THE CYCLE IN WAR—STEAM AND ELECTRICITY.
No more important and interesting phase in the development of the wheel
has recently occurred than the consideration and partial adoption of
the cycle in military affairs. Already this subject has engaged the
attention of English and continental war departments. At first the
tricycle was adjudged the most promising form of man-motor carriage for
the army, but latterly authorities have directed their attention to the
more sensible and practical plan of adopting the Rover-type Safety.
Some advantages could be named favoring the tricycle, but certainly,
with the slight effort needful to master the rear-driver, if the cycle
ever attains any prominent place in the military field, it will be in
the form of a single-track machine. In all countries where reasonable
roads can be expected the cycle must succeed in this warlike department
of usefulness; not that we ever expect to hear of the charge of the
cycle corps, or of a hand-to-hand sword combat upon the “festive
bikes,” though such things are within the pale of possibility; what we
do expect to hear of in the next war is the cycle scout and forager and
of the cycle corps getting there ahead of the cavalry. With a light
bicycle that can be lifted over small obstructions, an expert could go
almost anywhere that it would be practicable to take a horse, and when
you consider how much easier it would be to conceal your cycle, in case
a little excursion on foot were necessary, and how much less danger
there would be when no provender or shelter is required for the steed,
certainly the idea is feasible. It has been said that a horse can go
where a cycle cannot; while this is sometimes true, on the other hand,
there are places where the cycle can be taken when the horse would
have to be left behind. For instance, a steep rocky cliff might be
surmounted by the man and his bicycle, since the latter could be easily
drawn over after him; in fact, he could go with his machine over almost
any place which it would be possible to clamber himself, while by no
means would this apply to the horse; in short, we feel assured that
war cycling promises great development in the armies of all civilized
nations, and to this end the most solid, powerful, unbreakable, and at
the same time light, wheel must be striven for by any maker who would
advance the art in this direction, and reap the consequent substantial
returns to his exchequer.
STEAM, ELECTRICITY, SPRINGS, AND COMPRESSED AIR AS MOTORS.
This heading is not entirely germane to the subject of man-motor
locomotion, but we will take advantage of the fact that in all
mechanical motors that will ever be applied to bicycles and tricycles
there will have to be an auxiliary apparatus for the feet. This is
obvious, since in any break-down the rider will need some means of
getting home. As the ocean steamers retain some apologies for sails,
so the cycler will have to retain his foot-power mechanism in any
machine he might adopt for individual transportation, though the
main motor power be steam or electricity, one of which may finally
be adopted in cycles. That every rider will care for this extraneous
assistance is doubtful, as the element of exercise would be eliminated
to a great extent. For practical uses aside from exercise, as in the
transaction of business, etc., other motors than that of human energy
would be a boon in the present cycle, but they would never be used to
the exclusion of the legs. Already many experiments have been made,
some quite successful, both in steam and electricity, but the steam I
think affords the greater prospect of success, because the necessary
conditions are naturally more nearly complete. Whatever motor is used,
it will be necessary to have supply-stations at intervals along the
road, which would require but little effort to establish for steam,
since oil and water can be obtained almost anywhere now, and positive
arrangements could easily be made to have the necessary supplies kept
at all the cross-roads stores. All that is required is that some one
shall put a practical steam bicycle upon the market, with all parts as
light as possible and with oil for fuel. The main principles have all
been worked out separately, and what we need now is a combination of
the most improved methods and a go-ahead man to push the business.
Electricity is as yet too indefinite in its development, in this
direction, to encourage the hope that it can, at present, be made
available. The only prospective means of utilizing it as a road-motor
is by the use of secondary or storage batteries, which would require
dynamos scattered along the road for recharging them; but the slightest
thought will show that this expensive arrangement is hardly a
possibility considering the enormous distances and length of roads,
especially in this country.
We have only to mention compressed air and springs, in order to dispose
of them; the former does not promise much, and as to the latter, all
efforts in that direction which have come under the writer’s notice
have been quite nonsensical.