The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.Williams, Archibald
Science
The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.
Williams, Archibald
Inventions
At four o’clock on the 29th Fournier started on the third stage, which
witnessed another bout of fast travelling. It was now a struggle
between him and Antony for first place. The pace rose at times to
eighty miles an hour, a speed at which our fastest expresses seldom
travel. Such a speed means huge risks, for stopping, even with the
powerful brakes fitted to the large cars, would be a matter of a
hundred yards or more. Not far from Hanover Antony met with an
accident--Girardot now held second place; and Fournier finished an
easy first. All along the route crowds had cheered him, and hurled
bouquets into the car, and wished him good speed; but in Berlin the
assembled populace went nearly frantic at his appearance. Fournier was
overwhelmed with flowers, laurel wreaths, and other offerings; dukes,
duchesses, and the great people of the land pressed for presentations;
he was the hero of the hour.
Thus ended what may be termed a peaceful invasion of Germany by the
French. Among other things it had shown that over an immense stretch
of country, over roads in places bad as only German roads can be, the
automobile was able to maintain an average speed superior to that of
the express trains running between Paris and Berlin; also that, in
spite of the large number of cars employed in the race, the accidents
to the public were a negligible quantity. It should be mentioned that
the actual time occupied by Fournier was 16 hours 5 minutes; that out
of the 109 starters 47 reached Berlin; and that Osmont on a motor
cycle finished only 3 hours and 10 minutes behind the winner.
In England such racing would be undesirable and impossible, owing to
the crookedness of our roads. It would certainly not be permissible so
long as the 12 miles an hour limit is observed. At the present time an
agitation is on foot against this restriction, which, though
reasonable enough among traffic and in towns, appears unjustifiable in
open country. To help to convince the magisterial mind of the ease
with which a car can be stopped, and therefore of its safety even at
comparatively high speeds, trials were held on January 2, 1902, in
Welbeck Park. The results showed that a car travelling at 13 miles an
hour could be stopped dead in 4 yards; at 18 miles in 7 yards; at 20
miles in 13 yards; or in less than half the distance required to pull
up a horse-vehicle driven at similar speeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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