Horseless Carriages Are Clearing the Way -- August 18, 2023

San Francisco Call, 14-August-1898

This is an 1898 article about horseless carriages. It uses the word "automobile" only once. "...this vehicle is hardly likely to ever come into general use in San Francisco on account of the hills..."

HORSELESS CARRIAGES

ARE CLEARING THE WAY

THE horseless carriage is at last declared to be a success.

It is true that this vehicle is hardly likely to ever come into general use in San Francisco on account of the hills, but in most of the big cities of the world the horse is destined to soon become a curiosity, perhaps only to be seen in menageries and museums. The clatter of hoofs over cobbles and asphalt is about to give place to the whiz of the electric motor, the puff of the gasoline engine and the soft rattle of the coal oil locomotive. And the general verdict of thinking men is that it is well.

For the last ten years horseless carriages have merely been in the experimental stage. In a number of cities they have been put on the streets to replace cabs, but people have looked upon them as curiosities and the patronage has not been what was expected. A number of wealthy men have bought them for their own use or amusement, but heretofore the number, of horses displaced has hardly been worth counting. Now all is changed.

The principal work at developing the horseless carriage has been done In Paris and London. Most of the machines on New York's streets were of foreign make, although a number of native ones held their own with them. There were only a few in use, but they competed successfully with the cabs and received a fair amount of patronage. It is asserted that this would have been more if the horseless carriages were more plentiful. As it was they attracted so much curious attention many people disliked them. Were they in general use this objection would be removed.

And they are going to be in general use, in Paris at least, within the next few months, or as fast as the machines can be built, for the big cab company over there has decided to adopt them entirely.

The few that have been in operation in Paris during the last three years demonstrated to the cabmen that they could be made more profitable than horses if certain improvements were made. But how to get the improvements was another matter that was at last overcome by offering large prizes to builders of the vehicle in order to stimulate them to greater efforts.

This plan has borne good fruit, for last year a number of big improvements showed up. Again the cabmen offered prizes and the "exhibition" has just closed, the result being a number of carriages that answered all requirements and stood all tests. The judges pronounced at least a dozen to be "perfect," but have not yet decided as to which one is the very best but the cab company has decided to adopt them, feeling sure of success on account of the perfection of so many.

The cabmen who have encouraged this work have formed themselves into an organization known as the automobile club.

At the exhibition that has just closed twenty-six vehicles were put through the tests despite the severity of the programme, which made obligatory a daily run of thirty-six miles, at a minimum, within a period of sixteen hours.

The vehicles admitted to the competition figured in the following six categories:
1. (a) Closed carriages , for two persons, (b) Open carriages, with hood, for two persons, (c) Mixed carriages for two persons, capable ¦of being instantaneously closed or opened.

2. (a) Carriages for four persons, with space for baggage, sixty-five pounds to each person, (b) Open carriages, with hood, for four persons.

3. Closed carriages for six persons, with space, for baggage, sixty-five pounds to each person.

The vehicle had to be so constructed that all the passengers should be comfortably installed therein, and had to be provided with an odometer or a kilometric counter with two brakes, one progressive and the other instantaneous. Out of the twenty-six vehicles booked sixteen were electric and ten gasoline.

The first of June was devoted to an examination of the conditions of establishment and of the system and running of the vehicles. From June 2 to June 10 the carriages had to make nine specific Itineraries, the same for all. On the 11th the experiments of the first of June were repeated, in order to ascertain the disturbances that had been introduced into the running of the vehicles by a service of nine consecutive days. On the 12th, the day of the grand prize, the carriages went to Versailles, a distance of about twelve miles, and returned through the Bois de Boulogne, in order to figure in the classic return of this very Parisian solemnity.

In the nine itineraries commissioners accompanied each vehicle and carefully noted upon a service sheet all the incidents of the daily trip, the real speed upon a level and upon certain known gradients, etc.

The Jury consisted of twelve members, six selected from members of the club and six selected by the competitors. The report of this jury has, up to the present, not been made known.

In London the tendency of the horseless carriage seems to be in the direction of large vehicles to replace the omnibuses. The cabmen who were at the exhibition and tests in Paris have expressed themselves as delighted with the machine and have decided to adopt it in some modified form.

There are to be steam omnibuses, motor omnibuses and "petrol" cabs. As regards the first, the steam is created by a slow combustion stove, which consumes only a very small quantity of coke or petroleum. These omnibuses are of 20 horsepower, to be increased presently to 30 horsepower. One vehicle will, it is asserted, carry twenty-eight passengers, and, where necessary, is capable of being fastened to another omnibus of equal capacity. The cost per passenger is stated to amount to one-tenth of a cent per mile; speed from eight to ten miles an hour, to be increased to fifteen miles an hour.