Automobile Biographies: An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled Vehicles on the Common RoadsWeeks, Lyman Horace
History
Automobile Biographies: An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled Vehicles on the Common Roads
Weeks, Lyman Horace
Automobiles -- History
After further experiments and improvements, Hancock finally made a vehicle
to travel on three wheels, getting power from a pair of vibrating or
trunnion engines fixed upon the crank-axle of the fore wheels.
Experimental trips of this carriage were made from the Stratford shop to
Epping Forest, Paddington, Hounslow, Croydon, Fulham, and elsewhere. Some
changes were made in the vehicle, and finally the trunnion engines were
put aside and fixed ones substituted.
This improved carriage, the first in a long series built by Hancock, was
named the Infant. The body was in the form of a double-body coach, or
omnibus, with seats for passengers inside and out. The bulk of the
machinery was placed in the rear of the carriage, a boiler and a fire
being beneath it. Between the boiler and the passengers' seats was the
engine and a place for the engineer. A pair of inverted fixed engines
working vertically on a crank-shaft furnished the power. The steering
apparatus was in front. The whole carriage was on one frame supported by
four springs on the axle of each wheel. The carriage was capable of
carrying sixteen passengers besides the engineer and guide. Its total
weight, including coke and water, but exclusive of attendants and
passengers, was about three and one-half tons. The wheel tires were three
and one-half inches wide, and the diameter of the hind wheels four feet.
In February, 1831, the Infant began to run on regular trips between
Stratford and London. In 1832 a second carriage, similar to the Infant,
was built, and called the Era. It was constructed for the London and
Brighton Steam Carriage Company, to ply between London and Greenwich. The
following year a third carriage, the Enterprise, was completed, for the
London and Paddington Steam Car Company, and was run between London and
Paddington.
Hancock took the Infant on a long trip from Stratford to London and
Brighton, in October, 1832. Eleven passengers were carried, and the
carriage kept a speed of nine miles an hour on the level, and six to eight
miles an hour up grade. On the return one mile up hill was made at the
rate of seventeen miles an hour. Another trip to Brighton was made in
September of the next year at an average speed of twelve miles an hour
actual traveling. At Brighton the new carriage attracted much attention,
and was exhibited for several days on trips in and around the town. After
the Enterprise, the Autopsy came from the Hancock shops, in September,
1833. This carriage was run on trial about Brighton and in London streets,
and for about a month was run for hire between Finsbury Square and
Pentonville.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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