THE STORY OF THE FIRST CAR BUILT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 208, 2 September 1893, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE STORY OF THE FIRST CAR BUILT.

By L. M. De La Mater, President of the John Stephenson Car Company.

Strictly speaking, the first street car was not a street car, it was an omnibus.

It is a singular coincidence that two men of the same name should have been, respectively, the inventors and promoters of the two most popular methods of locomotion.

George Stephenson was the inventor of the locomotive U3sd on railway cars, and John Sbephenson is the father of the horeo car.

Date of the First Street Railroad.

Is New York in 1831 John Stephonson devised what was called an omnibus; it was something like an old fashioned coach, only the Boats ran lengthwise instead of crosss-wiee. Soon after the introduction of the omnibus the Now York and Harlem railroad was chartered, being the firsb street railroad ever organised. Mr Stephenson was employed by the company to deoi;;n a car of an entirely original type, calculated purely for street car work. This car was lirat used when the road was oponed, November 26th, 1832 ; ii ran from Prince-street, in the Bowery, to Four-teenth-street, New York, and on its first trip ib carried the Mayor and Common Council.

The paten b for this car was signed by Andrew Jackson, at that time President of the United States.

Tlio car had three compartments of ten seats each, the entrances being on the sides. It had rows of seats on top, facing back and front, a plan which has always been favourably received in European countries, bub which has not been adopted to any oxtenb in the United States,

Rapid Spread of the Car.

There aro aboub 25,000 cars used in the United States and aboub half that number in foreign lands. England was the first country"to adopt the new style of vehicle, and George Francis Train, a well-known and somewhat eccentric American, ordered of Mr Stephonson tho first car for a railway he intended to build at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool. Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris and other large European capitals soon afterward introduced Btreeb cars, and now you will find them in Yokohama and Tokio, Japan Islands ; Kimberly, Port Elizabeth, Capetown, Africa ; Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Australia, Bombay, India ; Lisbon and Valencia, Spain, and Christiania, Sweden,

They aro in use in Ne-.v Zealand and in aboub thirty of the leading cities of South America, thirty in Mexico and in nearly all tho principal towns in tho United States.

Costly Woods Used.

Tho wood principally used in the construction of a street cat is white oak, the poata are made of ash ; the panels of white wood; tho seats of birch with maple voneering; but latterly much of the interior work is finished with mahogany which has a very elegant effect, Nothing bub tho most perfect material is used in the construction of a car.

How thoroughly the work is done may be judged from tho fact that most of the oak and ash woods wo use is aired three years before it is kiln dried, or in other words, mado serviceable for tho carpenter.

How A Car is Built.

In manufacturing a car tho frame is built first, then tho panels are pub on> then the roof is pub in place. Next, the details of the interior work aro abtended to, the sashes, the blinds and bho doors are made, and the whole car is painted before the fine cabinet work is pub in placo. Then tho car ia brought downstairs from tho workshop and the wheels ai(3 pub on. The wheels come ready made from the foundry. It would be difficult to state just how many men it takes to make a car, because the work is divided into piece work. Ono man may make tho body of tho car, another will make the roof, another will put the roof on. One man will construct the doors, another tho sashes, another tho blinds, another the ventilated frames. After one man makes the doors another workman may attach the appliances to them and put tb9m in position. Another may do the same with tho ventilator frame:-), the sashes and blinds, and the iron work is divided up among various blacksmiths.

Cost of a Common Car,

The coab of a plain old-fashioned stroe* car on an average fa about; £160, but; many of tho cars wo make cost* i'2oo and eomo as high aa £320. At tho present time cars that ore run by electricity, or the cable process, aro gvadu-

iillv enmintr into use, as those more rapid methods of locomotion have been demandod in our latfje cities where more tbfin anywhere c!bk, to tlio business and tho working ninn, ' fcime is money.' These electric cars are built on the same plan o,s t!io street caw, only they aro wore attractive. Thoy are made of the iinest and strongest wood, elaborately carved and painted, find all the interior ornament is nindo of bronzo or brass, while- almnafc as much c-irc is taken with the doors, windows blind?* seats, and other features as if they were pulace carp.

Cost of ant Eumtric Car,

The cosb of an electric car with the motor iv about £1,000, and the batteries cost £400 more.

A German Idea.

Recently a German has invented a method by which cars can be propelled rapidly by means of electricity, with this difference from the ordinary method—tha electric current will come from under* ground. This new method will shortly be tried in Chicago. The Inventor a Great Sunday-schooii Man. John Stephcnson, tho oldest car builder in the United States, is now eighty-threa years of ago. His list of closed care turned out at his shops has passed the 10,000 mark, and with the open cars, electric cars, cable aivi, and other vehicles that he has built, the total would undoubtedly reach well up toward 20,000. One strong characteristic of Mr Stephenson's may interest some of my boy readers ; all his life he has been a great Sunday school man.

When the first Sunday school in New York was started by Mrs David Bethune and Mrs Mary Mason in Public School No. 1, at the corner of Chatham-street and Tryon Row, about the year 1816, Mr Stepheneon became very, much interested in the work and, until his recent illness, for many years taught a large Bible class. . Many years ago he built a Methcfdisfc Church on Twenty-seventh-street, about; three ijiouks from his shops, of which ha was the controlling spirit.

It was his habit then to take all his apprentices to the Sunday school every Sunday. The result of this peculiar 'arrangement was that tho bad and unruly boya were weeded out, for naturally they did nob take very kindly to such discipline, and the tractable boys who remained there nob only became skilled mechanics bub developed into a good class of men.