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'Bone-shaker' bicycle, 1869
In 1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith of Courthill, Dumfriesshire, fitted pedals and cranks to the rear wheel, but again the machine was a failure. About 1864 Pierre Lallement, of Paris, adopted a front-wheel drive by fitting cranks and pedals, and, strange to say, this ‘bone-shaker,' as it was called, became the first popular bicycle The back-bone was of solid iron, and the wooden wheels had iron tires. It was introduced into England in 1868, and large numbers were made and used. In 1869 wire-spoked wheels were introduced by E.A.Cowper, and in the following year solid rubber tyres,and ball bearings in 1878.
'Great Republic'
Last of the Clipper Passenger Packets, 1854. The clipper “packet ship” was a vast improvement on the ordinary sailing ship. It had just reached its highest point of development when the ocean steamship first made its appearance. It was to the upper strata of the travelling community, sixty years ago, the counterpart of the express steamer of to-day. The packet-ship was built for fast sailing, with very fine lines, was handsomely fitted up and furnished, was exceedingly well found in eatables and drinkables, and carried a great spread of canvas. To see one of these ships under full sail was a [Pg 27]sight to be remembered—a rare sight, inasmuch as all the conditions of wind and water necessary for the display of every stitch of canvas are seldom met with in the North Atlantic. They not unfrequently crossed in fourteen or fifteen days. In winter they might be three months on a single voyage, but their average would be from twenty-five to thirty days.
'Wilhelm Kaiser' On The Rhine, 1886
The Rhine steamers and those plying on the Swiss lakes are in keeping with the picturesque scenery through which they run. Painted in bright colours, they present a very attractive and smart appearance. They are kept scrupulously clean and are admirably managed. Many of them are large, with saloon cabins the whole length of the vessel, over which is the promenade deck covered with gay awnings. They run fast. The captain sits in state in his easy chair under a canopy on the bridge—smoking his cigar. The chief steward, next to the captain by far the most important personage on board, moves about all day long in full evening dress—his main concern being to know what wine you will have for lunch or dinner that he may put it on ice for you. The table d’hote is the crowning event of the day on board a Rhine steamer, i.e., for the misguided majority of tourists to whom a swell dinner offers greater attractions than the finest scenery imaginable.
10-Passenger Limousine
10-Passenger Limousine. Autocar Equipment Co., Buffalo, N. Y. PRICE: $5,500 BODY: Limousine SEATS: 10 persons inside, 2 outside TREAD: 62½ inches TIRES, FRONT: 36 × 3½ in. TIRES, REAR: 36 × 4 in. STEERING: Irreversible with worm gear BRAKES: On counter shaft, and double-acting on rear hubs SPRINGS: Semi-elliptic FRAME: Oak and steel BORE: 411/16 in. STROKE: 5½ in. CYLINDERS: 4 vertical, separate VALVE ARRANGEMENT: On opposite sides COOLING: Water, cellular radiator IGNITION: Jump spark CURRENT SUPPLY: Batteries CARBURETER: Float-feed automatic LUBRICATION: Force feed MOTOR-CONTROL: Spark and throttle CLUTCH: Conical type CHANGE GEAR: Sliding type SPEEDS: 3 forward and reverse CHANGE-GEAR CONTROL: Side lever DRIVE: Double chain
1910 Curtis
1910 New Engines
4-Cylinder vertical engine assembly
4-Cylinder vertical engine assembly
4-Cylinder vertical engine assembly
4-Cylinder vertical engine assembly
A 'Fischer' Combination Omnibus
A 13th-Century English Ship
The Viking influence is still easily traceable in this ship, but the forecastle and the sterncastle have put in their appearance. Also the hull is heavier than and not so sharp as in the earlier Viking ships.
A 16th-Century Dutch Boat
It was on boats of this type that the jib seems first to have been used. To-day in Holland one sees a similar boat, called a schuyl, which is almost identical with this, except that it utilizes a curved gaff at the top of the mainsail.
A Battle Cruiser
A ship carrying the heaviest of guns but lacking the heavy armour of the dreadnaughts. Its speed is greatly superior to that of dreadnaughts.
A Birch-bark Canoe
In many parts of the world savage people have learned to build light frames over which they have stretched the best material available to them. The Indians of North America commonly utilize birch bark.
A Black Ball Packet
Ships of this type carried the transatlantic passengers of the early part of the 19th Century. Because of the demand of the owners of the Black Ball Line and of its competitors, America, where these lines were owned and where their ships were built, developed the designers who ultimately gave the world the clipper ships.
A Bleriot Sea-plane
England, in the building and handling of sea-planes has come well to the fore, and our machines are more advanced than those of other countries. The Admiralty has recognised that, acting as a coastal scout in time of war, such craft would be of the utmost value; thus we find air-stations dotted round our seaboard, from which machines may fly in a regular patrol. By the employment of hundreds of craft, operating upon a well-ordered plan, it will be possible in the future to girdle our shores completely; and such machines would not only spy out the approach of an enemy’s fleet, but give battle to hostile aeroplanes or airships which might seek to pass inland. The type of machine we have just described was a biplane, but there are monoplane sea-craft, and a Bleriot fitted for alighting upon the water is shown.
A British East Indiaman
These merchant ships, which sailed from England to the Far East, were almost as much like warships as they were like merchantmen. They were finely built, but they took their time on their voyages out and back.
A British Line-of-Battle Ship, 1790
This awkward ship is one of the type that made up the great fleets that fought, for instance, at Trafalgar. Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, is of this type.
A Cargo Liner
A cargo liner is a freight ship that sails on scheduled dates and routes, and is different in this from a “tramp” which takes what cargoes it can at any time and to any port.
A Chinese sedan chair and bearers
A Chinese sedan chair and bearers
A Corvette of 1780
This ship shows the new sail plan overcoming the old. The masts carry topsails, topgallantsails, and royals, and what was formerly a lateen sail on the mizzenmast has become a spanker. Furthermore, while the ship carries jibs, she has not yet parted with her spritsails.
A deckload of cotton
A deckload of cotton
A drawing and the first page of the specifications of the first patent issued to C. E. Duryea
It can be readily seen that this drawing was not made after the plan of the first vehicle.
A European Side-wheeler
These steamers are often seen in European waters and are widely used as excursion boats.
A Few Types of Sailing Boats to Be Found Around the World
A Few Types of Sailing Ships Common in European and American Waters
A Floating Dry Dock
And a ship undergoing repairs.
A Flying Boat
showing the span of the main-planes, and the curve of the boat-shaped hull.
- A Flying Boat - side view
A. Hull B. seats for crew C. Planes D. Motor E. Propeller F. Rudder G. Elevators.
- A Flying Boat top view
showing the shape of wings and tail, and the positions of the pilot and passenger within the hull.
A Freighter Tied Up to a Pier
The lines shown running from the ship to the pier are often used in slightly different arrangements, but always it is advisable to run lines diagonally in order that slight movements of the ship away from the pier may be checked gradually and without breaking the lines. Furthermore, this arrangement prevents movement ahead or astern.
A Galleon of the Time of Elizabeth
The extremely high stern and the low bow shown in this drawing are about as extreme as any in use during the period when high bows and low sterns were thought to be good design.
A Gloucester Fisherman
Such schooners as this are common in the New England fishing fleets. They are seaworthy and fast, and probably the men who sail them are the greatest seamen of our time.
A Great Lakes Freight Carrier
This type of ship is eliminating the whaleback on the Great Lakes, and is used largely to transport ore and grain.
A Greek Trireme
These warships were about 120 feet in length, and the sails and spars were taken down and sent ashore if battle was expected. The oars were operated by slaves.
A Hudson River Steamer
The passenger steamers of the Hudson are large, speedy, and are capable of carrying thousand of excursionists.
A Krupp motor gun-carrying lorry
A Large Egyptian Ship of the 18th Dynasty
The overhanging bow and stern were common on most early Egyptian ships, and the heavy cable, stretched from one end of the hull to the other and supported on two crutches, was used to strengthen these overhanging ends.
A Light Egyptian Chariot
The light chariots of the Egyptians enabled them to secure the fullest advantage from the speed and breeding of their horses, which at the time were considered to be the finest in the world. The Egyptian chariots were sometimes square, but more often they were semi-circular or horse-shoe shape, with the curved front towards the horses.
A Mail Liner
These ships, while somewhat smaller than the biggest ships and not quite so fast, are perhaps the most popular of passenger ships, for their rates are not so high as those of the great ships, and their accommodations are more or less comparable.
A Map of the Port of Cape Town
Table Bay is open to the force of north and northwest winds. Before the bay could protect ships from the frequent storms blowing from these directions a series of breakwaters had to be built, in the lee of which ships could anchor.
A Map of the Port of Liverpool
While Liverpool is much smaller, so far as mere area is concerned, than New York, it handles about the same amount of freight. Freight ships load and unload in the tidal basins while passenger steamers use floating landing stages.
A Map of the Port of Marseilles
In this case the city grew up practically without a harbour. Finally a breakwater was erected parallel to the shore in order that ships might be protected from the sea.
A Map of the Port of New York
The Lower Bay has not yet been developed, but about the Upper Bay and along the Hudson and East rivers hundreds of piers are in everyday use. While New York is a huge port and while it can continue to grow for many years it has numerous disadvantages, one of the chief of which is the absence of a belt line railroad
A Map of the Port of Rio de Janeiro
Rio Bay is probably the finest in the world, but mountains paralleling the coast form a handicap to the easy transportation of goods inland.
A mass of wreckage that strikes the deck of one of our warships
German plane crashed into an American warship
A Mediterranean Galley
This ship is of the type used long after the Middle Ages. Several men pulled each oar and all the oars were in one bank.
A Mississippi River Stern-wheeler
A modern Balloon
Coal-gas superseded hot air in the filling of balloons, the latter being unsatisfactory, seeing that it cooled rapidly and allowed the balloon to descend; the only alternative being to do what some of the first aeronauts did, and burn a fire below the neck of their balloon even when in the air. But the dangers of this were great, seeing that the whole envelope might easily become ignited. With balloons filled with coal-gas long flights were possible, but they had always this disadvantage—the voyagers were at the mercy of the wind, and could not fly in any direction they might choose. If the wind blew from the north then they were driven south, the balloon being a bubble in the air, wafted by every gust. Aeronauts became disgusted with this inability to guide the flight of a balloon, and many quaint controls were tested; such, for example, as the use of a large pair of oars with which the balloonist, sitting in the car of his craft, rowed vigorously in the air.
A Modern Destroyer
This type of ship was originally designed to protect the larger ships from torpedo boats, but now that duty has been eliminated by the elimination of torpedo boats, and destroyers have many uses with the fleets to which they belong.
A Modern Super-dreadnaught
Which carries the heaviest type of guns, and is protected by heavy armour. Its speed is less than that of cruisers.
A Modern Venetian Cargo Boat
This is hardly more than a barge, with a sail plan of a modified form, somewhat suggesting the lateen rig common in the Mediterranean, and something like the lug sails common in French waters.
A New York Harbour Ferry
While these double-ended ships are large, they do not compare in size with the liners. Yet they carry hundreds of thousands of passengers to and fro across the Hudson and the Upper Bay.
A New York Harbour Lighter
Lighters take various forms and perform various tasks. European lighters are more likely to have pointed ends. American lighters very often have square ends. Occasionally they have engines of their own, but generally they depend on tugs for power.
A Palanquin in India
There have been various modifications of the litter, familiar examples being the funeral bier and the modern stretcher. Another development is the palanquin, a distinctive form of transport in the East.
A Peruvian Balsa
These “boats” are really rafts made of reeds.
A Phœnician Bireme
Despite the fact that the Phœnicians did more with ships than any other ancient peoples before the Greeks and Romans, little is known of Phœnician ships. They developed the bireme, an oar- and sail-driven ship with two “banks” of oars, and circumnavigated Africa.
A Pink
A pink was rigged like a schooner, but without a bowsprit or jib.
A Possibility of Motorcycling in the Future
The 8 h.p. twin cylinder Uni, with wheel steering and free engine. The power plant slides upon rails at the rear platform by means of a cable actuated from the lever beside the driver
A Possibility of Motorcycling in the Future
The 16 h.p. Uni-motorcycle, with spring suspension, magneto ignition, free engine and wheel steering.
A possible air-scout
One might prefer a single bird, which could be ridden bareback by a man or woman of common equestrian skill. The early philosophers, therefore, sought with some care for such a creature.