosity as is aroused by an inspection of the first steam engine that was made a hundred years ago.

...amusing today to read motorcyclists neighing about how with electric bikes they would miss the noise and stink of gas power...
:lol:
 
http://www.victorianlondon.org/transport/cars.htm
Hansoms and growlers together,
Fares don't care for your love or your war!
In this coming November
Just please to remember
You've a rival - the new motor car!

Punch [on a cab driver's strike] 1896

Murdock's pupil, Richard Trevithick, also invented a horseless carriage; he took out a patent for it in 1802, and drove the first he made full size through the streets of Camborne, and with Vivian drove it under steam from Camborne to Plymouth, whence it was shipped to London, and exhibited where Euston Station now stands. On the City Road, too, ran Hancock s steam coach. In fact, with "Steam on Common Roads" before them, engineers must smile at the present enthusiasm. With our greatly improved roads and proper care on the part of those in charge, there is no reason at all why such carriages should not work successfully, if the Acts of Parliament passed in the interest of the horse-owners were repealed. Our legislators have never favoured horseless traffic - witness the way in which they have treated steam-rollers and traction-engines; though it must not be overlooked that badly built houses may be dangerously shaken by heavily moving machinery. Steam, however, is not so likely to furnish the motive power as oil or electricity. One of the most entertaining features of this revived interest in what it is the fashion to call automobility, is the series of laments as to the supersession of the horse expressed in almost exactly the same terms as in Trevithick's day. The railways also were to have wiped out the horses, but have they? There are more horses now than there ever were.

article in The Leisure Hour, 1896

Hehe... "...if the Acts of Parliament passed in the interest of the horse-owners were repealed."... and now we need to get all these laws in favour of the horse-less carriage repealed.
:twisted:
 
Austrian brothers Anthony and Frederick Reckenzaum built the first electric boat in England, in 1882:
Reckenzaun_1882.jpg

Their electric boat "Volta" crossed the Channel and back on 13 September 1886....

...and from The Electrician, July 6, 1888
AMERICAN NOTES.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

New York, June 23rd, 1888.

A great deal of public attention has been directed during the last week to the performance of the electric launch "Magnet," the first boat of its kind, I believe, to make its debut in New York waters. This boat was built early this year on the designs of Messrs. Anthony and Frederick Reckenzaum. She is 28ft. long, 6ft. beam, 3 ft. deep amidships, and draws 2 1/2ft. of water by the stern. She is equipped with a Reckenzaum motor, weighing 4201b., driving a two-bladed screw 18in. in diameter. She carries 56 cells of the battery made by the Electrical Accumulator Company, weighing about 2,4001b. All told, the machinery weighs about 3,0001b. A speed of 12 miles an hour can be attained, but it is at the expense of the total mileage. The accumulators are arranged along the bottom of the boat, snugly under cover. Above them runs a bench nearly the whole length of the boat, giving seating accommodation for nearly 20 passengers back to back. The accumulators are arranged to work in a straight series of 56, or in two parallel groups of 28 cells each. They are capped at the top with rubber to prevent slopping in a rough sea, and stand in a bed of sawdust. For some time past this boat has been in use as a pleasure craft on the Passaic River, getting its charge at the Electrical Accumulator Factory on the river bank, at Newark. At the present time another launch, much larger, is being built at one of the yards up the Hudson River, also to be run by storage, the Electrical Accumulator Company supplying the batteries. I hear that the peculiarity of this boat will be the disposition of the batteries, which are to line the sides of the ship, leaving room in the middle for a cosy cabin. This boat is said to be nearly ready, so that before long New Yorkers will become familiar with the spectacle of boats driven by their own ballast.
 
Nice pic of the De Clerc & Pingault tandem from 1897? mentioned here:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8099&start=333
DeClerc&Pingault_1897.jpg

From here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38694010@N00/5399170806
French Electric Tandem around 1900, ridden by Dacier & Jalabert

This tandem électrique was an invention of the Frenchmen de Clerc et Pingault. On Mai 22 1897 this tandem rode 1 km in 57 4/5 seconds.
The tandem will not have been lightweighted. What would have weighed those four batteries? A weight that the frame should also bear in addition to the two cyclists. Also I see nothing that looks like a brake.

De Clerc & Pingault will soon develop and produce other vehicles.

e-Bicycles in The Netherland
One source suggests that Gazelle in The Netherlands in 1915 has designed an electric tandem too, with an 8- and 9-volt battery.

But only between 1935 and 1937 the first Dutch electric bicycle (no tandem) will be sold. It is an electric bike with 12-volt battery, developed by Philips and built by five Dutch bicycle manufacturers including Gazelle. In total 117 were built.
So no smashing success.

Today, this is quite different in the Netherlands. Even many of my peers have an electric bike. I don't. For now I think that such an e-bicycle is too decadent. But I admit: they are increasingly common.
 
Different kind of power-assist, seen here:
http://cycling.ahands.org/bicycling/datewithdeath.html
Date with Death
by Clifford L. Graves, M.D.
September 1965
A tense group of people was gathered on the freeway near the German town of Friedburg on July 19, 1962.

Herr Heinemann had painstakingly measured off the official kilometer. Half a dozen timekeepers of the International Timing Association were fiddling with their electrical equipment. Captain Dalicampt of the French occupation forces deployed his men at strategic points along the cleared Autobahn. Chief Schefold of the federal highway department dispatched a sweeper crew. Adolf Zimber lovingly wiped a bit of invisible dirt off the windshield of his massive Mercedes. Reporters were asking questions, scribbling notes. A photographer was angling for a shot. José Meiffret was about to start his Date with Death.

Of all the tense people, Meiffret was the least so. A diminutive Frenchman with wistful eyes and a troubled expression, he was resting beside a strange-looking bicycle. A monstrous chain wheel with 130 teeth connected with a sprocket with 15. The rake on the fork was reversed. Rims were of wood to prevent overheating. The gooseneck was supported with a flying buttress. The well-worn tires were tubulars. The frame was reinforced at all the critical points. Weighting forty-five pounds, this machine was obviously constructed to withstand incredible punishment.

On this day, at this place, on this bicycle, José Meiffret was aiming to reach the fantastic speed of 124 miles an hour. Everything was now in readiness. Meiffret adjusted his helmet, mounted the bike, and tighten the toe straps. Getting under way with a gear of 225 inches was something else again. A motorcycle came alongside and started pushing him. At 20 miles an hour, Meiffret was struggling to gain control. His legs were barely moving. At 40 miles, he was beginning to hit his stride. At 50 miles, the Mercedes with its curious rear end was just behind. With a wave of his hand, Meiffret dismissed his motorcycle and connected neatly with the windscreen of the Mercedes. His timing was perfect. He had overcome his first great hazard.

Swiftly, the bizarre combination of man and machine gathered speed. Meiffret's job on penalty of death was to stay glued to his windscreen. The screen had a roller, but if he should touch it at 100 miles an hour, he would be clipped. On the other hand, if he should fall behind as little as 18 inches, the turbulence would make mincemeat of him. If the car should jerk or lurch or hit a bump, he would be in immediate mortal danger. An engineer had warned him that at these speeds, the centrifugal force might cause his flimsy wheels to collapse. Undismayed b the prospect, Meiffret bent down to his task.

He was now moving at 80 miles. News of the heroic attempt had spread, and the road ahead was lined with spectators. Everybody was expecting something dreadful to happen. Herr Thiergarten in the car showed Meiffret how fast he was going by prearranged signals. Meiffret in turn could speak to the driver through a microphone. "Allez, allez," he shouted, knowing that he had only nine miles to accelerate and decelerate. The speedometer showed 90. What if he should hit a pebble, an oil slick, a gust of wind? Ahead was bridge and clump of woods. Crosscurrents were inevitable.

In his pocket, Meiffret carried a note:
"In case of fatal accident, I beg of the spectators not to feel sorry for me. I am a poor man, an orphan since the age of eleven, and I have suffered much. Death holds no terror for me. This record attempt is my way of expressing myself. If the doctors can do no more for me, please bury me by the side of the road where I have fallen."
Who was this man Meiffret who could ride a bicycle at such passionate speeds and still look at himself dispassionately?

He was born in 1913 in the village of Boulouris o the French Riviera. Orphaned at an early age, he had to got work to support himself and an aging grandmother. One day, as he was hurrying home from work on his ancient bicycle, he was run down by a motorist. José was badly shaken, and his bicycle was ground to bits. Distraught, the motorist offered to buy José a new bicycle. It was a beauty. Before long, his bike was his life. When he wasn't riding, he was reading. Under the skinny frame and deep-set eyes burned a fierce ambition. Someday he was going to beat the world.

His first race was a fiasco. Totally unprepared, he entered a 120-miler through the mountains and was promptly dropped. His competitors made fun of him, and a doctor told him that he had a weak heart and should never race. That night José cried himself to sleep.

The man who changed José's career was Henry Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France. Desgrange had a villa on the Riviera, and José wrangled an introduction. Desgrange sensed the compelling drive in the delicate body, and he made an accurate assessment,
"Try motor-paced racing, my boy. You might surprise yourself."

José did just that. With fear and trepidation he entered a motor-paced race between Nice and Cannes. Without any indoctrination whatever he was immediately at home. Riding smoothly and elegantly, in perfect unison with his pacer and in complete control of himself, he was out front all the way and finished a full seven minutes ahead. The people went wild.

Encouraged by this success, he arranged to go over the same course behind a more powerful motor. This ride was an epic. Intoxicated by his speed, he barely missed a car in Nice, grazed a dog in Cannes, scraped a sidewalk in Antibes, had a flat five miles front the finish, and yet hung up a new record of 1.02 for the 40 miles. He had found his destiny.

How could a rider like José make a splash before he had caused a ripple? Racing behind motorist is quite different from racing in a group. Behind motors, the speed is higher, the pedaling faster, the concentration greater. It is like a continuous sprint. A motor-paced rider must have suppleness rather than strength. And he must have flair.

But a motor-paced rider is not made overnight. Just as José was beginning to hit his stride, the war broke out. When he returned to Paris after five dreary years of captivity, he was as far from his goal as ever. Motor-paced racing has a long and honorable history, but only a few men have ever excelled in it. In America, the sport died after "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy did his amazing ride behind a Long Island Railroad train in 1899. In Europe, the sport survived. On the road, the hour record was set in the thirties by the Frenchman Paillard with 49.362 miles. Meiffret raised this in 1949 to 54.618. Paillard immediately raised this figure to 59.954 but he almost got killed in the attempt. To beat Paillard, Meiffret selected a special circuit in Germany, the Grenzlandring. Cheered by thousands, he covered 65.115 miles in an hour and could have done more if his motor had been running right. All this required incessant training and complete concentration. Meiffret's philosophy was "to become what you are."

Although his exploit at Grenzlandring brought him great acclaim, it did not bring him any money. In fact, none of Meiffret's rides brought him any money. All his life, he had to fight poverty. He supported himself with odd jobs and with occasional writing. His latest book Mes rendezvous avec la mort, earned him the 1965 Grand Prize for Sports Writing and the Prix Sobrier-Arould of the prestigious Académie Française.

In an effort to improve his position in 1951, he decided to race behind cars instead of motorcycles. Cars are bigger and faster. Here, the man to beat was Alfred Letourneur, an expatriate Frenchman who had covered a measured mile behind a car on the Las Angeles freeway at 108.923 in 1941.

Meiffret's first attempt was behind a Talbot. To his consternation, he could not get past 70 miles an hour. Aerodynamic engineers told him to modify his windscreen. After months of toil and heartbreak he tried again. A 20-mile stretch of road south of Toulouse was especially cleared (even the President of the French Republic was detoured on that day). On his first run, the Talbot faltered. On his second run, he lost contact and was almost flattened by the wind. On his third run, he hit a bump and was in free flight for 50 feet, but he held on and finished the kilometer at 109.100 miles per hour. Letourneur had been beaten, but not by much.

Undisputed record man of the hour and of the kilometer on the road, Meiffret next turned to the track at Montlhery. Here, the Belgian Vanderstuyft had ridden 78.159 an hour behind a motorcycle in 1928. But Montlhery in 1928 was new. In 1952 it was old. The pavement was starting to crack, and the turns were atrocious. The track superintendent shook his head. He had seen many try. But Meiffret was determined. On the appointed day, he rode his first lap at 80 miles per hour. Suddenly, coming out of the turn on the seventh lap, his bicycle started bucking. Nobody knew what actually happened. Perhaps the pedals, which had less than an inch of clearance, scraped. At any rate, Meiffret flew through the air, hit the ground, tumbled three hundred feet, slid another twenty, and came to a rest, a quivering mass of flesh. Horrified attendants carried him to an ambulance, and newspapers announced his imminent death. That night surgeons found five separate skull fractures. Unbelievably, Meiffret lived through this ordeal.

Then followed a long period of recuperation during which he fought as much for his mental sanity as for his physical health. In search of peace, he joined the Trappists at Sept-Fons and led the life of a monk. During this time he made continuous improvements on his bicycle, wrote his first book (Breviary of a Cyclist), and corresponded with hundreds of people. Thus he learned of a new freeway at Lahr in Germany where he might gain permission for another attempt on the flying kilometer. In the fall of 1961, when he was already forty-eight, he reached 115.934 miles per hour. This ride convinced him that he could reach 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour. Thus we find Meiffret in the summer of 1962 on the freeway at Freiburg, riding like a man possessed.

The Mercedes performed flawlessly. People could not believe their eyes. What they saw was the car in full flight with and arched figure immediately behind, legs whirling, jersey fluttering, wheels quivering. "Allez, allez," gasped Meiffret into the mike. In the car, the speedometer crept past 100 mph, then 110 and 120. Anguished, Zimber looked into his rear-view mirror. How could Meiffret keep himself positioned? It was fantastic.

Meiffret_1962m.jpg

At the flat, the speed had increased to 127. Faster than an express train, faster than a plummeting skier, faster than a free fall in space. Meiffret's legs were spinning at 3.1 revolutions per second, and each second carried him 190 feet! He was no longer a man on a bike. He was the flying Frenchman, the superman of the bicycle, the magician of the pedals, the eagle of the road, the poet of motion. He knew that he must live in the rarefied atmosphere for eighteen seconds. When he passed the second flag, the chronometers registered 17.580 seconds, equivalent to 127.342 miles an hour.

Meiffret had survived his date with death.

 
Philips_1932a.jpg

Caption reads "The new Philips product, the electric bicycle has made ​​its appearance in the main city"
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38694010@N00/4972255810
Hobbyhorse_versus_mini_moped_c1965.jpg
Around 1965: Hobbyhorse versus mini moped

No info about this photo.

But it could be a Unikap (Union & Kaptein) moped built sometime between 1965 and 1967. (I found it together with some other Unikap photos)

Kaptein made Mobylettes. Mobylette is a French brand.
So it is even possible that this is a French photo.

PR Photo
 
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THE MOTOR CAR IN AUSTRALIA.

Seeing that motor cars are, as it were, only things of yesterday, it may seem rather absurd to suggest that their use will develop so rapidly that we may soon expect to see motor car factories in every large centre in New Zealand. Yet steps have already been taken to establish such a factory in either Sydney or Melbourne. From an exchange we learn that a canvasser for the Austral Cycle and Motor Company of London is already busy booking orders for the Pennington motor in its various forms. This motor is applied to all forms of vehicle - the four-seated tricycle, all the varieties of bicycle and tricycle, the whole gamut of fashionable carriages, the omnibus, the parcel delivery van, the steam launch or the steamer, the traction engine, or the stationary engine. It varies, of course, in weight, but the cost, which is set down at 1d per h.p. per hour, remains the same, and the machinery is equally simple. When it is stated that the weight of the engine suited for road vehicles is only 22 1/2lb, that in this light form it develops 2 h.p., and will run a car with a load of four persons at the rate of 32 miles an hour under favorable circumstances, the possibilities of the Pennington car may be imagined. It can be driven by either petroleum, kerosene, or paraffin. The motor-car, it is asserted, will not only supersede cabs, omnibuses and other city conveyances, but it will take the place of camels in the arid parts of Australia. Great expectations have been formed of the new motor in West Australia, from which colony the company has already received orders which, if its factory were in working order tomorrow, would keep the machinery fully employed for the next eighteen months. The favourite design for the West Australian trade is a light tricycle, which is capable of carrying great weights and of maintaining a high rate of speed over the roughest roads. Such a machine, it is said, would come triumphantly through trials to which even camels would succumb. A large shipment of cars is expected to reach Australia at the end of this month to satisfy the demand until the factory is in working order.

"The decay of the Australian horse" used to be a favourite subject of discussion in Melbourne papers but when the auto-car gets in its work the question will be removed from the reign of debate. There can be no doubt that the use of motor cars and motor carriages must seriously affect the prices of certain classes of horses, and so, in the long run, bring about a radical change in the methods and aims of breeders. The horse-dealers already complain that the market for hacks has suffered considerably from the enormous increase in the use of the bicycle. Many a hack has been sold because its owner found a bicycle a swifter, more agreeable, more convenient, and much more economical conveyance. When small electric motors are added to bicycles, many men who would find bicycle riding in the ordinary way too fatiguing will adopt them and get rid of their saddle-horses. But it is, as the Saturday Review points out, the motor car, van, omnibus, cab, and carriage which threaten to become the most deadly enemy of the horse. At the same time, it is worth remembering that the prediction of fifty or sixty years ago, that steam would drive horses off the road, was never realised. It is possible that the new methods of progression and propulsion may, as in the case of the railway locomotive, develop fresh uses for the horse, and so save him from the fate anticipated by some of his pessimistic friends. The draught horse, at any rate, seems tolerably safe for some years longer. He may be driven out of the brewers' carts and city vans, where he has long cut an imposing figure; but on farms and in railway yards, and in unroaded districts he will still hold his own. The cab horse will probably have to go, but as he, like Lord Beaconsfield's critic, is usually an animal that has failed in other walks of life, no one but the dealer will regret his departure. The hunter and the cavalry horse are not likely to be superseded by the motor for many years to come, but as they represent only the best results of the breeders' efforts it is difficult to see what will become of the failures that are now turned to account in humbler spheres. Probably one good effect of the adoption of motor cars will be to lessen the number of inferior horses that are produced by careless breeding.

Of course a good deal will depend on the cost of motor cars, particularly in a country like New Zealand, where horses are cheap and can be kept at a small cost, especially in the country. But in towns they would find many users if sold at a moderate price. A doctor could ride his motor car and dispense with a groom, for nothing could frighten a car into bolting. Tradesmen would find them useful in delivering parcels, and private citizens, who do not care to keep a horse and carriage to use only once or twice a week, would appreciate a turn-out which did not "eat its head off" when in the stable or require regular exercise to keep it in condition. At present a tricycle to carry four people and travel at the rate, if desired, of 40 miles an hour, will cost £150 delivered in Australia, a victoria which can cover 35 miles an hour can be obtained for £20 less, while a tradesman's tricycle, which can be used for delivering goods, will cost about £70. A line which it is believed will be popular will be the motor bicycle, on which 50 miles an hour is said to have been accomplished, and which will only cost a trifle of 60 guineas. Apparently a great future is anticipated for the auto-freight waggon, which will carry ten passengers and ten tons of luggage, besides towing another waggon behind, at eight miles an hour on a good road at a cost of £1 a day. A dozen of these waggons are being built for Western Australia, and the manager of the company referred to expressed the opinion that when they got thoroughly going in the West exploration and prospecting will be child's play, and that they will knock out the camel as a means of locomotion. This seems a sanguine anticipation, for oil and water would have to be carried, and it is only on moderately flat unexplored territory that cars could be used. Even in roaded countries where rivers have to be crossed there would be formidable obstacles to the use of motor cars, for immersion in water would extinguish the ignition arrangements unless electricity were used. Still, that there is a great future before the motor car no one can doubt.
 
From "The Electric Motor and its applications" by Thomas Commerford Martin and Joseph Wetzler, 1887
APPENDIX B.

THE JULIEN ACCUMULATOR And Traction System.
(Originally published in The Electrical World, Nov.20, 1886.)

There is no question to-day more interesting to the electrician than, and hardly any so important to street railway companies and the urban public as, the application of electricity to the propulsion of tram-cars. A critical stage has been reached in the practical development of this latest field of applied electricity, when all that is offered to notice deserves close study. At the present moment, M. Ed. Julien, engineer and electrician of Brussels, is demonstrating in this city the merits of his system of electric traction, and it is arousing unusual attention. We deem it proper, therefore, to give a description, with illustrations, of this system, concerning which some of the foremost street railway men in America as well as in Europe entertain a very high opinion, one that they are preparing to give evidence of in employing the Julien cars on their respective roads.

At the outset, it may be remarked that M. Julien occupies in Belgium a position giving him no small authority in the matter of traction. Besides being himself familiar with tramway operation and conversant with all the needs of the industry, he has for several years devoted himself specially to the problems of electric traction, and more particularly to the use of accumulators for the purpose. As far back as 1881, he organized the Compagnie l'Electrique for introducing the Faure accumulators and the Brush electric light system in Belgium; and being thus one of the first to study practically and seriously the employment of accumulators on street cars, he is better able than many to appreciate the advantages, and to eliminate or minimize the inconveniences attaching to their use. At the time M. Julien began to experiment, the storage battery had fallen into a good deal of discredit that was to a considerable extent justifiable, and that resulted from the instability of the battery. This condition of affairs, observed M. Julien, sprang from the production of the plates on a wrong principle, industrially speaking - that of the oxidation of the lead supporting the active material applied to its surface by whatever process, whether decomposition or addition. The result in either case was that when the plate was formed by the action of the current, the positive was more and more deeply oxidized, so that after a relatively short time, if the battery were put into continuously active service, the supporting substance was wholly transformed into peroxide, a material of little consistency or conductivity. In that state the battery was inert and useless, and it became evident that such conditions afforded no hope of profitable occupancy of any industrial field. And this may be said to be the consensus of opinion on the part of all the physicists who have studied the subject since the discovery of secondary batteries, that is to say, since the beginning of the century. Though of interest, it is not necessary for us to enter here into a description of the early efforts and attempts made to construct a practical storage battery, but on the contrary, we will proceed at once to describe the methods by which M. Julien has achieved success.

M. Julien has followed a principle directly opposite, it is believed, to that heretofore employed, at the same time taking advantage of what had been determined to be proper in the generation of secondary battery currents. After much laborious research, he recognized the fact that by combining different metals, such as lead, mercury, and antimony, in certain definite proportions, an inoxidizable alloy is formed which is found to be eminently adapted for use as supporting plates in storage batteries. Attempts had already been made to give the supporting plate greater consistency, and to that end Faure, and M.Julien, too, also added antimony to the lead from the beginning of their manufacture, but no attempt had been made to render the plate inoxidizable.

By means of the inoxidizable plate M.Julien has succeeded, it is thought, in removing the old objections to the storage battery, the plates remaining rigid and undregoing no deformation. The active material adheres perfectly to the metal plate, due principally to the nature of the alloy employed. The life of the plates as demonstrated by several instances is a long one, and after nearly two years' use they show no deformation.

JULIEN_ACCUMULATOR_1886Nov20Fig1.jpg

Some experiments recently made with the Julien cells by Professor Eric Gerard at the University of Liege, France, under the auspices of the International Commission of the late Antwerp Exhibition, show clearly the results obtained by M. Julien's improvements. The following table shows the result of a test made with twenty-four of the cells:

Duration of charge, ............ 7 hours 33 min.
Electromotive force per cell, ...2.35 volts. Average strength of current per
kilogramme, ..................... 1.86 amperes.
Energy absorbed per kilogramme, .. 10,700 kilogrammetres.
Ampere-hours per kilogramme, ..... 14.


The accompanying illustrations, Figs. 3 and 4, show the record of a test made with twenty-nine Julien cells furnished to the Edison Company of Paris. The curves were traced by a registering instrument designed by M. Huber for that purpose. The cells weighed forty kilogrammes each, and were charged at the rate of fifteen ampere-hours per kilogramme and gave at discharge 13 1/2 ampere-hours, showing an efficiency of ninety per cent. The discharge lasted nearly thirty hours, during twenty-two of which no variation of current strength took place, with a fall in potential of only four volts.

View attachment 3

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As regards the life of the batteries already referred to above, it is interesting to note that for more than two years Prof. L. Nothomb, of the War School at Brussels, has lighted his house by means of a battery of Julien cells, which are still in a perfect state. Our readers will also remember that after six months' service on the electric car at Antwerp, and also in the exhibition, the cells were pronounced by the jury testing them to be unchanged.

JULIEN_ACCUMULATOR_1886Nov20Fig2.jpg

More than any other application, electric traction has exacted the employment of perfect accumulators. The constructors of secondary batteries have been aware of this fact, and hence, in all probability, it happens that this specific use has been so limited. It is impossible to attempt a traction system without batteries that can be depended upon. The work is the most exacting that a battery can be subjected to. The current drawn off varies every minute, and is always at a strength very high in view of the number of elements employed. The incessant shaking of the car is also a cause of rapid deterioration in ordinary electrodes in which the active material is not highly adhesive. It is necessary also that the battery should be extremely light and should require little attention. All these considerations have been borne in mind, and have, M.Julien thinks, been met in his system.

The first experiments undertaken by M.Julien were made in June, 1881 on French tramways with the Faure battery, being the first known application of the kind, on tramways proper. The car then used differed very little from that now seen in New York. The main object of M. Julien, then as now, was, after having obtained the battery he sought, to get a practical car. In tramway exploitation, it is specially essential that the devices used shall be the simplest, as well as easy of manufacture. This double point M. Julien claims to have reached. Another objective point is the utilization of the existing rolling stock, and that he has also studied out successfully.

The car that is now in operation on the Eighth avenue road is, on a cursory glance, indistinguishable from any ordinary street car of the type familiar in New York streets, and capable of carrying from seventy to eighty people. It was built by John Stephenson for the Vienna Exposition of 1873, and thus by a strange and happy turn of events returns to the place of its departure after thirteen years absence. The batteries are placed under the benches; the motor and the running gear are placed beneath the car floor. Under each platform is a regulating apparatus controlled by a hand-lever covered by a circular box. All the mechanism has been devised so as to be easy of operation by men who have had neither electrical nor mechanical training; and this ensures the employment of men accustomed to the road and to street car work generally. The operating parts comprise simply the motor, which is connected by rope gearing to a countershaft, and this in turn is connected with the driving axles by a link-chain of special contrivance. The armature makes from 800 to 900 revolutions per minute, while the wheels make 100 - at normal speed. The car is started up, by turning the lever, without the slightest shock. The movement is, in fact, remarkably smooth and pleasant, and the car can be stopped instantaneously. "The rate of speed is controlled both by the number of elements and by manipulation of the mechanism itself. It is noteworthy that M. Julien depends in no way upon artificial resistances. The rapidity of movement is controlled by the batteries, and full speed, half speed, full stop, and reverse motion are all obtained by the merest turn of the lever. To the regulator are brought the connections of all the sections of the battery, working alternatively in series and in parallel. All the cells discharge uniformly, and can, therefore, be recharged together. Without this provision, the charging of a large number of batteries would be a matter of enormous complication, if not an impossibility, in a regular service. The motor has an ingenious commutator, rendering attendance and inspection very easy, as well as a simple method of changing the rate of armature rotation. Into details we are not at liberty to enter just now. It may, however, be said that, as a whole, as a system, the apparatus is well adapted to the ends it serves. Nothing has been left undone, and all the parts work automatically, rapidly and economically.

The car is well lighted by two incandescent lamps fed by the batteries. The brake is worked by hand, M. Julien considering it unwise to add complication or use up current, by resorting to electricity in this item.

When the car leaves the stable, the recharging of the batteries is effected on a series of benches, on each side of the indoor tracks, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The exchange of a charged for an exhausted battery does not occupy more than four or five minutes, and as they are pushed into place, the cells automatically make connection.

JULIEN_ACCUMULATOR_1886Nov20Fig5.jpg

JULIEN_ACCUMULATOR_1886Nov20Fig6.jpg

Our readers well remember that a highly favorable and flattering report was made relative to the Julien car by the special jury at the Antwerp Exhibition in 1885, when it achieved a notable triumph over several systems and carried off the prize, both on the ground of efficiency and on that of economy. The report of the jury was noticed at great length in The Electrical World od March 20, 1886. The jury of ten comprised representatives of the governments of France, England, Germany and Belgium, as well as a number of experts. The competition lasted from May 3 to Oct. 31, 1885, and was participated in by the Julien car, the Krauss locomotive engine separated from the carriage, the Wilkinson locomotive, also separated, the Rowan engine and carriage combined, and the Beaumont compressed air engine. The report of the jury covered twenty-three points of comparison, embracing the whole range of operation, and was favorable to the electric car in a most remarkable and significant manner. It was especially noted that the accumulators had been in use prior to the trial, and that at the end of the competition they showed no sign of deformation, deterioration or polarization. The weight of the car was 5,654 lbs.; the weight of the accumulators was 2,460 lbs., and the weight of the machinery was 1,232 lbs. The car could carry fourteen passengers inside and twenty outside.

The jury also made special and appropriate note of the fact that the dynamo used for charging the accumulators had an efficiency of only sixty-one per cent., a figure far below the average with modern machines, American dynamos attaining over ninety per cent.

M. Julien calculates that for a daily run of 100 kilometres, or about sixty-five miles, at the rate of six and one-half miles per hour, it would require about seven and one-half horse-power per car when run singly, and only ten horsepower (i.e., five horse-power for each) when two cars are run together at the same speed.

From this the coal consumption will be easily computable. On the most liberal basis of calculation, the cost with accumulators appears to be far below two-thirds that of cable or horse traction.

So far, as regards the advantage to the street car company. There are also great and direct advantages to the public in the use of the electric car as compared with horses. The service is more expeditious; the streets are less crowded and much cleaner; the motion is easier, and the cars are better lighted. Large stables no longer spread over large blocks required for human occupancy, and the whole change is in the direction of improving the condition of the city. Now that the first steps have been taken, the revolution, for it is nothing else, in methods of urban travel, will go on with tremendous rapidity.

It is not alone in Antwerp that M. Julien has given evidence of the value of his system. In Paris he has cars running daily and regularly between the Palais de l'lndustrie and the Place de la Concorde. The awarding committee of the International Exposition of Industrial Arts and Sciences has just given him a diploma of honor, in keeping with that conferred in Belgium. At Hamburg, M. Huber, who holds the right to use the Julien system in Germany, has been running a service since the month of April last, and the two cars have up to date required no repairs. At Brussels, the tramway company is now engaged in equipping to operate one of its lines by the Julien system, after a thoroughly satisfactory trial of two years. The confidence of local capital in the change has been exemplified in the quotations of the stock. Negotiations for control of the system are, it is stated, now pending in London, Paris, and Vienna, as well as for Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The Belgian papers to hand report that Mr. Hargreaves, a Brazilian engineer, who has acquired the rights for South America, is now organizing a staff in Brussels and building his cars to serve as models. The movement is evidently a general one, and deserves attention for that, if for no other reason. In New York a corporation has been formed under the name of the Julien Electric Company, to extend the use of the system all over the United States, and it has now, under the personal supervision of M. Julien, inaugurated the operation of street cars with accumulators, after the manner illustrated by the car described above.

A subject of this nature demands very full treatment, and although we have now devoted considerable space to it, approaching developments will, without doubt, necessitate further and even more exhaustive discussion.

Fig. 1 shows the car now running in New York. Fig. 2 shows a set of accumulators, on the receiving bench in the car stables. Fig. 6 shows a bench without accumulators, and Fig. 5 a bench on which a set has been placed. It will be seen at a glance that the change from horses to electricity, as motive power, can be progressive, and therefore far from costly. Thus on a road with one hundred cars, ten can be "changed over" and equipped for the system, and the price for which the eighty or one hundred horses rendered unnecessary can be sold will more than cover the initial outlay. This is an important consideration with many, and will have its influence in all probability in bringing about the change more quickly.
 
THE EXTENSION OF ELECTRICAL APPARATUS.

In our last issue was a casual remark to the effect that it was almost impossible to say what electricity could and what it could not do. Also that the extension of electrical apparatus in a variety of ways was merely a question of time and money. Great wonder is displayed every now and again by the uninitiated at some whimsical use made of the current. If a man rigs up a piece of apparatus to brush his horse or to clean his boots, that of course is put forward as something very wonderful, and indicative of the vast and rapid progress of electricity. The unknown, in fact, is always wonderful, and though we may doubt the accuracy of the tale which records the old mother as sending her son a new pair of boots by hanging them on the telegraph wire and getting back at sundown by the same means his old pair, we are by no means surprised that such tales should meet with pretty general credence.

There is one direction in which necessity will ultimately compel a vast extension of electrical appliances. We refer to the safety of goods and chattels. The old Adam is still pretty rampant in modern society, and civilisation fails to teach to everyone the distinction between mine and thine. Bolts and bars are required everywhere, and great skill and ingenuity is shown in designing means whereby interiors shall be safe from visitors "who are not wanted therein." It seems to us that in this direction, again, America is setting us an example worthy to be followed. It is possible - indeed, it is comparatively a simple and inexpensive matter - to protect a room in such a manner that no one, be he the rightful owner or not, can enter or leave without indicating to other parties the fact. Of course, every door and window might be protected, and not prevent anyone getting through the walls, through the roof, or burrowing under the foundations and floor. Still, if unwelcome guests were driven to such means to get into an office, with the knowledge that at the end the plunder obtained might be of trivial value, there would be less housebreaking and fewer burglaries than at present. It may be said that the knowledge of those whom it was desired to circumvent would soon be equal to the occasion, and if safety was obtained by means of an electric current they would learn to cut or shunt the wire. But such an operation would be made to give an alarm, and, indeed, it is difficult to see how the best electrician could penetrate past a door or window properly certified as safe.

Extension of the use of electrical apparatus will, in many instances, follow the lead of luxury. We should not be surprised to see a house fitted up to employ electricity in many ways not yet contemplated - to open and shut doors and windows, to brush hats, coats, and boots. It might be used, with much greater safety than gas, to obtain a warm bath, to get an early cup of tea or coffee; in ventilation, to obtain incoming pure air at the temperature of the room and so avoid draughts.

It is, again, almost lost labour to point out to telephone companies that their systems should commence with the idea that every house should have a telephone. The value of telephonic systems, with subscribers here and there, is not comparable with their value when generally used. It seems natural that a telephonic system should provide for two classes of users - the one comprising messages restricted to the district, the other for messages outside the district. The one comprises the multitudinous messages that would pass in a residential district between housewife and butcher, and baker, and other shopkeeper; or if in a business district, messages or business matters between business houses. As we say, the locality of most of these messages is restricted within a limited area. The other messages, comparatively few in number, pass from one district, or even town, to another. It would be interesting to know if any company has ever gone into this question fully - to get the cost of the wiring and the rental that might be obtained. The general impression is that the rental would be excessively moderate, not more, if as much, as double what is paid to the postal authorities. Undoubtedly the great question with the latter is what will pay best, and if the telephone was generally used it would seem that the present royalty might be with advantage considerably diminished.

No mention has yet been made of what might be termed domestic traction. Here, again, is a vast future for electricity. There is no reason, when the current can be had just as gas can now be had, why three parts of our vehicles cannot with pleasure and with profit be driven by electricity. The initial cost of an electric carriage will be no more than the initial cost of carriages and horses, in many instances not so great. The cost of depreciation and maintenance of the electrical carriage should be less than that of the other. Constructed now for the luxurious and the wealthy, they should be sooner or later constructed for everybody. It is useless unless our business men look ahead; they must not hesitate to plunge into new fields that show signs of promise, and we are disposed to think that domestic electric traction will ultimately become a very large business. Of course it is taken for granted, and as beyond question, that in the near future every house of any pretensions will be provided with terminals by means of which accumulators can be charged. Our surmise depends upon the future success of accumulators, that this useful piece of apparatus will be certain in action, fairly lasting, not outrageously heavy, and not too costly. At the present time great differences of opinion are held with regard to accumulators, but this arises because one set of people require one design of accumulators to do everything, while the other maintain that accumulators, like dynamos, must be designed for the work they have to do. Ubiquitousness is not altogether desirable in an accumulator.

These, then, are a few brief remarks as to directions in which great progress is to be made, the most important, and probably that which will pay best, being domestic electric traction.

:D
 
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