Académique Documents
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By WILLIAM J. LAMPTON
The Sort That May be Hired by Day or Month, with Man in Livery Included.
Wooden roads and stone roads were con- ment should be erected there to his mem-
structed, with more or less success, and at ory. But this is for the future.
last the iron track of the present railway The steam carriage had been brought to
was evolved. This was the death blow to such a point of advancement that when a
the road wagon as perfected by Hancock proper roadway was provided, it was short
and others in England, and designed by work to combine the two, and from the
Oliver Evans in America, who, as early as opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
1786, had secured from the Maryland leg- road, on the 4th of July, 1828, the devel-
islature the right to operate his steam car- opment of railroads in America and else-
694 The Meaning of the Automobile
was this true, her fine
roads, free to all ve-
hicles regardless of
propulsion, being a
powerful factor in the
development of the
machine. As early as
1888 the French man-
ufacturers were turn-
ing out carriages for
road service, but they
lacked the proper tires
until about 1890. They
had taken advantage
of all the modern im-
provements in machin-
ery, and their car-
riages were free from
most of the difficulties
w h i c h handicapped
their predecessors. We
were somewhat slower
in America, as we
lacked the factor of
good roads, and pos-
sessed such excellent
railroad and trolley
systems. We had very
good horses, too,
which we did not pro-
pose to surrender until
A Popular Use of the Automobile; a Touring Stage of New York City.
we saw pretty clearly
that we were going to
have something con-
where utterly overwhelmed the primal road siderably better in their stead.
locomotive, and it was scarcely heard of But Yankee ingenuity and Yankee en-
for half a century. The railways met all ergy and enterprise do not wait on what
the requirements of the people, and the others may do, and though they may pause
mud roads and turnpikes were given up to to be sure they are right before they go
horse-propelled vehicles. But in time the ahead, it is not for long, and when they
railroads had reached most of the points start they are not left in the ruck. About
to which they could be extended with profit, 1893 the first American machines made
and the overflow of population and inter- their appearance and the new movement in
ests from these centres had created new transportation began. It was an unknown
demands for transportation beyond the business, however, with many possibilities
ability of the horse to supply. Then came of being no more than a fad, and capi-
the trolley car, and about the same time tal did not rush forward with the enthus-
the bicycle, with its pneumatic tire, that iastic spirit of those who asked it to come.
conqueror of rough roads and the real so- But it was moving in the right direction,
lution of the problem of self-propelled road and three or four years later the advance
wagons, and the long reposing ideas of guard appeared. Not in force at first, but
Cugnot, and Boulton, and Darwin, and with the spirit of the pioneer that cannot
Evans were roused again into activity. Not be stopped by an obstacle. Six years of
fully awake in conservative England, but education were required, and in 1899 there
vigorously so in France and America, after were fifty automobilesnot generally
sixty years of dormancy the automobile called automobiles then, for it was diffi-
was to the fore again. Notably in France cult to decide upon a name for the new-
The Meaning of the Automobile 695
comer, and the difficulty is not yet quite manufacture special machines on order.
settled satisfactorilyin use in the United Forty-five firms are enrolled as members
States. In 1902 the number had been in- of the National Association of Automobile
creased to twelve thousand, an increase of Manufacturers, the only organization of
over 4,000 per cent. in three years. France, its kind in this country. The membership
which is the leading automobile country includes manufacturers in twelve States
of the world at present, cannot make such and four foreign makers. In addition to
a showing as this, and England is nowhere regular manufacturers there are numerous
in sight. These twelve thousand machines, firms making parts of machines and sup-
not all of American manufacture, may be plies of all kinds. Millions of capital are
said to represent a value of twelve millions invested and the annual output at pres-
of dollars, the present average price of ent may be estimated at ten thousand
an automobile being about one thousand machines valued at $10,000,000. This is
dollars. largely guesswork, but it is known that up
No official record of the number of man- to March, 1902, one factory had turned out
ufacturers in America is made, but there four thousand machines in all, and in June,
are probably seventy-five establishments one manufacturer refused to undertake the
turning out machines for the trade, while building of a machine for export because,
there are many more small concerns which although he was turning out twenty-three
States, 12,000 to 78,000,000, say, that is one further fact that one of the first American
to every 6,500 persons, does not at first makers, with the popular idea in view,
glance appear promising, but when we con- made machines to sell at from $400 to $600,
sider that only three years ago the ratio and advanced his prices later because he
was one to 1,500,000 persons, a very differ- could get whatever he asked, so enthusias-
ent aspect is presented; and it may be tic were those who had caught the auto
safely concluded that with such possibili- feverand more people had it than could
ties of demand, the automobile must, of be relieved by manufacturers.
necessity, grow to meet the measure of its When Robert Dudgeon, fifty years ago,
greatness. American makers are quicker rode from his Long Island home to his
to see this opportunity than are their for- New York office in his steam wagon, using
eign rivals, as is proved by prices. For- two bushels of coal and a hogshead of water
eign machines are sold in this country at in transit, he probably imagined something
On the Track; Mr. S. T. Davis in the Machine with Which He Made the Worlds Steam Record of 1 min. 12 sec.
of what may be seen on the streets of the bicycles, and trolleys, and street cars, and
big city to-day, for Robert was a pioneer to all forms of motion and rest-outside
with the great unexplored world rising on of the gravebut if we risk nothing we
his sight. But he could scarcely have can have nothing, so the risk must remain
imagined the machine of to-day, or he as part of the price paid for possession.
would have improved his own sufficiently to But the automobile goes on. America
have prevented the authorities from ruling leads the world in the number manufac-
it off the road as they did and turning it tured, France in the value. England is
into the barn to rest and rust as an heir- advancing, for the automobile is a liber-
loom to his posterity. True the authori- alizer, and Germany is trying to repeal or
ties are not yet all favorable, but it is not modify her laws so that Made in Ger-
the machine to which they object so much m a n y may appear on many automobiles
as it is to the manner of the men who as it now appears on many other articles
drive it. The insatiate thirst to go faster of use and value. The distribution of the
will not be quenched, and when the autoist automobile is characterized by a univer-
gets out on the road he forgets himself as sality never before known of any manufac-
well as others, and the obedient but help- tured article at so early a stage of its ex-
less machine is condemned for his offend- istence, and there is scarcely a civilized
ing. Time will in a measure prove the country of the globe in which one or more
corrective to this, and as automobiles in- automobiles may not be seen seeking the
crease in number and use the novelty will best roads and speeding along ahead of the
wear off, and a saner speed will prevail, horse. Every civilized ruler, King Ed-
with only such occasional outbursts as are ward, the Tsar, Emperor William, the
common to drivers of horses which thou- Mikado, the president of France, sultans,
sands of years of use have not succeeded ahkoonds, maharajahs, all, from Green-
in suppressing. Accidents have happened lands icy mountains to Indias coral
and will continue to happen, as with loco- strand, have their automobiles, with one
motives, and steamboats, and horses, and notable exception, the President of the
The Meaning of the Automobile 699
United States. Thus far it would seem vancement of nations, particularly this
that Mr. Roosevelt has reversed the estab- nation which has given right of way to
lished rule that two negatives make an more lines than all the rest of the world.
affirmative, and, apparently believing that What greater benefits may accrue from the
two affirmatives make a negative, has de- automobile with good roads everywhere
clined to combine his own strenuosity with and speedy means of transportation within
that of the automobile lest dire disaster reach of each individual for himself and
follow, to man and machine. The traveler the products of his factory or farm, can-
may find an automobile to take him to the not thus early be estimated. The horse
shadow of the Pyramids, a line of automo- will not be entirely eliminated as a factor
biles extends from Haifa to Jerusalem, of industry, but his sphere will be circum-
they have crossed the Alps and the Cor- scribed and the automobile will not only
dilleras, they have tracked the sands of do what he attempted to do in the past,
Sahara, they have rattled over the streets but it will do a millionfold more to meet
of three thousand years old Damascus, the ever-increasing demands of a people
they have climbed the Chinese wall of ob- growing daily in numbers and wealth and
struction, they have gone into regions of power. The millions of our rural popula-
ice and sun, and they are following the tion will be brought into closer relations
equator and heading for the North Pole. with the towns and with neighbors, and the
And what is the meaning of the automo- loneliness of farm life, which drives so
bile? Briefly it means that complete de- many to the cities, with detriment to all,
velopment of the entire country which will no longer retard our agricultural
without it could not be possible, for it will growth, nor prevent a proper distribution
compel the building of good roads. No of population for the national welfare.
country can command its full strength until That is the meaning of the automobile,
all its parts are easily accessible, and its and while the statement may be disputed
people and their common interests are now, it is made with the earnest belief that
brought into the closest commercial and when to-days men of fifty have rounded
social union. We know what railroads out their three score and ten years, it will
have done in a general way for the ad- be fully verified.