The automobile was perfected in 1829 and ran well on English roads. Who prevented its development? Was it the railway entrepreneurs? Was it the landed interests? Was it the free-traders? The same interests prevented its development in Europe and in America. Beasley takes you from the beginning through these various factions into the railway and banking conflicts to the 1890's when the automobile is allowed to develop in France. Why was it developed as the petroleum car and why was the steam car discouraged? Along the way Beasley demonstrates a unique theory of invention.
Genre: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / AutomotiveSells slowly
In the dead of night on July 27, 1829, Gurriey drove the carriage to Cranford Bridge Inn on the western limits of London. Shortly after four the next morning an excited party began the great experiment. To avoid crowds, Gurney made no announcement of his journey and planned to stop at those inns which were outside towns along the route.
Goldsworthy Gurney, James Stone, and another engineer,Tom Bailey, who stoked the fuel, rode the steam carriage, which was about 30 hundredweight (cwt) when loaded with sufficient coke and water to carry them for six to eight miles. Attached behind was a carriage carrying Thomas Gurney, Colonel James Viney, Captain William Augustus Dobbyn, and two engineers from Gurney's manufactory who perched on the dickey. Accompanying this self-propelled group were two horse drawn vehicles. The first, a phaeton drawn by two horses, carried William Hanning, Sir Charles Dance, and Dance's monied friends, William Bulnois and Davis; the second, a post carriage carrying coke lest fuel not be found at some of the way stations, was driven by two post-boys with David Dady, Gurney's factory manager, and Thomas Martin, an assistant engineer.
At first the phaeton preceded the steam carriage, but at a speed of 14 mph on the level road the steam carriage left it far behind. As for the post carriage, its horses were in a lather trying to keep up, and it had to be pulled by two pairs of horses after they left Maidenhead, the first stop for coke and water.
