this direction until 1824, from which date a number of these
vehicles were constructed and used with considerable success,
taking the form of stage coaches propelled by steam, and
weighing some 3 or 4 tons unloaded. Some of these ran regular
passenger services, notably between Cheltenham and Gloucester,
attaining average speeds of 10 to 14 m. per hour; but great
opposition was met with owing to the narrow prejudice of those
whose interests related to horse-haulage, and every obstruction
was offered in the shape of prohibitive tolls and legislative
enactments. The result was that steam carriages were driven
off the roads in favour of railways, although the select committee
of the House of Commons appointed in 1831 to inquire into the
subject reported completely in favour of their adoption (as did
also that of 1873). In 1861 the first Locomotives on Highways
Act was passed, but the crushing blow came in 1865, when the
legislature prescribed (1) that the number of persons required
to drive the locomotive should be increased to three; (2) that a
man should precede with a red flag; (3) that the maximum limit
of speed should be reduced to 4 m. per hour; and (4) that they
should be forbidden ever to blow off steam, &c. These restrictions
were confirmed rather than relieved by the 1878 act.
Although these acts were created to deal with heavy traction,
the famous 1881 appeal in the court of queen’s bench placed
every type of self-propelled vehicle, from a traction engine down
to Bateman’s steam tricycle, under their narrow limitations.
This resulted in the development of the heavy traction engine,
and light motor vehicles were little more heard of in Great
Britain. There were a few exceptions, however, notably the
steam vehicles of Rickett (1860), Carrett (1861), Tangye (1862),
Yarrow (1862), Holt (1866), Todd (1870), Perkins (1870),
Mackenzie (1875) and Blackburn (1878), and some electrical
carriages made by Elwell (1884), Ward (1886) and Volk (1888).
An important departure was that of Butler, who constructed in
1885 what is believed to be the first vehicle (a tricycle) propelled
by an internal combustion engine in England (fig. 2); he used
the vapour of benzoline exploded electrically. Later, Roots
successfully employed heavy oil, as did Knight. The chief
prohibitory clauses of the acts were repealed in 1896, when the
development of the internal-combustion engine had opened up
entirely new prospects and suggested new possibilities.
Fig. 1.—Trevithick’s Steam Carriage of 1802: side view and plan.
Gottlieb Daimler’s invention in 1885 of the internal-combustion motor using petroleum spirit was the first step towards the production of the modern self-propelled road vehicle, the next step being the recognition in 1887 of the advantages of Daimler’s system by M. Levassor and his application of that system to the propulsion of a carriage. In the nine years that immediately followed French manufacturers spent large sums of money in experimenting with and developing the motor-car, and by 1896, when the Enabling Act was passed, there were a few practical vehicles in England but, perhaps, fewer probable buyers. British makers, starting as they did in the wake of the French manufacturers, were able to profit by the experience gained by the latter, and thus to avoid many otherwise inevitable mistakes; they may not be able to claim to have originated many of the fundamental details of the modern motor-car, but their experience was gained at a comparatively small cost.
Fig. 2.—Butler’s Motor Tricycle of 1885.
Gottlieb Daimler’s engine marked a great advance in the production of a source of motive power, for its efficiency was large as compared with its total weight, whilst the simplicity of its fuel system brought it within the scope of the person of average mechanical instincts and intelligence, for, even in its early days, the internal-combustion motor did not demand that its user should possess an intimate knowledge of engineering. Daimler fitted one of his motors to a bicycle in 1885, and afterwards applied the system to the propulsion of boats, one or more of which were running on the river Seine in connexion with the Paris Exhibition of 1887. It was this fact that brought the invention to the notice of M. Levassor, of the firm of Panhard & Levassor, makers of wood-working machinery, who saw the possibilities of its application to the propulsion of a road carriage. MM. Panhard & Levassor secured the French patents from Daimler, and M. Levassor devised the transmission system which, as far as its general scheme is concerned, is unaltered to-day, despite many efforts on the part of skilful inventors and designers to secure something better. M. Levassor placed the engine in front, the axis of the crank-shaft being parallel with the side members of the frame of the vehicle. The drive was taken through a clutch to a set of reduction gears and thence to a differential gear on a countershaft from which the road wheels were driven by chains. With all the modifications of details, the combination of clutch, gear-box and transmission remains
