Part 9

Fig. 8 illustrates an invention that is interesting from the fact that it was to be operated by compressed air, and perhaps was the first effort to utilize this form of stored energy for the propulsion of vehicles. It was not a success, but its failure was due to the fact that the inventor labored under the delusion that the laws of nature could be circumvented by skillfully contrived mechanical devices so as to obtain something from nothing. The body of the carriage was used as a reservoir for the compressed air, and within the wheels were placed a number of pumps, the short bars projecting from the peripheries being the ends of the plungers. The expectation was that as the wheels revolved, the plungers would be depressed, and thus air would be pumped into the reservoirs and this air would operate the engine that propelled the vehicle; hence the apparatus would supply its own power, and realize perpetual motion. If this attempt to controvert the laws of nature had not been relied upon, better results might have been obtained.

The highly ornamental coach shown in Fig. 9 was invented by Dr. Church about 1832. In addition to being ornamental, it was of massive construction and large capacity, being able to accommodate fifty passengers. Its operation is said to have been very satisfactory, a high rate of speed being attained and all grades on ordinary roads being easily mounted. The inventor swamped himself in endeavoring to compete with railroads.

Perhaps the most perfect of all the early automobiles was the one devised by Scott Russell, the celebrated designer of the Great Eastern. This carriage is shown in Fig. 10. It was operated successfully, and was able to mount the steepest hills and to attain a high rate of speed, but as coal was used for fuel and the engines were of large capacity, it is probable that the smoke, exhaust steam and noise of the machinery were decidedly objectionable features. A line of these coaches was put in commission in Glasgow in 1846, each one having a seating capacity of twenty-six, six inside and twenty on the top. After several months of successful operation, the line was withdrawn on account of the opposition of the authorities and of the general public.

These few examples of the early attempts to solve the problem of mechanical propulsion of vehicles are sufficient to show that the automobile is not entirely a creation of the progressive mind of the latter part of the nineteenth century, but that it engrossed the attention of inventors more than one hundred and thirty years ago. The success attained by the workers in this field at different periods was directly in proportion to the degree to which the form of power used had been perfected at the time. The first inventors attained but slight success, owing to the fact that, in their time, the steam engine was in a crude form, but as the construction of the latter improved, so did that of the vehicles operated by it.

Before the days of steam, the power of wind mills was utilized to propel vehicles, and with such success that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wind-propelled wagons or ‘Charvolants,’ as they were called, were very numerous upon the flat plains of the Netherlands.

From 1845 up to the early nineties, a period of nearly half a century, very little was done in the way of developing the automobile. From time to time inventors in various parts of the world devoted themselves to the subject, but they were generally looked upon as visionary cranks, and their work attracted little attention. During this period there was an almost universal prejudice against the use of any kind of mechanical power upon the streets or public highways, and it is even possible that if during these years any one had invented a horseless carriage, perfect in every way, he would have failed to obtain proper recognition. Prejudice against mechanically-propelled vehicles has gradually worn away, probably because of the introduction of cable and trolley cars, and at the present time the majority of people desire to see the substitution of mechanical for animal power. As a result of this change in public opinion, self-propelled vehicles are accepted as entirely satisfactory, which a few years ago would have been regarded as failures. Notwithstanding this tolerant feeling, however, it is very doubtful whether the cumbersome coaches of the early part of the century would be received with favor at the present time when taste and requirements are entirely different. What is now desired is a light, fast-running and attractive vehicle, which could not be constructed along the lines followed by the inventors of former days. The automobile of to-day is a far more perfect device than its predecessors, although it can not be said to have reached a state of perfection. As motive power, steam, gasoline and electricity are used. Which of the three is the best, taking all things into consideration, it would be difficult to say, as each one has its defects as well as its advantages, and the evident superiority of each one in a certain direction is offset by deficiencies in other directions.

In every civilized country, where the mechanic arts are far enough advanced, automobiles are now being manufactured, but France is the country where modern development first began, and up to the present time it has maintained its leading position, although in quality of product, other nations, if not on a par with it, are certainly not very far behind.

The perfection to which the steam automobile has been developed in these latter days is due mainly to the efforts of L. Serpollet, a distinguished French engineer. Other highly successful steam carriages are now manufactured in England and in this country, as well as in several European nations, but Serpollet was the first to bring forth a successful fast-running and attractive vehicle, and the others have profited by his work.

One of the many designs of Serpollet carriages is shown in Fig. 11; Fig. 12 shows more fully the arrangement and location of the machinery. The engine used in these vehicles is made with four cylinders of the single action type; that is, they take steam at one end only. By using this construction, while the number of cylinders is increased, the other parts are greatly simplified, as the piston rods, crossheads and guides can be dispensed with. In addition, the whole engine can be made very compact.

The boiler is of the flash type; that is, it carries no water ordinarily, but when the engine is in operation, a pump injects into the boiler at each stroke of the engine as much water as may be required to generate the steam necessary to propel the vehicle; the instant the water enters the boiler it is converted into steam. As the amount of steam is proportional to the amount of water, it can be seen that by regulating the water supply, the power of the engine and thereby the speed of the carriage, can be controlled. This is the method actually employed to control the speed. In starting, a handle is moved which connects the engine, the boiler and the pump in the proper relation; and while under way the velocity is varied by the manipulation of a lever which controls the amount of water injected into the boiler. The fuel used is kerosene, which is vaporized and then fed into a properly constructed burner. The amount of oil supplied to the burner is regulated by the same lever that regulates the supply of water, so that both are increased or reduced in the proper proportion. The boiler is constructed of a number of steel tubes, which are about two and a half inches in diameter, and from three eighths to half an inch thick. These tubes are pressed into the form shown in Fig. 13, the dark line in the section marked A representing the interior space. A number of tubes collapsed in this form and bent into the shape B, are assembled as shown at C. The number of tubes depends upon the capacity of the boiler. As the tubes are very thick, they can, without any danger of bursting, be heated to so high a temperature that the water injected into them is at once turned into steam.

In Fig. 12 it will be seen that the engine is located under the body of the carriage between the two axles, and that motion is imparted to the hind wheels by means of chains and sprocket wheels. The boiler is located at the back of the vehicle, the lower part projecting some distance below the rear axle. A small smoke stack at the rear of the body allows the gases of combustion to escape. Between the front wheels, a compact condenser is located, and into this the steam from the engine is exhausted. The condenser serves two purposes; it recovers a portion of the water that would otherwise escape into the air, and thus increases the distance the carriage can run without a new supply, and at the same time it lessens the noise produced by the exhaust, and also the volume of steam escaping into the atmosphere, which in cold or rainy weather becomes plainly visible.

Although we have been rather slow in this country in taking up the automobile, inventors and manufacturers are now working at a pace that will soon make up for lost time. We already have a number of designs of steam carriages whose operation is highly creditable. Fig. 14 illustrates one of these. The design of the engine, boiler and other mechanism can be well understood from Fig. 15, in which a portion of the body is removed to expose the internal parts.

The boiler is a very compact form of the upright type, such as is used in fire engines. It is about fourteen inches in diameter and twenty inches high. To increase its strength, it is surrounded with two layers of piano wire. The engine is of the locomotive type, consisting of two cylinders, the pistons of which are connected with cranks on the end of the shaft, these cranks being set at right angles, so as to prevent catching the engine on the dead center. The direction of rotation is reversed by means of the ordinary link motion. The fuel used is gasoline, which is carried in the cylindrical tank located under the front of the carriage. The gasoline is vaporized and then, mixed with a proper proportion of air, passes to a burner placed under the boiler. The amount of steam generated is regulated by the amount of gasoline supplied to the burner, and this supply in turn is regulated by the pressure of the steam, so that the action is entirely automatic. The cylinder H is a reservoir of compressed air, connected with tank I, so that the gasoline is under pressure, and therefore is forced through the pipe to the burner under the boiler. Between the burner and the tank there is a valve controlled by the steam pressure, being opened when the pressure is low and closed when it is high. When the pressure reaches a certain point the valve is closed entirely, so that even if the carriage is running very slowly, it is not possible to run the pressure above the fixed limit. The exhaust passes from the engine cylinders into a muffler, from which it escapes into the pipe K. This pipe projects downward into an opening through the center of the water tank, and the draught produced thereby draws the gases of combustion through from the top of the boiler to the under side of the carriage body, where they escape into the atmosphere.

Directly in front of the exhaust muffler is seen the water gauge, which is in such a position as to be outside of the carriage body, as shown in Fig. 14. A mirror is placed at the front of the vehicle, and by looking into this the water gauge can be seen. Fig. 14 also shows clearly the position of the operating levers at the side of the carriage.

The actual construction of the engine is better shown in Fig. 16, in which A A are the cylinders, B is the steam chest and G G are the valve rods. The piston rods connect with the crossheads C. The connecting rods D transmit motion from the latter to the cranks E, and thus rotate the shaft S. The link motions, by means of which the direction of rotation is reversed, are at I I, and are operated by the lever G, which is mounted upon the shaft F F. This shaft is directly connected with the starting lever. The boiler feed pump is located at M. The motion of the engine is transmitted to the rear axle of the carriage by means of a chain that runs over the sprocket wheel L located between the eccentrics K K. In Fig. 15, this wheel is located at D, and the chain F connects it with the axle sprocket E.

Fig. 17 shows another American steam carriage. In this vehicle the running gear is a complete truck, upon which the carriage body is supported. The appearance of the truck with the body removed is shown in Fig. 18. The boiler is of the tubular type and the double cylinder engine is secured to its side. In this particular the construction differs from that of the previously described carriage, for in that the engine is attached to the cross-framing of the body of the vehicle. Although the general appearance of the mechanism of these two carriages is very similar, there are many differences in the details of their construction. In both, vertical tubular boilers are used, and the steam is generated by the use of gasoline, which is burned in the vaporized state in specially constructed burners. The engine in both cases is of the vertical double cylinder type, and motion is transmitted to the hind axle by means of sprocket wheels and a chain; but here the similarity ends; the minor details, which it is not necessary to refer to in this connection, are with few exceptions very different.

A careful examination of Figs. 11, 14 and 17 will show that from an artistic point of view these examples of steam carriages are satisfactory. In regard to their operation it can be said that they have sufficient power to run up the steepest grades encountered on ordinary roads at a fair rate of speed, while on level ground their velocity is more than enough to satisfy the average rider. The danger of explosion is so remote that it need not be considered. The Serpollet boiler is practically inexplosive, while those used in the American vehicles are so constructed that they can withstand a pressure far greater than any they can be subjected to in practice. It might be expected that the motion of the machinery would produce an unpleasant vibration, but on account of the lightness of the moving parts and careful balancing, this effect is much reduced. The use of gasoline as fuel, in connection with automatic burners, eliminates the smoke and ashes incident to the use of coal, and in addition reduces the labor of handling the vehicle, as no attention need be given to the mechanism other than to see that the water in the boiler is maintained at the proper level. In the case of the Serpollet carriages, not even this point need be looked after, as the feed of the boiler is perfectly automatic.

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPEDITION, 1893-1896.[O]

BY GENERAL A. W. GREELY, U. S. ARMY.

[O] The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896. Scientific Results edited by Fridtjof Nansen. Vol. I. Longmans, Green & Co. N. Y., 1900. 1-16, 3 pl. 1-147, 3 pl. 1-26, 2 pl. 1-53 pl. 1-137, 36 pl.

Few Arctic expeditions have done so much to increase the world’s knowledge as to the physical condition of large areas of the north polar zone as has that of the _Fram_, initiated and commanded by Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.

The expedition was unique in many respects. The _Fram_ was a departure from the accepted models of Arctic ships; the route followed was one unindorsed by any Arctic authority. The ship was destined to drift unprecedented distances, beset by the enormous ice-pack of the Arctic ocean. The commander himself was not only to attain the highest north, but was to make a most hazardous journey, which was to have a successful and unexpected issue partly through the aid of another polar expedition whose location and existence were unknown to the expeditionary forces of the _Fram_. Electricity made the Arctic ship a glow of light, a phonograph brought well-known voices to cheer their hours of leisure. Indeed, every device that was deemed of value was utilized.

The extent of the Arctic ocean traversed by the _Fram_ is indicated by the simple fact that she passed over 120 degrees of longitude above the eightieth parallel of north latitude, a distance of one-third around the world on that parallel.

Nansen and Johansen, in an attempt to reach the Pole, left the _Fram_ March 14, 1895, in about 84° N., 100 E., but after an uneventful journey with dogs, they were obliged to turn back on April 7, 1895, in latitude 86° 14′ N. They aimed to reach Spitzbergen and after months of weary effort and varying fortunes, these two hardy men landed on the east coast of the Franz Josef archipelago. Coming winter forbade further progress, so they constructed a hut and subsisted on land and sea game that was fortunately abundant. In the spring of 1896, turning southward, they attempted to reach by the kyak the east coast of Spitzbergen, hoping to be picked up by Norwegian whalers who frequent those waters. Fortunately for them, they met in April, 1896, Jackson, the commander of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, near Cape Flora.

Meanwhile the _Fram_, continuing its westerly drift, in which it passed the most northerly point reached by Parry in boats in 1827, emerged from the ice-floe of the Arctic ocean in the late summer of 1896 and reached Norway on August 20, about ten days later than Nansen’s own arrival with the English expedition from Franz Josef Land. The _Fram_ returned with its frame uninjured and its expeditionary force in health, after having covered in its voyage across the unknown Polar sea an enormous area, estimated at fifty thousand square miles.

The most important discovery was the oceanic depth of the Arctic Sea, where for hundreds of miles this unknown ocean disclosed a depth of over two miles. Naturally the absence of land limited the phases of the scientific work of the expeditionary force, which devoted itself to recording the phenomena of the air and the sea.

Nansen in his separate journey utilized his brief opportunities in Franz Josef Land so successfully that his contributions to the geology of that region are of no small importance.

The world has looked forward with a degree of impatience to the publication of the scientific results of this expedition, and now is favored with the first volume, a beautiful quarto of some 479 pages, with 46 fine plates. It consists of a series of memoirs on the building of the ship, on the birds of the air, on the crustacean forms of sea life and a geological study of the southern part of the archipelago of Franz Josef Land. It is a striking tribute to English-speaking scientists that the work will appear in English text only. Although printed in Christiana, such has been the vigilance of the editors that typographical errors are comparatively few.

The account by Colin Archer of the construction of the _Fram_ is not without interest, in view of the fact that this vessel was built on novel lines calculated to cause the ice to meet a sloping surface, so that, pressing down under the bilge, it would cause the vessel to rise and thus insure its immunity from destruction.

Archer says: “In order to utilize this principle, it was decided to depart entirely from the usual deep-bilged form of section and to adopt a shape which would afford the ice no point of attack normal to the ship’s side, but would, as the horizontal pressure increased, force the attacking floes to divide under the ship’s bottom, lifting her as described above.... Plane or concave surfaces were avoided as much as possible by giving her round and full lines. This, while increasing the power to resist pressure from outside, also had the advantage of making it easy for the ice to glide along the bottom in any direction.”

As great length is an element of weakness, the _Fram’s_ length was cut down as much as possible, with a tendency to make its form circular or oval. Various expedients were adopted to reduce the dead weight of the ship by a judicious arrangement of materials. While economizing weight, the cargo-carrying capacity of the ship could not be too much reduced, and the great strength of the ship must be preserved. Inasmuch as the broadside of the ship, both structurally and from its shape, is its weakest part, it was necessary to adopt extraordinary measures to strengthen it. This was done largely by adding stays of yellow pine placed nearly at right angles to the ship’s sides, and securely fastened with wooden knees. These were supplemented with upright stanchions tied by iron straps.

While experienced whalers strongly advocated the square rig, Archer decided to ignore their advice and rigged the _Fram_ as a fore-and-aft three-masted schooner, which style of rig proved, under the circumstances, to be most suitable. The slight increase in leakage is believed by Archer to be due in part to the drawing of the oakum out of the seams and in part to the expansion and contraction of the timbers. While the _Fram_ was not subjected to such tremendous ice convulsions as have been many other Arctic ships, yet her experiences were very severe and may be considered to prove that the design and system of construction adopted were the most efficient possible.

The most extensive, if not the most important, of the treatises that form this volume, relate to regions and investigations with which the voyage of the _Fram_ were only incidentally connected. Reference is had to the papers on the geological formations of Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, by Professors Nansen, Pompeckj and Nathorst. Dr. Nansen most cordially acknowledges his great indebtedness to Mr. Jackson and Dr. Reginald Koettlitz, respectively the leader and geologist of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land, 1894-1896. The latter of these gentlemen, in a spirit of broad scientific generosity, accorded Dr. Nansen full and equal access to his discoveries, covering three years’ work on Northbrook Island, among fossils and geological conditions of special interest.

Nansen confines himself to a brief geological sketch of Cape Flora and its neighborhood; Pompeckj treats fully the Jurassic fauna, while Nathorst briefly discusses the fossil plants.

Nansen says: “Through Jackson’s kindness and Koettlitz’s valuable assistance, I was enabled to make a collection of fossils and rocks from the Jurassic deposits of this locality.”

“(Koettlitz) took me to places where, before my arrival, he had already found fossils, or had observed anything of importance. Had it not been for him I should certainly not have been able to do what little I did during the few days at my disposal. I agree with Koettlitz on all essential points, and have nothing new of importance to add to what he has already said.”