In this brief sketch showing the struggle of auto-mechanism to advance, from the very first inspiration of Cugnot about 1770, we must be impressed by the determination with which the idea of auto-mechanical perfection persisted. This persistence was so determined in the face of all obstacles and opposition that it is almost eerie. It was just as if some force of nature was struggling to break through the crust of man’s consciousness. Or shall we credit it to man, and say, rather, that it was man’s mind that was the impelling force in the persistent attempts to read a mechanical riddle? Whatever the impelling force, whether man or nature, man heeded its behests and continued his efforts. In 1879 an American did a thing which has had much to do with giving the United States its long delayed start in the automobile industry. This man was George B. Selden of Rochester, N. Y. He applied for the first patent for the gasoline motor, as the driving force of a road vehicle. This was before any automobile had been equipped with an internal combustion hydro-carbon motor. This motor had, however, been in use for some time in running stationary engines. The bicycle had, at that time, been an acknowledged success, and in considerable use for seven or eight years, and had had a great deal of influence in improving roads. Better roads caused people to look more favorably on the possibilities of the motor vehicle. Selden built a gasoline motor under the specifications contained in his application for a patent, and it performed satisfactorily in experiments. But he did not build an automobile containing the gasoline motor. He did not secure his patent until 1895, 16 years after he had made application for it. In those sixteen years he was endeavoring to interest capital, while at the same time he was perfecting his motor. While the use of bicycles had improved roads and this improvement caused a more favorable popular view of the possibility that automobiles might be made successfully, a new motive power appeared on the horizon just at this time. It was electricity. It was in 1890, eleven years after Selden had applied for a patent for a gasoline motor, and while he was still wrestling with the problem of getting capital to aid him, that reports that the storage battery had been more nearly perfected became rife. Men to whom Selden went for financial aid feared that even if the gasoline motor was feasible, it might be overshadowed by the storage battery, and held off. Selden even went abroad to raise money, but had no more success there than here. Although an inventor and a skilled mechanic, Selden lacked salesmanship ability. He was handicapped by impatience and irascibility, and his predictions of the success of his gasoline motor, its general adoption, and the extent to which automobiles would in the future be used, were regarded by people with whom he talked as so extravagant that they bluntly declared he was crazy, and avoided him.