History of Highway Transportation

History of Highway Part 1-Vehicles

The idea of mechanical propul-sion was forecast in Homer when he made the Blacksmith-God create the "Twenty-wheel-ed-tripods" that were to be moved by the will of the gods. Fanciful means of travel came to life in many of the myths of ancient times; it is an idea that has been always extant in human history and has found expression in many conjectures. However, the prog-enitor of our modern automobile is of comparatively recent origin.

1769-STEAM WAGONS. Francis Moore worked on a steam carriage; although not a success he and his friends had considerable confidence in it to the point of selling their horses, thinking that the value of horses would be greatly reduced after the introduction of their horseless carriage. He was granted three British patents.

1769 FIRST NOTABLE STEAM CARRIAGE. Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, a French engineer, designed the first carriage that would actually run by steam.

The tracks were automatically laid in short sections ahead of the carriage as it progressed. They were carried on the body of the carriage.

1784 William Murdock, in England, built a three-wheel single-cylinder steam carriage. He was the first to apply the motion of a piston rod to a rocking arm, the rocking arm in turn transmitting the power to the axle. He drove at a rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour.

1788-FIRST AMERICAN CARRIAGE. Nathan Read invented a carriage and an engine with a vertical multitubular fire-box boiler, which was smaller and an improvement in weight and ef-ficiency.

In 1790 he built a four-wheel carriage using this engine, the power being trans-mitted by a pair of ratchet wheels keyed to the rear axle. The ratchets were mov-ed by a rack arrangement from the pis ton rods. He pointed the exhaust pipes backward because he believed the exhaust steam would help push the carriage. 1800-Richard Trevithick, credited with being "the father of the high pressure steam engine," completed a steam road wagon which weighed one and a half tons and could travel eight miles an hour on level roads and four miles on grades. Many improvements were introduced in this carriage, such as a flywheel, slide device for the piston, and noted the pos-sibility of using a transmission for dif-ferent speeds. This carriage was the first to carry commercially passengers on an English highway.

In 1827-Goldsworthy Gurney in Eng-land, after numerous experiments, con-structed a large steam coach capable of

JANUARY, 1937 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 9 Transportation The Third of a Chronological Series

carrying twenty-one passengers at fifteen miles an hour on level roads. He added "pushing legs" to aid the driving wheels, because he believed the driving wheels would not have enough traction. This locomotive coach was used commercially for two years in Wales hauling passen-gers.

roads unprofitable through exhorbitant tolls levied by legislation. During the course of the next few years it was the cause of bringing to an entire stand-still steam road locomotion in a country where it was founded.

In 1831-Sir Charles Dance at this time organized the first public conveyance system running between Cheltenham and Gloucester in England. He bought Gurney coaches for $5,000 and in about 400 trips made a profit, despite much hostility and attempts by the populace to wreck his coaches. This line was discon tinued in 1840, due to the heavy tolls enacted for mechanical wagons. The toll charges for passage over public roads averaged about $10.00 for a steam carriage and 72 cents for a coach drawn by four horses. While the steam wagons and coaches had not as yet acquired tires which would have served to protect the roadways, the great difference in the toll tax was due largely to popular disfavor rather than hardship on the roads. There were about a dozen other coach lines in existence; also steam railroads commenced to gain favor at this time in England.

The act was popularly called the "Red Flag Law" since it provided that all mechanically propelled vehicles should be preceded one hundred feet by a man on foot or horseback, carrying a red flag, and the vehicles should not exceed four miles an hour. Some of the coaches could attain a speed of thirty or more miles an hour. The act was repealed in November, 1896.

1836-LOCOMOTIVE ACT. Due to popular prejudice which was fomented by the railroads, the parliament in England passed the Locomotive Act which made mechanical transportation on the 1871ATTEMPT TO MAKE AN ELECTRIC CAR. Gramme reversed a dynamo to use it for a motor for an electric car. He could not surmount the difficulty of having to use batteries of excessive weight. 1878-Amidee Bolee, of Mans, exhibited two steam cars at the Paris Exposition, and two years later built the car "La Nouvelle," which in the race from Paris to Bordeaux in 1895 covered the distance of 745 miles an 90 hours and three minutes.

1884-Gottlieb Daimler patented a small gas engine which operated at high speed. It used an explosive gas mixture that was fired by an incandescent filament. The motor was cooled by an electric fan. In 1896 he constructed a two cylinder motor.

1886-FIRST GAS CAR IN AMERICA. Charles E. Duryea became interested in making a motor buggy. After making a steam buggy in 1888, in 1892 he completed the first gas motor "horseless carriage." It had a single cylinder motor with the fuel supplied by a constant level spray carburetor and a make and break ignition system, a friction clutch, and rubber tires. This Duryea car won many durability races, the most (Continued on Page 17)