CHAPTER XXVIII.

CARRIAGES AND CARRYING MACHINES GENERALLY.

Review of Conveyances from Time of Ptolemy’s Great Procession, 270 B. C., until Nineteenth Century.--The Old Stage Coaches.-- Coaches of the Rich, the Middle Classes and the Poor.--The Past Art Compared with the Art as Exhibited at Centennial Exhibition in 1876 at Philadelphia.--The Varieties of Different Vehicles there Displayed by Different Nations.--Velocipedes and Bicycles.--1800 to 1869.--French, German, English, Scotch.-- The “Draisine” of Von Drais, 1816.--Johnson’s “Curricle,” 1818.--Gompertz’s “Dandy” and “Hobby Horse,” 1821.--Michaux’s, 1863.--Lallement’s of France, 1866, Crank and Pedal.--America and Europe Adopts it, 1866, 1869.--Pneumatic Rubber Tire Invented by Thomson, 1845.--Sleeps Forty Years.--Improvements since 1869.--Motor Vehicles and Automobiles.--Traction Engines.--Brakes, Railway, Air and Electric.--Automatic Couplers, Buffers, and Vestibule Trains. 428