HISTORIC CARS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10240, 1 September 1909, Page 2

HISTORIC CARS.

In connection with an exhibition of early cars given at a motor show in England, the autocar recently printed an article in which it said that the eye, historically inclined, was "first taken to Colonel Crompton's steam carriage.' 1 Oil this car differential gearing was employed on the road for the first time. It was built in 18G1 and was running as late as 1875. The car is described as having -'a water-tube boiler, with vertical water-tubes almost identical with many forms of boilers now in use, the boiler and engine being carried up a three-point suspended frame, the forward portion being supported 011 a rocking shaft. The car shown at the exhibition is still in good condition, being described as looking "as though it had left the workshop but a few minutes ago." Another early contrivance shown was a steam tricycle, built by Arthur Bateman, of Greenwich in 1881, and here represented in a picture. It is realised that action against this tricycle, taken by English authorities at the time, for many years proved a serious bar to the advancement of road locomotion in England. The steam tricycle was pronounced a steam carrier of the kind prohibited by the British High-ways Act, and therefore it could not be driven unless it had wheels four inches wide, three men in attendance upon it, one of them carrying a red flag, and a speed confined to a maximum of four miles an hour. Mr Bateman was fined a shilling for breaking the law. He appealed to a higher court, but the decision against him was confirmed. It is declared by The Autocar that this decision, which it calls "chuckleheaded, " gave the French "the huge start in the motor industry which we can hardly yet be said to have overcome." In this tricycle a little twocylinder horizontal engine was set above tlie water-tube boiler and drove the near side rubber-tired wheel by means of bevelled gearing. . Another interesting exhibit was a little car which is believed to be the first two-seated petrol car ever made in England. It was run on the Surrey roads until November, 1895, when it was stopped by the lambent intelligence of the Surrey County Council for the same foolish reasons which had arrested Mr Bateman's tricvcle fourteen years earlier." This little car has "a cylinder horizontal engine with surface carburetter, automatic inlet-valve, and electric ignition, although the sparkingplug in the head of the cylinder looks remarkably modern." Engine-racing was prevented by a simple form of governor, and fhe drive was delivered from the crank-shaft to a counter-shaft by two belts, forming the first and second speeds." Among the French exhibits was a /p----horse-power two-cylinder car built by Panhard, which dates back to 1891. Another exhibit was a one-horse-power petrol motor-cycle, built by De Uion and "differing verv little, from the point of view of the ordinary observer, from the machine still in considerable use." •