Chapter 3

Messrs. De Dion and Bouton anticipated great things from this carriage, and for the long run from Paris to Bordeaux they had provided only three changes of drivers, in order that the machine might be in as few hands as possible. Their hopes, however, were not realized, for although it made a better start than any of the other competitors, it only succeeded in running for 125 miles; after having passed Blois the transmission shaft broke, and the brake was useless for the time being, but the machine did enough to satisfy the constructors of the soundness of their idea; it ran the 34.5 miles between Versailles and Etampes in 2 hours and 16 minutes, making an average speed of 15 miles an hour over difficult country; between Versailles and Blois the speed touched nearly 18 miles.

The vehicle No. 3 was a tricycle driven by a petroleum motor; this was not seriously entered for competition, but rather to show a first effort of a new departure which the constructors have since followed with some success. At the present time Messrs. De Dion and Bouton are making preparations to take part in the competition which is to be arranged for the autumn of the present year. They have a traction engine with considerable modifications in its design, with which they, expect to run from Paris and Marseilles, and they have the intention of hauling with it one of the 40-seat omnibuses of the Paris Company, which is usually drawn by three horses. Fig. 10 is a general view of the engine attached to the omnibus. This type of vehicle is furnished with a compound engine, which can be worked up to 30 horse power, and which is to be capable of hauling a load of 5 tons at a speed of 12.5 miles; the principal points of difference between this machine and the other, which we have already described, lie in the great care which has been bestowed on the details, the precautions taken to secure the moving parts from dust, and the oil bath in which the engine works. The water supply carried is sufficient for a run of 25 miles over an average road with a load of 3 tons; the manufacturers state that the cost of hauling this load amounts to 1d. per kilometer.

Great care has been taken as to the quality of the steel employed in the frame and other parts of the machine. By reference to Fig. 10 it will be seen that the boiler (2) is surrounded by the fuel tank, while the water reservoir forms a seat; the motor (1) is placed beneath the platform as usual. The driver has all the controlling levers conveniently at hand; the starting lever is shown at 9, while at 5 is a small wheel controlling the steam admission; the reversing gear is actuated by the lever, 7. The vehicle is steered by means of a turning bar, similar to those of hand brakes on some wagons; the feed pump is started and stopped by a small wheel marked 10, while 8 and 11 are the hand and steam brakes respectively.

We referred just now to the tricycle made by Messrs. De Dion and Bouton, and shown by them at the competition of 1895, although it was not entered for the race. Since that time they have made two types of this class of vehicle, of which we give engravings in Figs. 12 and 13. In the former the motor is attached to the back of the frame by a suspended connection. It will be seen that the frame is not a little complex, and necessarily so, in order that it may carry the different parts of the mechanism. The motor has a single cylinder and is quite inclosed in a casing that is kept filled with oil; the moving parts of the engine are within this casing; the main shaft drives, by means of a pinion, the differential gear that is mounted on the axle. It will be seen from the illustration that the builders do not rely wholly on the motor, but have provided the usual cycle pitched chain so that, in the event of a breakdown, the rider can propel his machine with the pedals. Indeed, this is always necessary in starting, though a few strokes with the pedals suffice, and as soon as the engine is started the pedal clutch is thrown out of gear. In mounting a steep gradient the pedals are also useful as an auxiliary to the motor. The mechanical power provided is sufficient to drive the machine on a good and level road at the rate of 20 kilometers an hour. It can also travel up grades of 1 in 20 or 25; the weight of the machine in working order is only 100 lb.

On referring to the engraving there will be seen attached to the frame beneath the saddle a rectangular reservoir that contains the gasoline, the capacity being sufficient for a six hours' run. To the reservoir is attached the carburetor, which is connected to the motor by a pipe. The explosive mixture in the cylinder is fired electrically, and for this purpose a compact and reliable battery is hung to the forward part of the frame almost beneath the steering bar. This battery will give 100 hours of work without recharging; it supplies current to a Ruhmkorff coil placed beneath the rear bar of the frame in a metal case that can be seen in the engraving; the other cylinder near it is a pressure reducer into which the gases from the cylinder are exhausted before they pass into the air. The second type of tricycle, illustrated by Fig. 13, is an improvement on the first. It will be seen that the frame is much simpler; the total weight is reduced; the gasoline reservoir is triangular, in order to economize space. The motor employed is very ingenious, and appears to be efficient; we have seen it in operation at the works of MM. De Dion and Bouton. It can be run easily at a speed of 2,500 revolutions, although in practice the rate is limited to 700 revolutions, in order to reduce the wear of the moving parts. In this, as in the earlier type, the use of water for cooling the cylinder is avoided, the outside of the latter being made with a number of wings that are intended to keep the cylinder cool by contact with the air. The method of igniting the gases has also been changed, in so far as the arrangement of the battery is concerned. The four cells used for this purpose are carried in a leather case hung to one of the frames of the machine. An interesting detail is that the exact moment for producing the spark is regulated by the motor itself, and the Ruhmkorff coil is suppressed. The contact breaker has been placed on the motor, and a cylindrical cam is mounted on the shaft that controls the exhaust valve. In this cam there is formed a recess into which the blade of the contact breaker, which is fixed on an insulated mount, falls at the proper instant; at the same moment the spark is produced, the blade being raised as it leaves the recess in the cam. It is, of course, necessary to regulate exactly the relative positions of the blade and the cam, so that the spark may take place when the mixture has to be exploded. The frame of the motor is of aluminum, by which considerable saving in weight is effected; as in the earlier model, the moving parts of the motor are immersed in an oil bath. The pedals are employed to start, or as an auxiliary, or in the event of a breakdown. When not required for propulsion, they are thrown out of gear, when they serve as foot rests, and also as a means for actuating an emergency brake. The carburetor is no longer attached to the gasoline reservoir, but is separate; the explosions in the cylinder are regulated by a lever close to the steering bar.

The greatest credit must be accorded to MM. De Dion and Bouton for the perseverance and ingenuity they have shown in the design and construction of the types of power vehicle they have made their own. As to their larger carriages, experience has proved their practical value; they have expended even more trouble on their power cycles, but it appears to us that ingenuity and skill are largely wasted in this direction, since the raison d'etre of the cycle in all its forms lies in the fact that it should give perfect freedom to the rider and leave him dependent for his progress upon his own efforts.--Engineering.

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FROM NEW YORK TO HAVRE IN A ROWBOAT.

The rowboat Fox, of the port of New York, manned by George Harbo, thirty-one years of age, captain of a merchantman, and Frank Samuelson, twenty-six years of age, left New York for Havre on the 6th of June. Ten days later the boat was met by the German trans-atlantic steamer Fürst Bismarck proceeding from Cherbourg to New York. On the 8th, 9th and 10th of July, the Fox was cast by a tempest upon the reefs of Newfoundland. The two men jumped into the sea, and thanks to the watertight compartments provided with air chambers fore and aft, it was possible for them to right the boat; but the unfortunates lost their provisions and their supply of drinking water. On the 15th they met the Norwegian three masted vessel Cito, which supplied them with food and water. The captains of the vessels met with signed the log book and testified that the boat had neither sail nor rudder. The Fox reached the Scilly Islands on the 1st of August, having at this date been on the ocean fifty-five days. It arrived at Havre on the 7th of August.

Cost what it might, the men were bent upon reaching this port in order to gain the reward promised by Mr. Fox, of the Police Gazette. Thanks to the wind and a favorable current, they made 125 miles in 24 hours. One slept three hours while the other rowed. Their skins and faces were tumefied by the wind, salt water and sun; the epidermis of their hands was renewed three times; their legs were anchylosed; and they were worn out.

The boat was 18 feet in length, 5 in breadth, and 23 inches in depth, and carried a small kerosene stove for cooking.--L'Illustration.

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THE WASTE OF SHIPPING.

Burdensome as are the restrictions imposed upon shipowners by legislation, considerable justification is found for them when we compare the percentage of British vessels lost at sea with that of foreign-owned vessels. The great shipping countries, that is, those which have more than 1,000,000 tons afloat, are the United Kingdom, the British colonies, the United States of America, France, Germany and Norway. Of these six the United Kingdom suffered the least comparative loss in its mercantile fleet in 1895. Under all the heads of abandoned at sea, broken up or condemned, burnt, collision, foundered, lost, missing and wrecked, the total loss was 2.99 per cent. of the vessels owned and 2.36 per cent. of the tonnage owned. No other of the countries named has less than 3 per cent. of loss, while only the British colonies have less than 4, as the subjoined table shows.

TOTAL LOSSES OF STEAM AND SAILING VESSELS IN 1895.

+ | Vessels Owned. | Percentage Lost. | |------+-----------+-------------------+ Flag. | | | Vessels | Tonnage | | No. | Tons.[1] | Owned. | Owned. | -------------------------+--------------------------------------+ United Kingdom. | 9227 |12,117,957 | 2.99 | 2.36 | British Colonies. | 2307 | 1,124,682 | 3.38 | 3.70 | United States of America.| 3220 | 2,164,753 | 4.72 | 4.06 | French. | 1164 | 1,094,752 | 6.01 | 4.02 | German. | 1730 | 1,886,812 | 6.76 | 4.38 | Norwegian. | 3041 | 1,659,012 | 7.43 | 6.46 | -------------------------+------+-----------+---------+---------+

[Footnote 1: Gross tonnage for steamers; net for sailing vessels.]

When we turn from the contemplation of the complete fleets, and differentiate between steam and sail, we find that the United Kingdom no longer holds the premier position, being surpassed, as regards steam, both by the colonies and by the United States. Steam vessels are safer than sailing craft all over the world, partly, of course, because their average age is less. The losses they suffered last year are as follows:

TOTAL LOSSES OF STEAM VESSELS IN 1895.

+--------------------------+-------------------+ | Vessels Owned. | Percentage Lost. | +--------------------------+---------+---------+ Flag. | | | | Vessels | Tonnage | | No. | Net. | Gross. | Owned. | Owned. | -------------------------+------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ United Kingdom. | 6446 |5,993,666|9,695,976| 3.33 | 2.13 | British Colonies. | 874 | 329,845| 542,025| 1.72 | 1.69 | United States of America.| 626 | 660,784| 920,672| 2.23 | 1.93 | French. | 571 | 467,553| 903,105| 4.20 | 3.42 | German. | 953 | 910,567|1,343,357| 3.04 | 2.64 | Norwegian. | 586 | 285,349| 446,384| 2.56 | 2.87 | -------------------------+------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

The United Kingdom here stands third in the list, and curiously it only stands second under the head of number of sailing ships lost, while it is first as regards sailing tonnage lost. The sailing tonnage of the United Kingdom is only about 20 per cent. of the total, while in the colonies it is about 52 per cent. The following are the figures:

TOTAL LOSSES OF SAILING VESSELS IN 1895.

+-----------------+-------------------+ | Vessels Owned. | Percentage Lost. | +-----------------+---------+---------+ Flag. | | | Vessels | Tonnage | | No. | Tons. | Owned. | Owned. | -------------------------+------+----------+---------+---------+ United Kingdom. | 2781 |2,421,981 | 4.53 | 3.27 | Colonies. | 1435 | 582,657 | 4.39 | 5.56 | United States of America.| 2594 |1,244,081 | 5.32 | 5.63 | French. | 593 | 191,647 | 7.76 | 6.83 | German. | 777 | 543,455 | 11.33 | 8.66 | Norwegian. | 2455 |1,212,628 | 8.59 | 7.78 | -------------------------+------+----------+---------+---------+

The losses of sailing vessels are very serious among the Continental nations, especially in Germany, where more than one in nine was lost or condemned last year. This is greatly due to the fact that our old ships are largely sold to the foreigner when they will no longer comply with legislative conditions of this country. We break up a few, but only 0.75 per cent., against 1.75 per cent. for Norway and 2.5 per cent. for France and Germany. We are more chary of breaking up our steamers; last year only 0.46 per cent. met this fate here, 0.34 per cent. in the colonies, 0.32 per cent. in the United States, 0.86 per cent. in France, 0.31 per cent. in Germany, while Norway did not lose a single steamer in this way.

Turning now to the present year we find that in the first quarter the vessels lost, condemned or reported missing before August 7 were, according to returns made out by Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 282 vessels, of an aggregate of 195,480 tons. These figures are respectively 23 per cent. and 24 per cent. of the total losses last year, thus showing a favorable beginning, for the winter losses are naturally the heaviest. The materials of the vessels lost were: Steel, 24 vessels of 40,474 tons; iron, 74 vessels of 78,314 tons; and wood and composite, 184 vessels of 76,692 tons. The United Kingdom shows best under the heads of total losses and losses of sailing vessels, but in steamers it actually comes last among the six nationalities we have selected for comparison. It must be remembered, however, that the British fleet is large enough for a very fair average to be attained in three months, while in all other fleets a single loss, more or less, makes a great difference to the figures of merit. The steam tonnage of the United Kingdom is more than seven times greater than that of Germany, which is our chief competitor. In sailing tonnage we do not hold this immense superiority, our amount being only about double that of the United States and of Norway respectively.

When we examine the various causes of loss of vessels at sea, we find nearly 43 per cent. of the tonnage under the head of "wrecked," which includes vessels lost through stranding, or through striking rocks, sunken wrecks, etc. Next come 22 per cent. broken up or condemned; 14 per cent. lost, missing; 8 per cent. lost by collision; 4.3 per cent. burnt; 5 per cent. abandoned at sea; and 3.6 per cent. foundered. The following table shows the mercantile marine of the world, according to Lloyd's Register, at the end of March, 1896:

Flag. Steam and Sailing Vessels Owned.

No. Tons. British. /United Kingdom. 9227 12,117,957 \Colonies. 2309 1,124,682 America, United States of. 3220 2,164,753 Austro-Hungarian. 309 304,970 Danish. 812 356,714 Dutch. 458 446,861 French. 1164 1,094,752 German. 1730 1,886,812 Italian. 1239 778,941 Norwegian. 3041 1,659,012 Russian. 1086 487,681 Spanish. 748 554,238 Swedish. 1432 497,877 Other European countries. .... ......... Central and South America. .... ......... Asia. .... ......... Other countries. .... .........

--Engineering.

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NEW METHODS OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AT PARIS.

During recent years an interesting change has been gradually brought about in the various methods of building construction employed in France, and more especially at Paris, where the size and importance of public buildings and the many-storied houses divided up into flats necessitate special systems of construction, which possess the advantages of combining economy in cost with strength and durability. Parisian architects and builders, although far from approving the extremes to which their American confrères go in the employment of iron for the construction of their somewhat exaggerated sky-scraping buildings, in which the style of architecture employed is often scarcely logical or consistent with the modern methods of construction, are nevertheless obliged to own to the necessity and the utility of employing iron in moderation for the framework of their buildings. Up to the present the use of iron in its ordinary form has chiefly been confined to floors, partitions, and roofs, where, as a rule, its presence is masked by coverings of cement, wood, or stone, except in recent examples of the new style of buildings destined for brasseries or drinking halls, where the iron construction is left visible, and emphasized by means of bronze or color painting and mosaic work, or, again, in the few examples of well known work where the architect has endeavored to obtain a decorative effect by means of iron lintels and columns. But where the use of iron is fast finding favor at Paris is in its employment in combination with other materials such as cement or concrete, and in a special form known as the cement armé systems, in which iron or steel is employed in the form of thick wire, trellis, or light bars embedded in cement or concrete. This method of construction, of which there are three different systems, has for some time been employed in the construction of various buildings of more or less importance, and has given proof of its strength and practical use as well as its advantages when employed for floors, partitions, walls and roof, both as regards its conveniences for internal arrangements, its economy, and as regards the manner in which it lends itself to modern schemes of polychrome decoration.

Two of these systems have been employed by the architect of the new building now being constructed in the Rue Blanche for the Society of Civil Engineers of France. The third system is much employed by M. De Baudot in various buildings designed by this architect, an advocate of rational construction and design and the logical employment of modern building materials. It will be interesting to examine the merits of each system as employed in these buildings, together with any other points of construction worthy of remark.

The building for the Society of Civil Engineers is remarkable from several points of view as regards construction and the arrangement of plan. The façade and plans will appear in the Building News as soon as the work is completed, and will form an interesting subject for comparison with the building recently completed for the English Society of Engineers, and with that about to be commenced at New York for the American Society.

Before entering into a detailed description of the system employed, a summary idea of the plan and general scheme of construction will not be uninteresting. The architect, M. Fernand Delmas, has endeavored to construct the building on economical lines, employing to a large extent iron and those modern materials which have been tried and found fitting as regards suitability and economy; the building will cost £22,000, and it has been made a sine qua non that all the contractors shall be members of the Society of Engineers.

The length of the façade is 100 ft.; the total depth of the building is nearly equal to the frontage; the height from pavement to cornice is 60 ft. The façade is built of solid stonework throughout its length and height. The thickness of the masonry is 24 in. at the lower stories and 18 in. at the upper portion. The façade wall is really the only portion of solid masonry work in the whole building, and forms a decorative mask to the body of the building, which is constructed of a framework of iron. The chief supports of the building proper consist of four framed iron uprights, 16 in. by 16 in. rising from the basement to the roof. These uprights are solidly trussed and held together at the floor levels by strong iron girders supporting the iron joists of the upper floors and the light partitions which divide up each story. This system is at once economical and practical. The whole building is thus self-supporting, and the thick walls which would otherwise be necessary for carrying the upper floors are thus avoided.

The façade wall is built according to the system always employed at Paris, and is formed of blocks of stone roughly cut at the quarries to the outside dimensions of the proposed moulding and decorative work. As soon as the whole front is erected the work of cutting it into shape will commence, the mouldings, pilasters, and all carving work being done while the interior is being prepared. The buildings at Paris are by this means erected much more rapidly than when the stone is dressed or moulded before being put into place. Greater facilities are thus given for studying the general ensemble of the façade and the proper scale to be given to the mouldings and decoration. The stone is as a rule soft when first from the quarries, but becomes hard and durable after dressing and exposure to the air. The courtyard wall of the building is formed of light brick or metallic fillings between the iron uprights and the party walls.