thermo-syphon cooling system. Many honors were won with these, and notably
that of Louis Renault's most successful use of one in the grand army
maneuvers. But the output of three hundred and fifty showed the necessity
for larger works. With the increased facilities of 1901, the product was
doubled and the model increased to four and one-half horse-power, while
eight and nine horse-power were winners in the Paris-Bordeaux and
Paris-Berlin races.
In 1902 came another addition to the Billancourt works of Cloise to four
thousand square meters area, and the Renault Brothers then changed their
models to voiture légère, six to eight horse-power, steel tube frame and
wood wheels--a full-fledged vehicle. They succeeded in the Circuit du
Nord, organized by the Minister of Agriculture, for alcohol-motored
vehicles. Then came the triumph of their twenty horse-power four-cylinder
type in the great Paris-Vienna race, where it was pitted against forty and
even seventy horse-power vehicles. The result was a great impetus
commercially, and new shops accommodating a thousand workmen and covering
thirteen thousand square meters, which produced one thousand four hundred
vehicles in the following year.
Both brothers, who had always been at the wheel of their own cars in the
years of racing, entered the memorable "race-of-death," Paris-Madrid, in
May, 1903. Louis arrived first at Bordeaux, but his unfortunate brother
Marcel, while close to victory, was killed with the overturning of his
machine only a few kilometers from the goal. In memory of Marcel Renault a
simple monument was unveiled at Billancourt May 26, 1904, on ground
contributed by the municipal council; a bronze plate on one side of this
perpetuates his triumphant entry into Vienna, showing his arrival at the
finish.
Louis Renault, since continuing the business, has now produced larger
machines, including the sixty to ninety horse-power made for the
Vanderbilt race in America, October, 1904.
[Illustration: MARCEL RENAULT]
NOTED INVESTIGATORS
SIMON STEVIN,
THOMAS WILDGOSSE,
DAVID RAMSEY,
JOHANN HAUTSCH,
CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS,
STEPHEN FARFLEUR,
FERNANDO VERBIEST,
ISAAC NEWTON,
VEGELIUS,
ELIÉ RICHARD,
GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNITZ,
HUMPHREY MACKWORTH,
DENIS PAPIN,
VAUCAUSON,
ROBINSON,
ERASMUS DARWIN,
RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH,
FRANCIS MOORE,
PLANTA,
J. S. KESTLER,
BLANCHARD,
THOMAS CHARLES AUGUSTE DALLERY,
JAMES WATT,
ROBERT FOURNESS,
GEORGE MEDHURST,
ANDREW VIVIAN,
DU QUET,
J. H. GENEVOIS,
JOHN DUMBELL,
WILLIAM BRUNTON,
THOMAS TINDALL,
JOHN BAYNES,
JULIUS GRIFFITHS,
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT,
T. BURTSALL,
T. W. PARKER,
GEORGE POCOCK,
SAMUEL BROWN,
JAMES NEVILLE,
T. S. HOLLAND,
JAMES NASMYTH,
F. ANDREWS,
HARLAND,
PECQUEUR,
JAMES VINEY,
CHEVALIER BORDINO,
CLIVE,
SUMMERS AND OGLE,
GIBBS,
CHARLES DANCE,
JOSHUA FIELD,
DIETZ,
YATES,
G. MILLICHAP,
JAMES CALEB ANDERSON,
ROBERT DAVIDSON,
W. G. HEATON,
F. HILL,
GOODMAN,
NORRGBER,
J. K. FISHER,
R. W. THOMPSON,
ANTHONY BERNHARD,
BATTIN,
RICHARD DUDGEON,
LOUGH AND MESSENGER,
THOMAS RICKETT,
DANIEL ADAMSON,
STIRLING,
W. O. CARRETT,
RICHARD TANGYE,
T. W. COWAN,
CHARLES T. HAYBALL,
ISAAC W. BOULTON,
ARMSTRONG,
PIERRE RAVEL,
L. T. PYOTT,
A. RICHTER,
RAFFARD,
CHARLES JEANTEAUD,
SYLVESTER HAYWOOD ROPER,
COPELAND,
G. BOUTON,
COUNT A. DE DION,
ARMAND PEUGEOT,
RADCLIFFE WARD,
MORS,
MAGNUS VOLK,
BUTLER,
LE BLANT,
EMILE DELAHAYE,
ROGER,
GEORGES RICHARD,
POCHAIN,
LOUIS KRIEGER,
DE DETRICH,
DAVID SALOMONS,
LEON BOLLÈE,
JOSEPH GUEDON,
RENE DE KNYFF,
ADOLF CLEMENT,
A. DARRACQ,
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
SIMON STEVIN
Born in Bruges, Holland, in 1548. Died in 1620.
Stevin was a noted mathematician, and also experimented in the
construction of wheel vehicles about 1600. He built in his workshop at The
Hague a wheeled vehicle that was propelled by sails. This was simply a
tray or boat of wood, which hung close to the ground. It was borne on four
wooden wheels, each one of which was five feet in diameter, and the
after-axle was pivoted to form a rudder. A tall mast was carried
amidships, and there was a small foremast that was stayed aft. Large
square sails were carried on these masts. A trial trip of this sailing
ship on land was made in 1600, when the journey from Scheveningen to
Petten, a distance of forty-two miles, was made in about two hours. On
this occasion some twenty-two passengers were carried. Prince Maurice of
Holland steered, and among the passengers were Grotius, and the Spanish
Admiral, Mendoza, who was then a prisoner of war in Holland.
Stevin also built a smaller sail vehicle, similar to the one just
described, that carried from five to eight persons. Both carriages were
used a great deal, running many miles on the Dutch coast. The smaller one
was to be seen at Scheveningen as late as 1802. Grotius wrote a poem on
these carriages. Bishop Wilkens, in England, also wrote about them in
1648, and showed a drawing that was made from a description given to him
by those who had seen the car at work. Howell, a writer of the period,
thus quaintly described the Stevin carriage: "This engine, that hath
wheels and sails, will hold above twenty people, and goes with the wind,
being drawn or moved by nothing else, and will run, the wind being good
and the sails hois'd up, about fifteen miles an hour upon the even hard
sands."
THOMAS WILDGOSSE
In 1618, Thomas Wildgosse got out a patent for "newe, apte, of compendious
formes or kinds of engines or instruments to ploughe grounds without horse
or oxen; and to make boates for the carryage of burthens and passengers
runn upon the water as swifte in calmes, and more safe in stormes, than
boats full sayled in great wynnes." It is agreed by the best authorities
that these vehicles were set in motion by gear worked by the hand of a
driver, although Fletcher thinks that steam engines were intended.
Additional patents were granted to Wildgosse in 1625.
DAVID RAMSEY
Associated with Thomas Wildgosse in his experimenting and patenting, in
1618, was David Ramsey, who at that time was Page of the Bed Chamber to
James I. of England, and afterwards was Groom of the Privy Chamber to the
same monarch. In 1644, Ramsey was again a partner in the grant of a patent
for "a farre more easie and better waye for soweing of corne and grayne,
and alsoe for the carrying of coaches, carts, drayes, and other things
goeing on wheels, than ever yet was used and discovered." This may have
been a manually or a steam propelled vehicle. It is most reasonable to
suppose that it was the former.
JOHANN HAUTSCH
Born in 1595. Died in 1670.
Hautsch was a noted mathematician, and, experimenting in the construction
of road vehicles, he built a mechanical carriage for use on common roads.
This carriage was successfully run in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1649, and
thereafter attracted a great deal of attention. It was propelled by a
train of gears that turned the axle, being operated by two men who,
secreted in the interior of the body, worked cranks. The finish of the
body of this coach was very elaborate, being heavily carved and having
fashioned in front the figure of a dragon, arranged to roll its eyes and
spout steam and water, in order to terrify the populace and clear the way.
On each side of the body were carved angels holding trumpets, which were
constantly blown, the precursors, perhaps, of the automobile horns of
to-day. The Hautsch coach was said to have gone as rapidly as one thousand
paces an hour. One of the carriages which he built was sold to the Crown
Prince of Sweden, and another to the King of Denmark. Not much more is
known of the Hautsch vehicles, but it is a matter of record that the
inventor was preceded by one whose name is unknown, but who ran a coach,
mechanically propelled somewhat like this car, in January, 1447, near
Nuremberg.
CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS
Born at The Hague, Holland, April 14, 1629. Died at The Hague, June 8,
1695.
Huygens received a good education, and at early age showed a singular
aptitude for mathematics. Soon after he was sixteen years of age he
prepared papers on mathematical subjects that gave him pre-eminent
distinction. He became noted as a physicist, astronomer and mathematician.
He devoted some time to the consideration of improvements in road
vehicular travel.
STEPHEN FARFLUER
Born in 1663.
Farfluer was a contemporary of Johann Hautsch, and was a skillful
mechanician of Altderfanar, Nuremberg, Germany. About 1650 he made a
dirigible vehicle propelled by man power, but as distinguished from that
of his rival, Hautsch, this was a small carriage, being calculated only
for one person. Being crippled, Farfluer used the wagon as his only means
of getting about alone. It had hand cranks that drove the single front
wheel by gears.
FERNANDO VERBIEST
Born near Courtrai, Belgium, 1623. Died in China in 1688.
Verbiest became a Jesuit missionary, and was a man of marked ability.
After going to China he acquired a thorough knowledge of the language of
that country, where he spent the greater part of his life. Under his
Chinese name he wrote scientific and theological works in Chinese. He was
appointed astronomer at the Pekin observatory, undertook the reformation
of the Chinese calendar, superintended the cannon foundries, and was a
great favorite of the Emperor.
About 1655 he made a small model of a steam carriage. This is described in
the English edition of Huc's Christianity in China, in Muirhead's Life of
James Watt, and in the Astronomia Europia, a work that is attributed to
Verbiest, but was probably compiled from his works by another Jesuit
priest and was published in Europe in 1689. The Verbiest model was for a
four-wheeled carriage, on which an aeolipile was mounted with a pan of
burning coals beneath it. A jet of steam from the aeolipile impinged upon
the vanes of a wheel on a vertical axle, the lower end of the spindle
being geared to the front axle. An additional wheel, larger than the
supporting wheels, was mounted on an adjustable arm in a manner to adapt
the vehicle to moving in a circular path. Another orifice in the aeolipile
was fitted with a reed, so that the steam going through it imitated the
song of a bird.
ISAAC NEWTON
Born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, December 25, 1642. Died at
Kensington, March 20, 1727.
Isaac Newton, who became one of the greatest mathematicians that the world
ever knew, was the son of a farmer. He was educated at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and in his early youth he mastered the principles of
mathematics, as then known, and began original investigations to discover
new methods. His great achievement was the discovery of the law of
universal gravitation, but his genius was active in other directions, as
the investigation of the nature of light, the construction of improved
telescopes, and so on. He was a Member of Parliament in 1689 and 1701, and
master of the mint, a lucrative position, from 1696 until the time of his
death. In 1671 he was elected a member of the Royal Society, and was
annually chosen to be its president, from 1703 until his death.
Newton was one of the first Englishmen to conceive the idea of the
propulsion of vehicles by the power of steam. Taking up for consideration
Hero's hollow ball filled with water from which steam was generated by the
outward application of heat, he added these conclusions: "We have a more
sensible effect of the elasticity of vapors if the hole be made bigger and
stopped, and then the ball be laid upon the fire till the water boils
violently; after this, if the ball be set upon little wheels, so as to
move easily upon a horizontal plane, and the hole be opened, the vapors
will rush out violently one way, and the wheels and the ball at the same
time will be carried the contrary way." Beyond this philosophical
suggestion, however, Newton never went. The steam carriage attributed to
him by some writers is merely an imaginative creation, by writer or
artist, based upon the above proposition.
VEGELIUS
A professor at Jena, Saxony, in the seventeenth century, Vegelius
constructed, in 1679, a mechanical horse, which was propelled by springs
and cased in the skin of a real horse. This machine is said to have
traveled four German miles an hour.
ELIÉ RICHARD
Born on the Island of Ré in 1645.
A physician of La Rochelle, France, Elié Richard was a man of science, and
a considerable celebrity in his day. He had built, in 1690, a dirigible
vehicle that he used to travel about in on his professional work. The
carriage was propelled by mechanism operated by a man-servant by means of
a treadle. The operator was placed on the rear of the carriage, and the
occupant, seated in front, steered by a winch attached to a small wheel.
This construction was frequently referred to by contemporaries of Richard,
and even later on, and was copied by others during the following hundred
years or so.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNITZ
Born at Leipsic, Germany, July 6, 1646. Died at Hanover, November 14,
1716.
Leibnitz, in addition to his work as a philosopher and mathematician, was
also interested in mechanics. He gave some attention to the study of the
possibility of making improvements in common road vehicles, and he
endeavored to encourage, though without results, his contemporary, Denis
Papin.
HUMPHREY MACKWORTH
Born in 1647. Died in 1727.
A celebrated English politician and capitalist, Sir Humphrey Mackworth
matriculated at Magdalene College, Oxford, December 11, 1674. He was
entered at the Middle Temple, in June, 1675, and called to the bar in
1682. In 1695 he was engaged in developing collieries and copper and
smelting works at Melencryddan, near Neath, Wales, and the improvements
introduced by him there were of the greatest value. Among other
improvements he constructed a wagon-way from the mines, and propelled his
coal-carrying cars by sails.
DENIS PAPIN
Born at Bloys, France, August 22, 1647. Died in England, 1712.
Papin was a son and nephew of a physician. He studied medicine in Paris
and practiced for some time, attaining distinction in his profession. A
passion for the sciences, mathematics and physics drew him away from
medical practice and he became skillful in other lines. He followed
assiduously the footsteps of Huygens and in some respects became a rival
of his master in original thought and experimenting and in professional
attainments.
Papin invented in 1698 a carriage that was fitted with a steam engine as
such is now understood; that is, a cylinder and a piston. This was
probably the first vehicle of its kind known in Europe. The construction
was a model merely, a toy which ran around the room, but it is said to
have worked well. Concerning this invention, Papin said: "I believe that
one might use this invention for other things besides raising water. I
have made a little model of a carriage that is propelled by this force. I
have in mind what I can do, but I believe that the unevenness and turns of
the highway will make this invention very difficult to perfect for
carriages or road use." Although encouraged to prosecute his work by the
Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, his doubts could not be overcome in
regard to the practicability of his proposed carriage. He still claimed,
however, that by the aid of such vehicles, infantry could probably be
moved as quickly as cavalry and without the necessity of heavy impedimenta
of food and other supplies.
VAUCAUSON
A celebrated French mechanician, Vaucauson, in April, 1740, built a
vehicle "to go without horses." He was visited at his palace in Rue
Charonne, Paris, by King Louis Fifteenth, and the exhibition of this
vehicle, which, according to reports, was propelled by a "simple watch
spring," was reviewed in a journal of the time as follows:
"Yesterday, at 3 P.M. His Majesty, accompanied by several officers and
high court functionaries, repaired to the palace of M. Vaucauson and took
his seat on a species of throne specially prepared for his reception on a
raised platform, whence he could clearly discern all the mechanism of the
carriage in its gyrations through the avenues and alleys. The vehicle
would seat two persons, and was painted scarlet, bordered in blue,
ornamented with much gilding; the axle trees of the wheels were provided
with brakes and set in motion by a fifth wheel, likewise well braked and
bound with long ribbons of indented steel. Two chains communicated with a
revolving lever in the hands of the conductor, who could at will start or
stop the carriage without need of horses. His Majesty congratulated the
skillful mechanician, ordering from him for his own use a similar vehicle
to grace the royal stables. The Duke of Montemar, the Baron of Avenac and
the Count of Bauzun, who had witnessed the trial, were unable to credit
their own vision, so marvelous did the invention appear to them.
Nevertheless, several members of the French Academy united in declaring
that such a piece of mechanism could never circulate freely through the
streets of any city."
Either from royal forgetfulness or thanks to the customary court intrigues
to turn His Majesty from his purpose, or possibly because of the somewhat
crude nature of the invention itself, the fact is that from that time
forth not the slightest mention is to be found in history of the motor
carriage of Vaucauson.
ROBINSON
It is on the authority of James Watt that Dr. Robinson is credited with
having conceived the idea of driving carriages by steam power. Watt wrote
as follows:
"My attention was first directed to the subject of steam engines by the
late Dr. Robinson, then a student in the University of Glasgow, afterwards
Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He, in
1759, threw out the idea of applying the power of the steam engine to the
moving of wheel carriages, and to other purposes, but the scheme was soon
abandoned on his going abroad."
ERASMUS DARWIN
Born at Elton, Nottinghamshire, England, December 12, 1731. Died at Derby,
April 18, 1802.
Having studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, and at Edinburgh, Darwin
settled as a physician at Litchfield and gained a large practice. In 1781
he moved to Derby. He was a man of remarkable scientific attainments and a
voluminous writer of poetry that was pervaded by enthusiasm and love of
nature, but had little poetic quality.
Darwin, wrote most of his poetry and evolved most of his ideas as he drove
about the country in a doctor's covered sulky that was piled high with
books and writing materials. He was in correspondence with Benjamin
Franklin and Matthew Boulton about 1765 in regard to steam, and writing to
Boulton, said: "As I was riding home yesterday I considered the scheme of
the fiery chariot, and the longer I contemplated this favorite idea, the
more practicable it appeared to me. I shall lay my thoughts before you,
crude and undigested as they appeared to me, and by these hints you may be
led into various trains of thinking upon this subject, and by that means
(if any hints can assist your genius, which, without hints, is above all
others I am acquainted with) be more likely to approve or disapprove. And
as I am quite mad of the scheme, I hope you will not show this paper to
anyone. These things are required: (1) a rotary motion; (2) easily
altering its direction to any other direction; (3) to be accelerated,
retarded, destroyed, revived, instantly and easily; (4) the bulk, the
weight, the expense of the machine to be as small as possible in
proportion to its weight." Darwin gave sketches and suggested that the
steam carriage should have three or four wheels, and be driven by an
engine having two cylinders open at the top, and the steam condensed in
the bottom of the cylinder, on Newcomen's principle. The steam was to be
admitted into the cylinders by cocks worked by the person in charge of the
steering wheel, the injection cock being actuated by the engine. The
"fiery chariot" never went beyond this suggestion, however.
RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH
An English gentleman of fortune, and much interested in mechanics, Richard
Lovell Edgeworth was influenced by Dr. Erasmus Darwin to take up the
subject of steam locomotion. In 1768, Dr. Small, in correspondence with
James Watt, spoke of Edgeworth and his experiments in the problem of
moving land and water carriages by steam. Two years later Edgeworth
patented a portable railway system and then spent nearly forty years on
that one idea.
When an old man of seventy, Edgeworth wrote to James Watt: "I have always
thought that steam would become the universal lord, and that in time we
should scorn the post horses." Dr. Smiles says: "Four years later he died,
and left the problem which he had nearly all his life been trying
ineffectually to solve, to be worked out by younger men."
FRANCIS MOORE
In 1769, Francis Moore, of London, a linen draper, invented a machine
which he described as made of wood, iron, brass, copper, or other metals,
and constructed upon peculiar principles, and capable of being wrought or
put in motion by fire, water, or air, without being drawn by horses or any
other beast or cattle; and which machines, or engines, upon repeated
trials, he has discovered would be very useful in agriculture, carriage of
persons and goods, either in coaches, chariots, chaises, carts, wagons, or
other conveyances, and likewise in navigation, by causing ships, boats,
barges, and other vessels to move, sail, or proceed, with more swiftness
or despatch.
It was said that, so confident was the inventor of the success of his
machine, he sold all his own horses, and by his advice many of his friends
did the same, expecting that the price of that animal would be so affected
by the invention, that it would not be again one-fourth of what it was
then. Moore made several trials with his steam carriage, and took out
three patents for it. Like many others of that time, however, Moore's
carriages never got into use.
PLANTA
A Swiss army officer who was contemporary with Cugnot in the seventeenth
century. He was engaged upon the problem of a steam road wagon at about
the same time that Cugnot conceived and executed his vehicle in 1769.
General Gribeauval, to whom Cugnot's plan had been referred, engaged
Planta to pass upon it and to examine the new vehicle. The Swiss officer
found it in all respects so much better than his own that he so reported
to the French Ministry of War and abandoned further endeavors on that
line.
J. S. KESTLER
In 1680 a description was published of a carriage designed by J. S.
Kestler. This was merely a toy, set in motion by mercury in a tube heated
by a candle.
BLANCHARD
In connection with his partner, Masurier, Blanchard brought out in Paris,
in 1779, a vehicle that was somewhat patterned after the man-propelled
carriage of Elié Richard. It was very successful and attracted a great
deal of attention.
THOMAS CHARLES AUGUSTE DALLERY
Born at Amiens, France, September 4, 1754. Died at Jouy, near Versailles,
in June, 1835.
About 1780, Dallery made a steam vehicle with a multi-tubular boiler which
he claimed was an original invention of his own. This vehicle was run in
Amiens and in 1790 was seen on the streets of Paris. In March, 1803, he
secured a patent on the tubular boiler for use on his steamboat, or on his
steam carriage. This vehicle was a boat-shaped wagon, driven by a steam
engine.
JAMES WATT
Born at Greenock, Scotland, January 19, 1736. Died at Birmingham,
Staffordshire, England, August 25, 1819.
Watt came of a respectable and industrious family. His grandfather was a
professor of mathematics, while his father was an instrument maker,
councillor and manufacturer. After a limited education young Watt went to
London, in 1755, and became a mathematical and nautical instrument maker.
In that capacity he became connected with Glasgow University, and there
made his discoveries that resulted in the practical improvements in the
steam engine which made him famous. He was associated with Matthew
Boulton, under the firm name of Boulton & Watt, from 1774 to 1800, and the
Watt engines that were built by that concern at Soho revolutionized
England's mining industries. His steam engines represented a great step
beyond the Newcomen engines, though still using low-pressure steam.