The week has witnessed a very interesting race between horseless
vehicles. The actual starting-place was Versailles, though the course was nominally from Paris to Bordeaux and back,—a distance of about seven hundred and fifty miles. The only conditions were that the competing vehicles must be propelled by some form of mechanism,—i.e., not by horses or by human action. Bicycles, that is to say, were only admitted if driven by petroleum or electricity. The stakes were £1,400 for the first prize, £600 for the second, £300 for the third, £12 for each of the four next. The start, in Indian file, was made on Tuesday at 12 o'clock, about thirty carriages competing, and two minutes being allowed between each. It was not expected that any carriage would get back to Paris before Saturday, but one of them actually reached the winning post on Thursday afternoon at one o'clock. The distance was thus accomplished in a little over forty-eight hours, the rate of travelling being about fifteen miles an hour. This is an astonishing performance, and promises great things, though of course fifteen miles an hoar could never be allowed on public roads under ordinary conditions. The victor carriage, which carries two people, was propelled by petroleum, which seems, for all light work, to afford the best motive-power. One can hardly doubt that the horseless carriage has a very great future before it.
Previous page
