OCR Text |
Show THE HO AD STEAMER. The long sought for steam-wagon h come, ai.d will soon be pulling gre loads over all the roads of Calitorni and dragging ore up and down tl valleys of Nevada and Utah to tl trunk railroad line. Thompson's i vention of India rubber tires made t! steam-wagon a possibility, no n they are plenty enough in England a: Scotland, and are doing good work India and Brazil. Ou this coast already have a number. There arc o or two at Salt Lake, one in Stock to one which was running around Oa land sonic time ago, and one or two British Columbia. These are all Er lisb wagons. One, a California r provement on tho English patent, w tried in this city yesterday, and pull two heavy iron columns for the Sti Capitol down to the wharf. Tl wanon, which seems in several respc' better than the EnglUh machines, v built by Hyde &, Son, who i the patentees, at tho Etna wor The prinoipal improvement c sits in tbo wheels. In the Li lisb wagons these are covered by n ber tires to which steel plates re bt ed for protection. In tho Hyde i chine the tire is made ot rub cylinders, bciween which angle-ir . are placed, secured by an iron rim the outride of the wheel. Each piece has a separate play, and gives when ;he weight comes on it, thus giving :he wheel a prusp on the ground like :ui elephant's foot, and -ecurely pro meeting the rubber. With the exeep :inn of some minor details among which is a beautiful and compact little nuiup, the invention of Mi.-rs. Hyde v. Sun, and which can be u-ed as wdi for suekuij water from wells and -treama a? lor pumping into the boiler, the rest of the wagon constructed in the same way as the English wagons. The weight of the whole machine, with coal and water aboard, is eleven tons, and it is calculated to pull twenty tons of freight over any ordinary road, its consumption of coal being only one hundred pounds per hour. It is steered by the front wheel, which is like that of a velocipede, veloci-pede, and which is placed under the driver's control by means of a screw. These steam-wagons, with their broad wheels and heavy rubber tires, will go anywhere that hordes can be used; will run up hill or down, travel over rocks or through sand, and level instead ot cutting up a road. In going down hill no braking is necessary. The engine is merely reversed, when the wheels have to move against the steam in the cylinders aud the rate of descent can be regulated to a nicely. These machine.-are machine.-are evidently destined to revolutinnize interior transportation, and possibly to a great extent agriculture, as they must come into Very general use for plowing. The Stockton mUchine has already been tried at hauling gang-plows gang-plows through heavy soil, and Hyde & Son have a new rotary plow (also a California iuvention), which it is de .-igned to use with the steam wagon, i This plow moves like the wheel of a propeller, cutting aud turning the earth as it passes over it, aud is said to effect a great economy. San Francisco Examiner. |