On Tuesday, 11th June, 1895, a race was started from Versailles to Bordeaux and back, a distance of 727 miles or more for the double journey. The first prize was the substantial sum of 40,000 francs (£1,600), to which was attached the condition of the carriage seating four persons, and other prizes were also to be awarded to various kinds of automatic vehicles. No fewer than sixty-six vehicles were entered for competition, and these were variously supplied with motive power from steam, electricity, or petroleum spirit. The starting place was Versailles at 12·9 p.m., and at 10·32 on Wednesday morning MM. Panhard & Levassor’s petroleum carriage arrived at Bordeaux, whence, after a stop of only four minutes, the return journey was begun, but shortly afterward an accident caused a delay of one hour, but the carriage made the whole distance at the average of 14·9 miles per hour. In this and three other carriages belonging to the same firm, the propeller was the Daimler motor. Though this carriage was the first to accomplish the trip it received only the second prize, the condition of seating _four_ persons not having been complied with. The first prize fell to a four-seated vehicle by Les Fils de Peugeot Frères, a firm who carried off besides the third and fourth prizes. These carriages were also driven by so-called petroleum motors. These motors are really gas engines on the principle to be presently mentioned, but the gas is produced by the vapourisation of a volatile constituent of petroleum (benzoline). The Daimler motor is a compact combination of two cylinders connected with a chamber containing the explosive mixture of gas and air. The pistons perform their in and out strokes simultaneously, but their working strokes alternately. _PORTABLE ENGINES._ The application of steam power to agricultural operations has led to the construction of engines specially adapted by their simplicity and portability for the end in view. The movable agricultural engines have, like the locomotives, a fire-box nearly surrounded by the water, and horizontal tubes, and are set on wheels, so that they may be drawn by horses from place to place. There is usually one cylinder placed horizontally on the top of the boiler; and the piston-rod, working in guides, is, as in the old locomotive, attached by a connecting-rod to the crank of a shaft, which carries a fly-wheel, eccentrics, and pulleys for belts to communicate the motion to the machines. Engines of this kind are also much used by contractors, for hoisting stones, mixing mortar, &c. These engines are made with endless diversities of details, though in most such simplicity of arrangement is secured, that a labourer of ordinary intelligence may, after a little instruction, be trusted with the charge of the engine; while their economy of fuel, efficiency, and cheapness are not exceeded in any other class of steam engine.