The consequences of this legislation were not long delayed. Automobile locomotion disappeared. Yet English builders of that period had already realised some excellent mechanical features. Certain among them had striking and remarkable schemes in regard to boilers, and had conceived extremely interesting 'water-tube boilers.' The boilers which my friends Normand and Thorneycroft to-day place on their torpedoboats and torpedo-boat destroyers possess all the theoretical characteristics of certain apparatus conceived half a century

ago.

Mr. Onésime Pecqueur, manager of the works connected with the Conservatoire for Arts and Inventions in France, designed in 1827 two very remarkable devices:

(a) The application of a differential gear to drivingwheels.

(b) The abolition of a forecarriage for steering-wheels replaced by the introduction of an axle fitted with two vertical pivots; the wheels pivoting separately on each, and being kept parallel with one another by a connecting-rod.

It is impossible not to notice how very much this invention has controlled the fundamental principles in the construction of automobiles.

It is no exaggeration to say that without these two very important devices, the automobile would not, at the present time, occupy the very prominent and progressive position it does.

In 1873 the firm of Léon Bollée commenced the construction of their vehicles, which attracted so much attention at the Universal Exhibition of 1878 in Paris.

At this period one of the most remarkable carriages was a Victoria weighing approximately 3 tons, including its complement of 8 passengers, 390 litres of water, and 300 kilos of coal. The effectual horse-power varied from 8 to 20 h.-p.; the greatest speed obtainable was about 40 kilometres per hour. The design of the vehicle was well proportioned and carried The transmission to the driving-wheels was effected by

out.

two chains and an intermediary shaft. The steering of the car was obtained by the revolving of the front wheels on two pivots set at an angle, giving a dish to the wheels.

The Bollée company constructed about this period many equally interesting cars possessing speed-changing devices. Since then the firm have built very many interesting cars of various designs, but a full description of these would take up too much time and space. Suffice it to say, however, these cars were as well constructed as designed, and that many firms have between then and now constructed cars far inferior to those of Léon Bollée.

In France, about 1885, the automobile vehicle was again in evidence, and attracted attention. At that time the Comte de Dion, at Paris, also constructed steam vehicles which ran in a satisfactory way. Then Serpollet devised his instantaneous vaporisation boilers, which reduce to a minimum the chances of danger, so far as steam engines are concerned.

After that time, automobile locomotion became a subject of talk, but the appearance in 1889 of a petroleum motor, with quaternary explosion features, gave matters an impulse which promises continuance.

In 1894, the 'Petit Journal' asked M. Pierre Giffard to organise the first meeting of automobile vehicles. It took place between Paris and Rouen, with a stop at Mantes. Although the design of the promoters was not that the vehicles should be run with a view to testing speed, the event from the very outset took on the character of a race. The Dion and Bouton steam carriage won the race, making the run at a mean velocity of about twelve miles an hour.

This was a sturdy little four-wheeler, on the back of which rested the pole-bolt of an ordinary carriage, the fore-part of which had been removed. This constituted a six-wheeled affair, remarkably supple and manageable, in spite of its length. The vehicle, empty, weighed 14 ton; loaded 2:25 tons, and could develop fifteen horse-power. The two front wheels, steering-wheels, were rubber-tyred; the rear wheels, driving

wheels, iron-tyred. This motor had the interesting arrangements of the Dion carriage-that is, the use of a Cardan joint as a substitute for the Galle chain, and the movement of the wheel by means of a drilled nave.

Almost all the other vehicles were driven by Daimler petroleum motors. The vehicles of the firm Panhard and Levassor, which controls the Daimler patents in France, had at that time the same principal characteristics as they present

to-day, which have been generally adopted. The motor maintained a fairly constant velocity of 750 revolutions; it acted on the drive-wheels situated at the back by means of a friction cone, a series of variable gears, a differential and a Galle chain; the steering-wheels were in front. The fourseated carriage weighed about a ton.

These carriages, as also the Peugeot petroleum vehicles, the motors of which were built by Panhard and Levassor,

worked with remarkable regularity, which, on the whole, demonstrated to those familiar with mechanics what a future there is in store for the petroleum carriage.

Though this first effort was attended with considerable success, the promoters of new methods of locomotion knew that much more remained to be accomplished. On November 18th, 1894, a most important meeting was held at the residence

of M. de Dion, one which marked the beginning of an era of great development of automobiles in France. Those present at the meeting were Messrs. Baron de Zuylen, the Count de Dion, the Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, the Count de Chasseloup-Laubat, P. Gauthier, Ravenez, Peugeot, Levassor, Serpollet, Dufayel, Lavallette, Recoppé, Roger, Menier, de Place, Giffard, Emile Gauthier, Meillan, Nansouty, and Moreau.

It was decided at this meeting that, in the month of June of the following year, there should be a great race from Paris to Bordeaux and back (732 miles); that the carriages were to perform the whole distance in one trip; and that repairs were to be made only by such means as could be carried. The contestants, according to the formula adopted, were to procure en route nothing but 'entertainment for man and machine.' This was, therefore, a race and nothing but a race.

In a test of this kind it was, as a matter of course, extremely difficult to establish a method of competing which should be at all logical and satisfactory. The elements entering into an appreciation of the merits and faults of automobile carriages are so complex, that up to the present time the most competent specialists consider it almost impossible to establish a general formula for the classification of contestants. It was hence resolved to adhere to the course, since a test of speed, so long and so hard, would of itself eliminate any vehicle presenting the slightest flaw or insufficiency of construction.

These provisions have been completely realised, and to-day a very long and a very hard course is the most assured means of testing a vehicle.

During several months the committee did considerable work; for it was not only necessary to collect funds, but also to elaborate a set of regulations, and to obtain from the proper authorities the permission to make such trials of speed on the various sections of the route. In this arduous task the committee was most efficiently assisted by M. Marcel Desprez, Member of the Institute; M. Georges Berger, Deputy of the Seine; and especially by M. Michel Lévy, Engineerin Chief of Bridges and Roads. Thanks to the efforts of the Committee, the whole matter was organised in spite of a multiplicity of difficulties. Numerous participants arrived; among them it gives me pleasure to note two AmericansMr. Gordon Bennett and Mr. Vanderbilt.

During the early part of June, when all was ready, the vehicles were for several days placed on view in a permanent