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The "Columbia" Mark XLVII Car, 40-45 h. p., which recently made the record run from San Francisco to Los Angeles, 504 miles in 18 hours 13 minutes, beating all former records by about 3 hours. Car owned by Fernando Nelson of San Francisco.

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The Future of the Automobile

A Symposium

URING the past five years the growth of Automobile Advertising has been very rapid. At the present time it occupies more space in the leading magazines than any other single line. Advertised foods and foodstuffs come next.

Is the automobile a fad? Will Automobile Advertising soon die, as did Bicycle Advertising?

AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING asked a number of automobile manufacturers to answer this, and some other questions; among them "What was the first Automobile to be advertised?" The answers are presented herewith.

Without attempting to decide the question as to which was the first automobile advertised, we reproduce herewith, in reduced form, a wood cut of a "Gasoline Steam Carriage," which appeared in the Scientific American, May 21, 1892. This, as the article which accompanied it, states, "was invented by Ransom E.

Olds, of Olds & Sons' engine works, Lansing, Micn.

After describing the mechanism and vehicle in detail, the account says:

as

"It carries two passengers besides the operator and it is the intention to couple on an other vehicle behind if wishing to carry more passengers. The steam from the engines is entirely done away with by an ingenious contrivance of the inventor, and there is no smoke. The engines couple on direct, so that there is no gearing whatever, and the rig runs quietly as an ordinary carriage. The boiler and engines at the rear end are inclosed by curtains which shut out all view of the machinery, so there is nothing about it to scare horses and they do not seem to mind it any more than an ordinary carriage. Its usual speed on good roads is fifteen miles per hour, and it will ascend any ordinary grade.

"The vehicle as a whole includes many new merits. Mr. Olds states that its great advan tages are that it never kicks or bites, never tires out on long runs, and during hot weather he can ride fast enough to make a breeze without sweating the horse. It does not require care in the stable, and only eats while it is on the road, which is no more than at the rate of 1 cent

per mile. Weight 1,200 pounds."

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What Leading Manufacturers Say About
the Future of the Automobile

The automobile is a vehicle. It is not a fad. When its newness among vehicles wears off, the public mind will accept it as a rational form of transportation. Its adoption as a prevailing type will begin in earnest. Eventually it will haul the world's goods and the world's people the rich and the proletariat. It will cause a gradual reorganization of traffic which will have a sweeping influence upon the whole character of society. The greatest influence upon the customs and habits of people and upon the trend of their ideas has always been methods of communication.

The motor car will give both local and cosmopolitan communication a new aspect. It affects the movements of individuals and of masses. It will have tremendous influence upon the suburban conditions by giving country dwelling places a new attraction for city workers. It will spread the residents of smaller communities into the country and will draw those who have been land separated closer together. The motor car will reorganize traffic upon city streets and eventually replace the

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the gradual creation of good highways. will affect the raising of crops by destroying a large market for certain grains. It will change the very manners of society and will influence the labor world. The limits of its influence are almost beyond conception. They cannot be analyzed, but analysis is immaterial. The fact exists. The Packard Motor Car Company believes in the permanency and importance of the motor car industry. It is building its cars and its business for the future.

The purpose of the present industry is to seek growth in all possible directions and to disabuse the public of the erroneous idea that an automobile is merely the plaything of the rich, a toy of which to tire, another bicycle to be laid away to rust.-Packard Motor Car Company, Detroit, Mich.

Automobiling is not a fad. The automobile has come to stay. If we thought otherwise we should not be in the business.

There are many people who are always ready to take up any sort of new thing, question or agitation for the mere reason that others are doing the same thing, and use of automobiles by some motorists may be based upon no more reasonable grounds than are to be found at the bottom of any popular and passing aberration; but this class of automobile users is small and so unimportant as to have no practical bearing upon the future of the industry for which we may expect a sound and healthy growth along four differentiated lines, namely, vehicles for runabout service, closed cars for city and town use, touring cars and commercial wagons and trucks.

If one were looking for obstacles in the way of future development he would possibly find it most convenient to locate them in the touring car connection. Careful consideration, however, shows the outlook for the touring car to be quite as stable as for the runabout, coach and utility types. The American people are inherently fond of travel by independent methods and the touring car fully meets this preference. The motoring tourist is not hampered by the uncertainties of horseflesh, nor by cut and dried routes, nor by time tables. He can lay out his course and go where he pleases at will and he also finds his method of travel more exhilarating and more healthful than any other mode. Hitherto the growth of touring has undoubtedly been somewhat set back through the carelessness and ignorance of drivers and resulting accidents, at least 95 per cent of which could have been avoided; but it is beginning to be realized that only the careful and skilled operation of cars is worth while. Eventually only competent

drivers will be in evidence and the popularity of motoring travel may then be expected to increase by leaps and bounds.

We mention touring at considerable length because the outlook for the future development and use of the automobile along the other lines suggested is so obvious as to call for no extended comment.-Electric Vehicle Company.

The automobile industry long ago passed the experimental stage. The self-propelled vehicle is now firmly established.

So far most manufacturers have devoted their attention to the pleasure vehicle and during the past six or seven years the pleasure car has been developed from a most undependable means of conveyance, until today there are dozens of different makes, constructed upon practically the same principle, any one of which may be depended upon for satisfactory and efficient service.

For long drives or rough or hilly roads the car propelled by a gasoline engine has so far proved to be the most satisfactory type.

We believe that in the Studebaker car we have achieved the maximum of power efficiency with our four cylinder four cycle gasoline engine, employing a low tension Simms-Bosch magneto to supply the current for a makeand-break spark. This system of ignition guarantees a very large and hot spark in each cylinder and does away with spark plug troubles, and with batteries, short circuiting, commutators, and many other annoyances.

The heart of the car is the engine and the Studebaker has a perfect heart action.

For town driving and business or professional requirements, the electric car is the ideal means of locomotion. The controlling mechanism is so simple that practically anyone can operate it, and it is always in readiness. The driver simply steps to his seat, releases his brakes, shoves the lever down a notch or two and moves off.

We build electric cars suited for every requirement of social or business life.

The real triumph of the self-propelled vehicle, however, is yet to come. Its maximum of public usefulness will be attained, not in the pleasure vehicle, but in the commercial vehicle. The pleasure vehicle is an article of luxury; the commercial vehicle is a necessity, and the self-propelled commercial vehicle is rapidly securing recognition in the business world.

The great future of the motor car we believe lies in this direction; and so strongly are we convinced that just as soon as business men appreciate the advantage of the self-propelled delivery wagon or truck, over the horse drawn vehicle, both in increased efficiency and decreased cost, the horse drawn vehicle will be supplanted, that today we are manufacturing a

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In speaking of the future of the automobile, W. G. Morley, secretary of the Aerocar Company and one of those who have been identified with the industry from its inception in America, states:-"To a very few the automobile may be a 'fad' today, but on the whole it is a practical machine of indispensable value to this aggressive generation.

"The future will see all parts of the automobile standardized; superfluous trimmings necessitating much extra labor elminiated; more simple constructions, and cars that will require but little more attention than the ordinary carriage. Styles will change but little, enabling manufacturers to safely build in larger quantities, greatly reducing the price.

"As to makers, "The fittest will survive.' They will all build reliable machines and the public will cease to ask for a car to 'do stunts,' but will buy for service. Smooth, hard roads will be constructed everywhere-farmers will market their crops with automobiles-rural mail and package deliveries will be made, and reckless speeding will seldom

occur.

"The automobile sounded the death knell of the bicycle because those of wealth and influ ence deserted the latter for the former. There was but small chance to own something exclusive in the bicycle while with the automobile there is at present a vast range from $400 upward. This one fact alone would insure its permanency. Yes, the automobile is here to stay and in the near future will play a still more important part in every life.-The Aerocar Co.

The automobile is here to stay until some superior method of locomotion takes its place. The bicycle "fad" died, as far as the "fad" went, because it required a certain amount of exertion to participate in the pastime.

Imagine yourself residing out at Oak Park and your business requiring your attention every morning at 8 o'clock somewhere in the loop district; and then suppose that you were suddenly deprived of the elevated road and the steam car lines and obliged to resort to the surface cars to reach your place of business. It would be beyond you to put up with a state of affairs of this kind, and yet, your discomfort would be no greater than that of the per

son

accustomed to an automobile, and the radius of action it gives him, suddenly deprived of it.

There is nothing that humanity objects to so strongly as having its "wings clipped," or its field of action confined to a smaller one than it is accustomed to. Anything and everything that saves time, labor, and brings people and places closer together, and at the same time is economical as compared with other methods of reaching the same ends, is absolutely bound to thrive and continue. The automobile wil prove just as necessary to us in a very few years as the telephone, telegraph or the railroads are today; and next to the railroad, iron and steel business, and possibly shipbuilding, it will be the largest industry in the country.

These are, no doubt, very large ideas, but they will be vindicated within the next five years. We do not realize how rapidly the automobile is becoming a necessity, nor the wonderful possiblities which it has. It is the largest factor in the opening up of our western deserts today. The new gold fields in Nevada are dependent upon the automobile for their present celebrity as well as for their communication with the outside world. Prospectors are using them all over Utah, New Mexico and Arizona; and the uses they can be put to and the resultant good derived from them is as yet only dreamed of.

Everybody knows, in a general way, the amount of good the automobile did during the San Francisco disaster. The writer happened to have a conversation with General runston on this subject, the writer not having been in San Francisco at the time of the earthquake, and realized that he never fully appreciated before, although he had given the subject considerable thought, the vast amount of good that the automobile actually did. It literally saved tens of thousands of lives, for without it the fire-fighting, police, sanitary, military and relief organzations would have been impossible.

We are not able to tell you what was the first automobile advertised, but believe that it was a French machine made abroad.

Trusting the above will prove of some assistance to you in the article you are getting up, we are,-Mitchell Motor Car Co.

The question has been frequently asked"Has the automobile come to stay?" This, however, is ancient history, for nowadays it is an accepted fact that the automobile is the vehicle of the future. (At least up to the time of the flying machine.)

The credit of building the first automobile made in America, must undoubtedly go to Mr. Elwood Haynes, of Kokomo, Indiana. The recent recognition by the U. S. Government in

requesting that the original model of the Haynes car be placed on exhibition in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D. C., establishes this fact.

In the early history of the automobile it was thought to be merely a curiosity to be toyed with by inventors or mechanics and unfit for the general public. Later, owing to its high price, it was considered a fad for the rich, that would never go into practical service, nor be purchased by people of moderate means. Now, however, it is recognized as one of the most satisfactory and healthful means of enjoyment which has ever been given to the human race. Indeed, the automobile is now looked upon by conservative people in much the same light as a luxurious home. The home serving as a basis and means of indoor family enjoyment, and the automobile as a means of outdoor family pleasure. It is certainly just as sensible and legitimate to invest money in the automobile as in the luxuries of home beyond the real needs of the family, since both are purchased for the enjoyment of the family, and while the home has the ad ditional quality of being a necessity, both are to a degree a means of luxury and enjoyment.

Many people have compared the automobile to the bicycle, but the man who thinks at all, or who has had the experience to judge of the two, will readily appreciate that the comparison is not well made. While one is an exercise, the other is used the same as the family horse, only its capabilities are many times greater, and with intelligent handling very much less expensive, to secure the same results.

To the writer's mind, the automobile is only at the beginning. Automobiles of the present

date have about assumed a standard in so far as the general design is concerned. This will give the manufacturer an opportunity to devote his attention to the commercial end of the business. The reader can easily appreciate the vast possibilities in this field that the automobile has to cover.

As to the automobile that was first advertised, the "Haynes" Company are entitled to this honor, as they not only placed an advertisement in the first issue of Horseless Age of 1896, but had printed and brought out the first regular automobile catalogue issued in the U. S. in the same year.-The Haynes Automobile Co., Kokomo, Ind.

"Is automobiling merely a fad or has the automobile come to stay?" It would seem as if this question had long since been thrashed out on the roads and that it no longer calls for an answer. Perhaps some of the various phases of automobiling will prove to be fads, and we think the high speed craze has already about run its course. This is not to say that high speed automobiles will no longer be in

demand, for we believe the very spirit of the times calls for speed and vitality, but in the early days the average man drove at the highest speed his car was capable of, in season and out of season, alike on country roads and crowded city streets.

In the form of commercial vehicles for the delivering of goods in the city, we believe the automobile will almost totally displace the horse within the next five years. It occupies less space-a factor that is becoming of greater importance every day in our congested cities-it is more cleanly, infinitely more sanitary and more economical in the sense that one truck will perform the work of three teams with their several drivers.

Mr. Henry Ford was a farmer before he was an automobile builder, and he still works the farm on which he was born, forty-one years ago.

Unlike other men who have made a financial success, farming is not a fad or a pastime with Mr. Ford. He takes quite as much interest in it as he does in his automobile business and it is his boast that the Ford farm, aug. mented during the last few years by leasing adjoining properties, is not only self sustaining but pays handsome dividends. Not one dollar has ever gone from the automobile business to the farm, but on the contrary the farm supported Mr. Ford during the years when he was conducting expensive experimental work preparatory to building his first practical automobile.

Based on the experience indicated above, Mr. Ford asserts that the automobile in the form of a motor tractor will, in the near future, cut a greater figure in farm work— plowing, seeding, cultivating, reaping, threshing and finally marketing the produce-than it does today as a pleasure vehicle in the cities.

The only thing that remains to bring to a realization this prophecy, is a broader interpretation of the free alcohol bill on the part of those into whose hands the regulation of denaturing alcohol rests.

It is within the power of any farmer today to make his own alcohol at a cost of six to eight cents per gallon but the regulations for denaturing it are so stringent and are So bound round with red tape that it brings the cost up to thirty-five or forty cents a gallona prohibitive figure.

It is Mr. Ford's earnest hope that a more rational interpretation of the bill will be made in the near future, and from that moment he believes will date the emancipation of the farmer from much of the drudgery which is now associated with his life, and the automobile, in forms best suited to the use of the ruralite, will become quite as familiar a figure on country roads as jaded dobbin is today. Ford Motor Co.

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