A Steam Phaeton.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 28 April 1891, Page 3

A Steam Phaeton.

+ A steam phaeton has been introduced into Paris by M. Serpollet, the inventor of an inexplosible steam boiler of small dimensions. It resembles an ordinary phaeton, and under the body of the carriage a Serpollet motor, with an inexplosible boiler and a funnel bent down to discharge the smoke under the hind seat at the rear of the vehicle. It is guided by a single front wheel, after the manner of a tricycle. As the Periecture has authorised the police of Paris not to interfere with these carriages so long as they do not exceed a speed of 16 kilometres — about 10 miles — an hour, it will be well to consider some of the details. The tank is capable of holding enough water to perform a journey of 18 or 20 miles; the bunker can furnish fuel —preferably coke in cities, as it is smokeless — for running 36 miles. The weight of the vehicle with water and coke is 1250 kilogrammes of which 70 are fuel and 90 are water. The engine is four horse power, rising to six, and can be controlled to give several speeds, slow and fast. On a good country road a speed of 15 miles an hour can be kept up, with seven passengers in the carriage. It can be started in twenty minutes, and the feeding of the engine with water and fuel goes on automatically. The stopping, steering and slowing are easily managed by the driver on the front seat.