Review of Conveyances from Time of Ptolemy’s Great Procession, 270 B. C., until Nineteenth Century.--The Old Stage Coaches.-- Coaches of the Rich, the Middle Classes and the Poor.--The Past Art Compared with the Art as Exhibited at Centennial Exhibition in 1876 at Philadelphia.--The Varieties of Different Vehicles there Displayed by Different Nations.--Velocipedes and Bicycles.--1800 to 1869.--French, German, English, Scotch.-- The “Draisine” of Von Drais, 1816.--Johnson’s “Curricle,” 1818.--Gompertz’s “Dandy” and “Hobby Horse,” 1821.--Michaux’s, 1863.--Lallement’s of France, 1866, Crank and Pedal.--America and Europe Adopts it, 1866, 1869.--Pneumatic Rubber Tire Invented by Thomson, 1845.--Sleeps Forty Years.--Improvements since 1869.--Motor Vehicles and Automobiles.--Traction Engines.--Brakes, Railway, Air and Electric.--Automatic Couplers, Buffers, and Vestibule Trains. 428 CHAPTER XXIX. SHIPS AND SHIP BUILDING. “Ships are but Boards.”--“The Great Harry.”--Noah’s Ark the Prototype of the Modern “Whale-back.”--Phœnicians.-- Northmen.--Dutch, French, English, and American Types.-- Nineteenth Century, the Yankee Clippers.--Donald McKay.-- “Great Republic.”--Steam as Motive Power in Ships the Leading Event in the Art.--Lord Dundas and Steam Canal Boats.--Iron Ships in Place of Wood, 1829-30.--John Laird of Birkenhead.-- Sir William Fairbairn.--Clyde Works.--Comparison of Wood and Iron.--1844, the Great Britain.--John Ericsson.--Monitor and Merrimac.--Composite Style of Vessels.--Marine Propulsion.-- Paddle Wheels.--Screws.--1804, John Stevens.--1807, Fulton.-- Screw Propeller of Ericsson.--The Ogden, the Stockton and the Princeton, the First Naval Warship of its Kind.--The Two Revolutions Produced by Ericsson.--Pneumatic Propellers.-- Description of a Warship.--The Deutschland.--Torpedo Boats.-- Franklin and Oil on the Waves.--Air Ships.--Count Zeppelin’s Boat.--Other Plans of Air Navigation.--The Problems to be Solved. 438 CHAPTER XXX. ILLUMINATING GAS.