Nathan Read, of whom an account will be given hereafter, when describing his attempt to introduce steam-navigation, planned, and in 1790 obtained a patent for, a steam-carriage, of which the sketch seen in Fig. 43 is copied from the rough drawing accompanying his application. In the figure, _A A A A_ are the wheels; _B B_, pinions on the hubs of the rear wheels, which are driven by a ratchet arrangement on the racks, _G G_, connected with the piston-rods; _C o_ is the boiler; _D D_, the steam-pipes carrying steam to the steam-cylinder, _E E_; _F F_ are the engine-frames; _H_ is the "tongue" or "pole" of the carriage, and is turned by a horizontal steering-wheel, with which it is connected by the ropes or chains, _I K_, _I K_; _W W_ are the cocks, which serve to shut off steam from the engine when necessary, and to determine the amount of steam to be admitted. The pipes _a a_ are exhaust-pipes, which the inventor proposed to turn so that they should point backward, in order to secure the advantage of the effort of reaction of the expelled steam. (!) Read made a model steam-carriage, which he exhibited when endeavoring to secure assistance in furtherance of his schemes, but seems to have given more attention to steam-navigation, and nothing was ever accomplished by him in this direction. These were merely promising schemes, however. The first actual experiment was made, as is supposed, by a French army-officer, NICHOLAS JOSEPH CUGNOT, who in 1769 built a steam-carriage, which was set at work in presence of the French Minister of War, the Duke de Choiseul. The funds required by him were furnished by the Compte de Saxe. Encouraged by the partial success of the first locomotive, he, in 1770, constructed a second (Fig. 44), which is still preserved in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris. [Illustration: FIG. 44.--Cugnot's Steam-Carriage, 1770.]