The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 2, 1899, Page 19

SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, JULY 2, 1899. ACROSS THE CONTINEN San Francisco to Be the Objective Point of a Race That Fills With Wonder the Eyes of the Civilized Nations. MRS. AND JOHN y with ich has nev y or a Mrs, g ‘ut- = of the enter- Herald ther h appeals It is means bearing — a y. Are into horse, r those i and and con- of the ss will der, in ured the s of the Mr. Dav. e are to travel in an automobile ss carriage which has a cylinde ad of a horse, lever instead of re and 2d of a whip. If théy succeed, they without questic 1, in bringing long rid 8 1t con- clusion, the last argu instithe familiar uge of the au 1 have been s d Heretofare “it has n that, however _well clled ‘ve- accomplish their various sth and level city the almost I¢ high- gland and France, the advocates could lo ilure when ‘the at: be made to utilize them 1 1imits. nece of the nventor, has_turned making cularly to his most popu- shall render LEAVING THE NEW YORK MERALD. it available anywhere that an ordinary and carriage could make their and.the present highest result of ho inventive ingenuity and patient ex- ment is-a “racer” which weighs than 1000 pounds, can mount a 1t grade with ease and has aranteed capacity of sixty-five mile n hour: The Call-Hera utomobile or “‘touring car two ad- for this journey. save that and compa differ icity— d divested of izht and-conseque ertainly the Sy « its prese /.fi@fi /) /r[’ Il JV/’%"‘/{” 7 CLOSE QUARTERS, An electric spark is the means in most high-grade automobiles of the of small which are necessary to and the ¢ producing succession explosions eep the motor rriage rolling siseless pneumatic tir in motion along on its with only a slight vibration, cha scenery and the impact of displaced alr to prove to its occupants that they are progressing instead of stationar There are those who have sat at their ease in the travelers’ cabs of New York or ridden along the pleasant roads in the vicinity of that city in automobile carriages, who will scarce- ly appreciate the fact that Mrs. Davis in taking this trip is proving herself to be possessed of a personal courage al- most phenomenally above the aver- age. True, she is journeying in company with her husband, but the way leads over rough and untried roads, through frowning forests and stretches of cy- clone-haunted plains, over the furnace- heated yellow sands of desolate des- CROSSING THE DESERT. erts, into savage mountain gorges, up steep cliffs and amid clouds of blind- ing dust in the alkali regions, which, like the fabled Yellow Dwarf, stand sentinél before the doors of our en- chanted gardens. She has made up her mind to endure all this and bravely. Heat and cold, wind and sun, storm and calm, all are as nothing to her compared with the charm of this epoch-making race against time and the traditions of the patience which I cannot express. . T £ g% ¢ b4 8 and beckons me irresistibly on. AM ready for my journey—my long and perhaps perilous journey from ocean to ocean across the bosom of our country of immense distances. The nearly 4000 miles over which I am to stretch before me a long vista of possibilities. The probabilities I know; but neither daunts me. With supreme confidence in the invisible steed which is to bear me swiftly over roads and plains and mountain passes to my journey’s end, and in the driver whose skilled hand and cool judgment will be our safeguard in time of danger, I look forward to my trip with an enthusiastic im- To be the first woman to cross the continent in an automobile! That is in itself reward enough for whatever of personal discomfort may fall to my lot on the way. To be, the two of us, alone in the pathless silence of untrodden wilds; to see the sun rise and set un- obscured by the lowering smoke of civilization; to pitch our tent in the mountain fastnesses and be face to face with Nature in her wildest moods; and through it all to be going onward and ever onward—swiftly, silently, surely—toward our haven in the city of the Golden Gate! This is the prospect that allures me True, there may be perils in the way, but they have no terrors for me. The glory of effort, the pride of accomplishment is to be mine. The knowledge that I have done whatno woman before me has even ( dreamed of doing will always be a source of gratification; but better still will be the knowledge that I ) have, through real difficulties and—I am sure—imagined dangers led in the way along which other wo- % men may follow in peace and pleasantness. able. records o on our triumphal progress. weeks. TORDING & STREAM. centuries. What no woman has ever attempted she is determined to accom- plish, and no thought of personal dis- comfort or possible accident and suf- fering has had power to deter her. There is not a man or woman in the country who will not wish her and her husband well. They are working not for themselves but for the progress of the human race, and every revolution of their noiseless wheels that brings them nearer to their goal is a message to higher civilization. The accounts of their journey sent each day to this paper by wire will be read with absorbing interest, and Mrs. Davis' story of her ride, as viewed from her own standpoint, will be, with the accompanying photographs taken en route, a most sensational feature of The Call’s Sunday supplement. Thelr arrival at The Call building, which is now scheduled to take place early in August, will arouse the enthu- siasm of the entire city, and the wel- come which they are destined to re- ceive will prove to them that San Fran- I am eager to see the miles trai The trip having been proven by us to be possibledn spite of the obstacles which we shall unavoid- ably meet, the chief of which will no doubt be the bad roads about which every one tries to discourage us, may be an incentive to the building of a great national boulevard stretching its smooth length from east to west, and binding them together in closer unity. Along such a road automobiles—distance-de- vouring products of human ingenuity—would speed with almost lightning swiftness, and the adventure of to-day would be the excursicn of to-morrow. I am impatient for the time of starting. Every moment of waiting now seems to me almost unbear- ng behind us as we sweep on toward the setting sun. y camera and my writing pad are to be ‘my close companions, and by means of them T shall make what I see, feel and experience and send them to The Sunday Call from the diferent stations Surely no women ever had before her a more fascinating undertaking than is mine of the next few et e N RS EOSINN O S S O O ORGSR RO RN AT FULL SPEED. clscans appreciate the qualities which they have proved themselves to pos- ess in the highest degree—endurance, skill and courage. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE MODERN AUTOMOBILE. The modern history of the automo- bile in America reads like a fairy tale. The already immense business of build- ing and operating horseless vehicles of all kinds seems almost to have come in- to being in a single night, like Aladdin’s magic palace. Not quite a year ago the less than thirty automatically propelled carriages then owned in the United States were viewed by the general public with doubting curiosity rather than appro- bation. -To-day an aggregate capital of nearly $400,000,000 is invested in this still rapidly growing industry in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia alone. The eighty companies which are engaged in manufacturing the 200 dif- ferent varieties of automobile convey- ances now in use find it impossible to supply the daily increasing demand for their product, and the gengral public has become €0 thoroughly impressed. with the merits of this innovation upon established methods of locomotion that it is confidently prophesied that the horse — the most abused and mést nearly deified animal in the civilized world—will be in five years’ time com- pletely superseded and looked upon as a luxury instead as a necessity. It is true that this same idea was enter- & N AUTOMOBILE broad travel the possibilities I guess; ‘_;_ i i ! Q 0 E MRS. JOHN D. DAVIS. A PUNCTURED TIRE. tained when bicycles came into general use a few years since, and it has proved correct to a great degree, since eques- trianism and drives for pleasure have never regained the popularity which was theirs previous to the introduction of the fascinating “safety.” The utilitarian range of the bicyele, however, is not wide. Personai exertion more or less severe is necessary to its propulsion, and as a burden-bearer it has been a success only in a very limit- ed degree. Therefore the horse has continued to defile our streets, deafen our ears with the clatter of his hoofs and fill space on our crowded thorough- fares. The automobile, however, is destined to revolutionize all this. Practical demonstration has proved its werth, and it is only a question of a very brief time before it will be freed from the few faults which now militate against its absolute perfection. While France and England have been for the past ten years experiment- ing with and for the past five years utilizing the automobile, they have not produced a machine of this kind which is comparable for lightness, strength A DANGEROUS CROSSING. and speed with those now being export- ed b; ome Amerjcan firms. Once convinced of the practicability and desirability of the idea American invention proceeded to conquer the dif- ficulties presented. The ordinary Amer- ican road is very different. from the smooth and well-kept highways of Eu- ropean countries, and one of the prob- lems to be solved was to overcome the automobile’s aversion ‘to grades and persuade it to travel along paths not lly prepared for its accommoda- 2 ® tion. The result of study and experiment is that we have now a racing machine weighing less than 1000 pounds, whi is guaranteed to make sixty-five mi an hour on a smooth road and maintain a speed of thi -five miles an hour on any grade not exceeding 20 per cent. In 1830 MM. Serpoliet and Archdeacon attempted an automobile “speed” jour- ney from Lyons to Paris, and con- sumed ten long days in the process. While France has a special liking for gasoline as a motive power and E: land—tco fond of horses to read -hange them for mere machines—pre- steam, and so far applies the prin- olple more to drayage and trucking than to pleasure vehicles, America is far ahead in the electrical line. The ideal machine is noiseless, odor- ik CAMPING. less and free from vibration, but while the electric -arriage is all this it because of the use , and can run only is immensely of storage batter a limited distance without recharging. When electrical hydrants,” such. as were exhibited at the Madison-square -ently, are placed at con- vals along our streets and > drawbacks will be done Gardens re venient inte roads the: away with and the electric vehicle will undoubtedly distance all competitors in the estimation of the public. Of the X motor-powers now in use— . gasoline, steam, compressed air, carbonic acid gas and alcohol—énly the first three have so far been success- ful, and each of them has its disad- vantages. They are all necessarily ap- plied in a cumbersome way, and the question of simplifieation and lighten- ing of weight is engrossing the atten- tion of inventors and manufacturer: Superheated air, which was used suc- cessfully as a motive power in. New York in the early sixties, has -not, so far as known, been experimented with in relation to this particular mechan- ism. Compressed air has been applied to heavy trucks, but the air when released from pressure takes up heat so. rapidly that pipes and valves freeze solid and a ‘re-heating’™ apparatus has to be provided, which adds materially to the general clumsiness of the outfit. Gasoline exploded in an engine cyl- inder by means of an electric spark, the engine being of what is known as the four-cycle variety, gives very satisfac- tory results, and the gasoline automo- bile is extremely convenient for general use. The objections to this power, how- ever, are that there is always a slight vibration due to the constantly recur- ring explosions, and always a slight odor of gas combustion, while the vehi- cle is never self-starting, the driver be- 1 MostRemarkable Trip the World Has Known. It May Revolu- tionize the En- tire System of Locomotion. ing.otliged to turn by hand the wheel controlling the piston until the explo- sions begin. The cost of running a gasoline motor & phaeton for 100 miles. Steam is also cheap, and electricity, when the de- mand for it becomes as great as the future promises, will be cheaper still. Chicago has signalized her bellef in the -superiority of the Tatter power by following New York’s example and in- stituting an electric cab system, which iNDIANS . asts declare will prove a boon to her citizens. Over a hundred electric cabs are in daily use in New York, and 200 more are already ordered, so highly is their cheap, comfortable and rapid service appreciated. In view of these facts the Western city feels no hesitation in embarking a large amount of capital in the enter- prise, which is to be in full operation within her borders this month. The cost of maintaining storage bat- teries for a year varies now from $50 for light buggies to $300 for heavy om- nibuses, the whole cost of operation being three-quarters of a cent to four cents per mile. Although automobilism is generally Jooked upon as a new idea, it is in re- ality far older than our railways, and did its best to supersede horses as long ago as the middle of the eighteenth century. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built and ran successfully a model of an au- tomobite in 1763, and six years later made for the French Government a three-ivheeled gun-carriage in which the boiler was Kkettle-shaped and the rotary.. motion supplied by pawls on the piston rods and ratchet wheels fixed to the driving -whee Murdock, in 1781, -and William Symington, in 1786, follow—the one with a steam tricycle and the other with a road coach, and various modifications of the idea ap- peared thereafter. In 1801 a full-sized road coach was built ‘by ‘an Englishman named Trevi- thick, . and_in- 1815° W. James and Sir Jameés Anderson-buiit and ran a stage coach ‘carrying. twenty people and ca- pable of going séven miles an hour with a full Joad. “Tn 1822 Sir. Goldsworthy Gurney had several steam stages run- ning from Lendon and nine steam om- nibuses ‘were. placed in- operation by Mr. Hancock.. A steam carriage made by Messrs. Squire and Macerone in 1833 went_ fourteen miles an hour at a cost of 7 cents a mile. The oppesition of the staging indus- try and the diverting of public interest to -the subject of railroads brought the development of the automobile to a standstill, and it has remained for us of the present decade to revive and ap- preciate it. The races. which have taken place and are projected have aroused wide- spread and keen interest. The inter- national contest planned for August between Alexander Winton, who made the trip from Cleveland to New York—a distance of 707% miles—last May in forty-seven hours and thirty-four min- utes, and Monsieur Charron, the French champion automobilist, will undoubted- Iy tend to still further popularize these already popular -conveyances, and it will probably be but a very short time before every city and town of impor- tance in the United States will be using them, both for pleasure and for traffie. ARRIVAL AT THE CALL BULDING. 7