CARRIAGES WITHOUT HORSES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9305, 4 January 1896, Page 9

CARRIAGES WITHOUT HORSES.

SOME THAT WERE RECENTLY EXHIBITED IN ENGLAND. I Described ey Luke Sharp. I took a run down to Tunbridge Wells the other day, not for the drinking of the waters, nor even with the object of seeing the very pretty little town which nestles there in the hollow of the hills, but for the purpose of witnessing an exhibition which I thought might be of interest to the readers of the Free Press. This was a show of carriages without horses, and it was not a bicycle exhibition either. Tunbridge Wells is a watering place about thirty-five miles from London, which one day had its vogue, but now is seldom visited, although perhaps its waters have not lost whatever efficacy they once possessed; nevertheless healing properties were perhaps the least important of the lactors that went towards making of a mineral spring town in England. Tunbridge Well 3 has run down at the heel merely because royal favour has been withdrawn from it. Now in Germany, where they take their mineral waters seriously, and actually believe in them, this state of things does not obtain. There are many popular health resorts on the continent that have never been patronised by royalty. In England all this is different. A history ot the various health resorts of Great Britain would give one a history of the kings who have ruled over the country. The study of the health resorts would afford one an insight into the petty jealousies from which even monarchs were not free. No king or queen would put up with a health resort that his or her predecessor hod-made popular. One monarch gave the vogue to Tunbridge Wel_, another to Brighton, another to Epsom; another to Bath, and so on down the list. As England has had many monarchs she has accordingly many health resorts, for, when once the place got its boom, as it were, it kind of held on, up to the present time. Bath, for instance, being situated in a dry spot on this damp little island, has retained its hold npon the people, although no king has lived there for years, except Clark Russell, the king of ssa story writers. « The Tunbridge springs were discovered in 1606 by Lord North, and at that time ,

the surrounding was a forest. In 1630 Queen Henrietta went to Tunbridge Wells, and that at once made the place. For a long time, however, it was a unique resort which might well bo copied in these modern days. A great many cottages were built near the wells, but they were all movable. These huts were rented by men of fashion from London for the season, and whenever a person got tired of his near neighbour ho could have a horse hitched to his cottage and change his location. A man could thus live in the wilderness in peace and quietness, or move out into the main street just as suited his purpose. It seems to mc that a watering place conducted on this principle nowadays Mould be a distinct boon and would be nearly as good as camping out.

Tunbridge Wells has always been a favourite resort, and Lord Macaulay has written very favourabty of it in his history of England, and besides liked to take a run down there himself whenever he got the chance. Samuel Johnson liked the place, and so did Garrick and Richardson and Cibber.

Tunbridge Wells lies in a hollow of the hills, and all around it are woods and' fine estates. A broad park or common right in the centre of the town, adds much to its attractiveness, and the walks about are extremely beautiful, with their views over hill and dale. From the old church at Frant, two or three miles from Tunbridge Wells, is one of the finest views in England over-looking a fine extent of country with a shining blue lake in the centre of the picture.

There is a grave in Frant churchyard that always appealed to mc. It is the grave of a young man of twenty who died a 100 years ago somewhat tragically. The epitaph on the tombstone says that the foot-stone of the grave falling from the church tower killed the young man. And so, in the eternal fitness of things, they had made the stone tho guardian of the unfortunate youth's resting place, thus anticipating Mr W. S. Gilbert's Mikado in making the punishment fit the crime.

But I went to Tunbridge Wells, as I have said, not to see tho place, but to witness an exhibition of horseless carriages gotten up by Sir David Solomon, who, liko his namesake

of old, is evidently a wise man and sees into the future. Not long ago there was a road race of horseless carriages from Paris to Bordeaux and return in France. It was a long journey and the race was won by a carriage worked by a petroleum engine, which made quicker time on the high road than the usual French expresses do on the railways. In England the law makes such a road exhibition impossible. The law says that any carriage not drawn by horses must be preceded by a man carrying a red flag and that it must not travel faster than two miles an hour. This law was evidently framed with an eye towards the crushing steam roller ; nevertheless, it prevents any steam or electric vehicle running on the queen's highway, and the wonder is that it did not step in in time to prevent bicycling. There is an agitation just now in England to have this law repealed, and doubtless it will be repealed ultimately. As it was, the exhibition at Tunbridge Wells could not take place on the high road, but was held in the agricultural grounds, which, with its damp, sodden grass, was about as poor a place for such an exhibition as could well be imagined.

England, of course, is far in the rear in the invention of machines of this kind, and accordingly only one English carriage was to be seen there, which was more than ordinarily clumsy and by all odds the poorest vehicle on the grounds. All the rest were from France, and some of them were very neat carriages indeed, without any perceptible machinery about them that would show they were not to be drawn by horses. The one steam carriage exhibited could hardly be called a success, as every now and then a cloud of steam and smoke enveloped the carriage, which made it rather uncomfortable for the occupants. The petroleum and naphtha engines are evidently the practicable and workable machines of the future although the advance of electricity may yet oust the petroleum engine from its place. No electric motors were shown at work there however, and so one could not judge. The carriages worked by petroleum engines, it was said, would run 200 miles without needing a fresh supply, and the cost was something like a cent a mile.

A bicycle, made in Paris, was shown worked by a petroleum engine, and these are said to be becoming very popular in the French capital. There was also a tricycle worked by the same means, although a person had to do some pedalling at the start, and also to work with the feet when going up hill. These machines did not look as cumbersome as might have been expected.

My own idea is that the tricycle arid bicycle of the future will be fitted up with storage batteries that will be, as it were, interchangeable, and that all along the main travelled roads a person can get a charged battery in exchange for his exhausted one, just as now a fellow can get a drink at various refreshment places, which, in a way; is a kind of physical storage arrangement for putting new energy into the cyclist.

Although England made such a poor show at this exhibition of road machines, she claims to have been the first to introduce a practicable horseless carriage. In 1827 a steam carriage was run in Regent's Park, and about the same time another ran, carrying passengers, between Paddington and the Bank, charging twelve cents for the trip.

If America takes to the invention of horseless carriages she ought to make the business hum. The machines shown at Tunbridge, Wells cost, they told mc, from oOOdol. to 2000d01., so there ought, to be a good margin of profit in the making of them. By and by when the United States quits fooling about trivial questions as the presidency, the silver question, the tariff and such, and turns its attention to the real live and important problem of good roads, there ought to be a greater future for horseless carriages. Several of those on exhibition, made in France, had no difficulty in going fifteen miles an hour, and a carriage that can run along like that, only needing filling once every 200 miles, is going to be no unimportant competitor of the railroads.—Detroit Free Press.