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CARRYING MACHINES. · Inventions of the Century

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Section twenty nine of Inventions in the Century. This is a LibriVox recording.
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All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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please visit LibriVox dot org. Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doulot,
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carrying machines, the reflecting observer the lights occasionally to shift the scenes of
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the present stage and bring to the front the processions of the past. That
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famous triumphal one, for instance, of Ptolemy of Philadelphus at Alexandria about two
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seventy BC, than in the midst of his power and glory, in which
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there were chariots and cumbrous wagons drawn by elephants and goats, antelopes, or
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Aurex's buffalo's ostriches, news and zebras, then a tribe of the Scythians,
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when with many scores of oxen, they were shifting their light big round houses
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made of felt cloth and mounted on road carts to a new camping place.
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Next a wild mad dash of the Roman charioteers around the amphitheater, or a
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triumphal march with chariots of carved ivory bearing aloft the ensigns of Victory, And
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now an army of the ancient Britons driving through these same charioteers of Caesar,
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with their own rude chariots, having sharp hooks and crooked iron blades extending from
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their axles. Now a lady's chair of the fourteenth century, the state carriage
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of the time, with a long wooden roofed and windowed bar, having a
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door at each end, resting on a cumbers frame without springs, and the
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axles united rigidly to a long reach. Next comes a line of imposing,
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clumsy state coaches of the sixteenth century, with bodies provided with pillars to support
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the roof and adorned with curtains of cloth and leather, but still destitute of
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springs. And here in stately approach comes a line of more curious and more
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comfortable royal coaches of the seventeenth century, when springs were for the first time
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introduced. And now rumbles forward a line of those famous old English stage coaches
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originated in the seventeenth century, which were two days flying from Oxford to London,
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a distance of fifty five miles. But a scene in the next century
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shows these ponderous vehicles greatly improved and the modern English stage mail coaches of Palmer.
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In line referring to Palmer's coaches, Knight says Palmer, according to DeQuincy,
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was twice as great a man as Galileo, because he not only invented
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mail coaches of more general practical utility than Jupiter satellites, but married the daughter
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of a duke and succeeded in getting the post office to use them. This
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revolutionized the whole business. The coaches were built with steel springs, windows of
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great strength and lightness, combined boots for the baggage, seats for a few
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outside passengers, and a guard with a grand uniform to protect the mail and
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stand for the dignity of His Majesty's government. By the system of changing horses
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frequently, great speed was attained, and the distance from Edinburgh to London four
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hundred miles was made in forty hours. Other lines of coaches, arranged to
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carry double the number of passengers outside than in fourteen to six, were made
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heavier and took the road more leisurely. The carts and conveyances of the poor
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were cumbrass heavy contrivances without springs, mostly two wheel heavy carts. The middle
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classes at that time were not seen riding and coaches of their own, but
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generally on horseback, as the coaches of the rich were too expensive and the
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conveyances of the poor were too re construction and too painful in observation. Let
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the observer now pass to the largest and most varied exhibition of the best types
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of modern vehicles of every description that the world had ever seen, the International
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Exhibition at Philadelphia in eighteen seventy six. And behold what wonderful changes art,
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science, invention, and mechanical skill had wrought in this domain. Here were
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the carriages of the rich, constructed of the finest and most appropriate woods that
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science and experience had found, best adapted for the various parts requiring the combination
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of strength and lightness, the best steel for the springs, embodying in themselves
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a world of invention and discovery, and splendid finish and polish in all parts
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unknown to former generations. Here too were found vehicles of a great variety for
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the comfort and convenience of every family, from the smallest to the largest means.
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The farmer and the truckmen were especially provided for. One establishment making an
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exhibition at that time employed some six hundred or seven hundred hands four hundred horsepower
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of steam, turning out sixty wagons a day, or one in every ten
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minutes of each working day in the year. Here England showed her Victoria,
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her brooms, landows, phaetons, sporting carts, wagonettes, dreys and dog
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carts. Canada her splendid sleighs. France her superb barouches, carriages, double
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top sociables, the celebrated collings, patent, axle, trees and springs.
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Germany the best carriage axles, springs and gears. Russia its famous low wheeled,
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fast running carriages. Norway its carryalls or sulkies, and sleighs, strongly
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built and made of wood from those vast forests that ever abound in strength and
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beauty. One ancient sleigh there was demurely standing by its modern companions, said
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to have been built in sixteen twenty five, and it was still good.
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America stood foremost in carriage wheels of best materials and beautiful workmanship. Bent rims,
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turned and finished spokes were this tough steel tires, business and farm wagons,
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carts and baby carriages. Each trade and field of labor had its own
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especially adapted complete and finished vehicle. There were hay wagons and hearses, beer
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wagons and ice carts, doctors, buggies, express wagons, dreys, package
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delivery wagons, peddler's wagons with all the shelves and compartments of a miniature store,
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skeleton wagons and sportsmen's and lighting, graceful two and four wheelers, beautiful
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displays of benton polished woods, a splendid array of artistic, elegant and useful
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harnesses, and all the traps that go to make modern means of conveyance by
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animal power so cheap, convenient, straw and attractive that civilization seems to have
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reached the stop in principles of construction of vehicles and in their materials, and
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since contents itself in improving details to this century is due to the development of
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that class of carriages, the generic term for which is velocipedes, a word
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which would imply a vehicle propelled by the feet, although it has been applied
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to vehicles propelled by the hands and steered by the feet. This name originated
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with the French, and several frenchmen patented velocipites from eighteen hundred to eighteen twenty
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one. Tricycles having three wheels propelled by the hands and steered with the feet
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were also invented in the early part of the century. The term bicycle does
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not appear to have been used until about eighteen sixty nine, although such structures
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had been referred to in publications before yet. The modern bicycle appears to have
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been first practically constructed in Germany. In eighteen sixteen. Barren Vondreise of Mannheim
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made a vehicle consisting of two wheels arranged one before the other and connected by
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a bar. The forward wheel axled in a fork, which was swiveled to
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the front end of the bar, and had handles to guide the machine,
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with a seat on the bar midway between the two wheels and arranged so that
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the driver should bestride the bar. But there was no support for the rider's
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feet, and the vehicle was propelled by thrusting his feet alternately against the ground.
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This machine was called the Icina, and undoubtedly was the progenitor of the
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modern bicycle. Dennis Johnson patented in England in eighteen eighteen a similar vehicle,
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which he named the pedestrian curricle. Another style was called the Dandy horse.
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Another form was that of Gomperts in England in eighteen twenty one, who contrived
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a segmental rack connected with a frame over the front wheel and engaging opinion on
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the wheel axle. With some improvements added by others, the vehicle came into
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quite extensive and popular use in some of the cities in Europe and America.
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It was also named the Dandy and the hobby Horse. Treadles were subsequently applied,
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but after a time the machine fell into disuse and was apparently forgotten.
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In eighteen sixty three, however, the idea was revived by a Frenchman,
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Michael, who added the crank to the front wheel axle of the Dressina,
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also called the Cellery Fair. In eighteen sixty six, Pierre l' la mant
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of France, having adapted the idea of the crank and pedal movement and obtained
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a patent, went to America, where after two years of public indifference,
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the machine suddenly sprang into favor. In eighteen sixty nine. A popular wave
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in its favor also spread over part of Europe, and all classes of people
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were riding it, but the wheels had hard tires the roads in many of
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the streets were not smooth. The vehicle got the name of the phone breaker,
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and its use ceased. During the few years following, some new styles
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of frames were invented, thus some very high wheels with a small wheel in
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front or one behind, wheels with levers in addition to the crank, et
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cetera. And then for a time the art rested again. Some one then
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recalled the fact that Macmillan, a scotchman about eighteen thirty eight eighteen forty one,
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had used two low wheels like the Dicena with the driving gear, and
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at Dolzel, also of Scotland, had in eighteen forty five made a similar
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machine. Parts of these old machines were found and the wheel reconstructed. Then
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in the seventies the entire field was thrown open to women by the invention in
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England of the drop frame, which removed completely the difficulty as to the arrangement
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of the skirts, and thus doubled the interest in desire for a comfortable writing
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machine. But they were still to a great degree bone breakers. Then J.
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B. Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon of Belfast, Ireland, in order
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to meet the complaints of his son, that the wheel was too hard,
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thought of the pneumatic rubber tire and applied it with great success. This was
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a very notable and original reinvention, a reinvention because a man born before his
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time had invented and patented the pneumatic tire more than forty years before. It
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was not wanted then, and everybody had forgotten it. This man was Robert
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William Thompson, a civil engineer of Adelphi, Middlesex County, England. In
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eighteen forty five he attained a patent in England and shortly after in the United
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States. In both patents, he describes how he proposed to make a tire
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for all kinds of vehicles, consisting of a hollow rubber tube with an intermixed
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canvas and rubber lining, a tube and a screw cup by which to inflate
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it, and several ways for preventing punctures. To obviate the bad results of
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the punctures. He proposed also to make his tires in sectional compartments, so
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that if one compartment was punctured, the others would still hold good. He
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also proposed to use falconized rubber, thus utilizing the then very recent discovery of
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good year of mixing sulfur with soft rubber, and to apply the same to
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the canvas lining. And now, when the last decade of the century had
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been reached, and after a century's hard work by the inventors, the present
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wonderful vehicle known as the safety bicycle had obtained a successful and permanent foothold among
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the vehicles of mankind. Proper proportions, low wheels, chain gearing, treadles,
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pedals and cranks, cushion and pneumatic tires, drop frames, steel spokes
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like a spider's web, ball bearings for the crank and axle parts, a
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spring supported cushioned seat which could be raised or lowered, adjustable handles, and
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the clearest brained scientific mechanics to construct all the parts from the best materials and
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with mathematical exactness. All this has been done. To these accomplishments have been
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added a great variety of times to prevent wear and puncturing, among which are
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self healing tires having a lining of viscous or plastic rubber to close up automatically
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the air holes. Many ways of clamping the tire to the rimp have been
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contrived. So have brakes of various descriptions, some consisting of disks on the
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driving shaft brought into frictional contact by a touch of the toe on the pedal,
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as a substitute for those applied to the surface of the tire known as
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spoon brakes, saddles, speed gearings, men's machines, in which by the
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removal of the upper bar, the machine is converted into one for the use
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of women, the substitution of the direct action consisting of beveled gearing for the
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sprocket chain, et cetera, et cetera. The ideas of William Thompson as
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to pneumatic and cushioned tires are now after a lapse of fifty years, generally
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adopted. Even sportsmen were glad to seize upon them, and wheels of sulkies
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provided with the pneumatic tires have enabled them to lower the record of trotting horses.
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Their use on many other vehicles has accomplished his objects of lessening the power
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required to draw carriages, rendering the motion easier, and diminishing the noise.
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It is impossible to overlook the fact, in connection with this subject that the
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processes and machinery especially invented to make the various parts of a bicycle are as
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wonderful as the wheel itself. Counting the spokes there are, it is estimated
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more than three hundred different parts in such a wheel. The best and latest
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inventions and discoveries in the making of metals, wood, rubber, and leather
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have been drawn upon in supplying these useful carriers, And what a revolution they
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have produced in the making of good roads, the saving of time, the
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dispatch of business, and more than all else, in the increase of the
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pleasure, the health, and the amusement of mankind. It was quite natural
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that, when the rubber cushion and pneumatic tires rounded the pleasure of easy and
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noiseless riding in vehicles, that motor vehicles should be revived and improved. So
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we have the automobiles in great variety. Invention has been and is still being
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greatly exercised as to the best motive power in the adaptation of electric mind motors,
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oil and gasoline or vapor engines, springs and air pumps in attempts to
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reduce the number of complicated parts and to render less strenuous the mental and muscular
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strain of the operator. Traction engines the old road engines that antedated the locomotives
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are being revived, and new ideas springing from other arts are being incorporated in
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these useful machines to render them more available than in former generations. Many of
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the principles and features of motor vehicles, but on a heavier scale, are
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being introduced to adapt them to the drawing of far heavier loads. Late devices
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comprise a spring link between the power and the traction wheel to prevent to sudden
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a start and permit a yielding motion. Steering devices by which the power of
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the engine is used to steer the machine, and application of convenient and easily
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worked brakes. An example of a modern traction engine may be found attached to
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one or more heavy cars adapted for street work, and on which may be
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found apparatus for making the mixed materials of which the roadbed is to be constructed,
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and all of which is moved along as the road or street surface is
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completed. When these fine roads become the possession of a country, light traction
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engines for passenger traffic will be found largely supplanting the horse and the steam.
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Railroad engines, brakes, railway and electric have already been referred to in the
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proper chapters. In the latest system of railroading, greater attention has been paid
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to the lives and limbs of those employed as workmen on the trains, especially
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to those of brakemen, and if corporations have been slow to adopt such merciful
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devices, legislatures have stepped in to help the matter. One great source of
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accidents in this respect has been due to the necessity of the brakemen entering between
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the cars while they are in motion to couple them by hand. This is
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now being abolished by automatic couplers, by which when the locking means have been
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withdrawn from connection or thrown up, they will be so held until the cars
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meet again, when the locking parts on the respective cars will be automatically thrown
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and locked as easily and on the same principle as the hand of one man
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and may clasp the hand of another. The comfort of passengers and the safety
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of freight have also been greatly increased by the invention of buffers on railroad cars
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and trains to prevent sudden and violent concussion. Fluid pressure car buffers, in
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which a constant supply of fluid under pressure is provided by a pump or train
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pipe connected to the engine is one of a great variety. Another notable improvement
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in this line is the splendid vestibule trains, in which the cars are connected
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to one another by enclosed passages, and which at their meeting ends are provided
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with yieldingly supported door like frames, engaging one another by frictional contact, usually
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whereby the shock and rocking of cars are prevented and started and stopping, and
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their oscillation reduced to a minimum. As collisions and accidents cannot always be prevented,
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car frames are now built in which the frames are trussed and made of
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rolled steel plates, angles and channels, whereby a car body of great resistance
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the telescoping or crushing is obtained. And of section twenty nine