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
In 1830, James made his fourth full-size steam carriage. This was a
three-wheeled vehicle, the rear wheels being drivers three feet in
diameter, and the third the front or steering wheel. In 1831, in a
competition for the best locomotive engine adapted to the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, James built his fifth locomotive, and the first one
to run on rails. His engine did not secure the prize, but the company,
thinking his machine contained valuable ideas, entered into an arrangement
with him for further experimenting.
FRANCIS MACERONI
Born in Manchester, England, in 1788. Died in London, July 25, 1846.
The father of Francis Maceroni was Peter Augustus Maceroni who, with two
brothers, served in a French regiment in the American Revolution. After
that conflict was ended he went to England and settled in Manchester,
where he was Italian agent for British manufacturers.
Francis Maceroni was educated in the Roman Catholic school, in Hampshire;
at the Dominican Academy, in Surrey, and at the college at Old Hall Green,
near Puckerbridge, Hertfordshire. During a period of ten years, from 1803
to 1813, he lived in Rome and Naples as a young gentleman of elegant
leisure. In 1813 he began the study of anatomy and medicine, but had not
gone far in those pursuits before his vagrom disposition took him in
another direction. He became aide-de-camp to Murat, King of Naples, with
the rank of Colonel of Cavalry. His service with Murat took him on
missions to England and France, and for a time he was a prisoner of the
French authorities.
After two years of this military service, he returned to England, and
retained his residence there for the rest of his life. He did not remain
at home long, however, for he was with Sir George MacGregor at Porto
Bello, in 1819; became a brigadier-general of the new republic of
Colombia, and in 1821 saw service in Spain with General Pepe.
Returning again to England, he came before the public as an advocate of a
ship canal across the Isthmus, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
and also promoted a company, called The Atlantic and Pacific Junction and
South American Mining and Trading Company, with a capital of one million
pounds sterling. The company collapsed in the commercial panic of 1825,
and this soldier of fortune in 1829 went to Constantinople to assist the
Turks against the Russians. In London again in 1831, Maceroni was engaged
for the rest of his life in the cause of highway steam locomotion, in
which he accomplished a great deal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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