If a paragraph in Wednesday's Times is not based on
some misapprehension or miscalculation, we are on the eve of a total revolution in light vehicular locomotion. It is said that a new form of electrical generator and motor has been invented by Mr. J. Vaughan-Shemin, by means of which the propulsion of boats, tricycles, and Bath chairs is effected without accumulators." Hitherto the weight of the accumulators has practically prevented the con- struction of a spider-wheeled electric carriage which would put the whole world in the enviable position of the cyclist who can go further and faster than a horse, and yet has no bill for oats or shoeing. There is, it is said, an entire absence of danger to those working the machine, and no chance of even a shock being received. If some circumstance, now unforeseen, does not rob the invention of its practical useful- ness, the discovery will prove a very important one. Oddly enough, it will be necessary to obtain legislation before the new vehicles can legally come into use on the roads,—unless, indeed, they are content to move at a foot's pace, and to be preceded by a man with a red flag. Technically, we believe they would be regarded as traction-engines, and so subject to a, special Act of Parliament. It is, however, hardly necessary to say that the law would not be enforced in this particular instance, unless, indeed, any attempt were made to obtain excessive speed.
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