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
Maceroni made two steam carriages, but in 1834 he separated from Squire,
and becoming short of funds fell into the clutches of Asda, an Italian
Jew, who persuaded him to let the two carriages go to the Continent. One
was sent to Brussels, where it ran successfully, and the other went to
Paris. The performance of the latter was thus described in the columns of
a Paris journal: "The steam carriage brought to perfection in England by
Colonel Maceroni, ran along the Boulevards as far as the Rue Faubourg du
Temple. It turned with the greatest facility, ran the whole length of the
Boulevards back again, and along the Rue Royale, to the Place Louis XV.
This carriage is very elegant, much lighter, and by no means so noisy as
the one we saw here some months ago, and it excited along its way the
surprise and applause of the astonished spectators. All the hills on the
paved Boulevard were ascended with astonishing rapidity. One of our
colleagues was in this carriage the whole of its running above described,
and he declares that there is not the least heat felt inside from the
fire, and that conversation can be kept up so as to be heard at a much
lower tone than in most ordinary carriages."
Asda sold the carriage and the patent for a large sum of money, and
swindled Maceroni out of all his share. For years the inventor was in the
direst extremes of poverty. In 1841 he succeeded in securing the support
of The General Steam Carriage Company to construct and run carriages under
his patent. Disagreement between the directors and the manufacturing
engineer again brought to Maceroni disaster, from which he was never able
to recover.
RICHARD ROBERTS
Born in 1789. Died in March, 1864.
Roberts was best known as a Manchester, England, engineer, of the firm of
Sharp, Roberts & Co. He built a steam road locomotive that was first tried
in December, 1833. Three months later the machine was subjected to a
second trial. The carriage went out under the guidance of Mr. Roberts,
with forty passengers. It proceeded about a mile and a half, made a
difficult turn where the road was narrow, and returned to the works
without accident. The maximum speed on the level was nearly twenty miles
an hour. Hills were mounted easily. No doubt existed of the engine being
speedily put in complete and effective condition for actual service.
During another experimental trip in April of the same year, the locomotive
met with an accident caused by some of the boiler tubes giving way,
allowing the steam to escape and the fuel to be scattered about. No one
was seriously injured, and none of the passengers was hurt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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