Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/443



the literature of automobilism is not at present overwhelming in its periodic forms, it is fast approaching the prolific stage. The number of weekly and monthly papers in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, produced directly in the interests of the automobile industry or pastime, is already considerable, and a further increase is foreshadowed by the rapid strides which horseless locomotion is making all over the civilised world. In the way of permanent literature, however, the movement can by no means be described as suffering from plethora, a fact which, is easily attributable to the constantly recurrent changes in the mechanical evolution of the motor-car.

The most interesting fact connected with the periodical literature of the movement is the prescience of the founders of 'The Autocar,' a journal which made its appearance, if not in advance of automobilism itself, at all events in advance of the passing of the emancipating Act of 1896. The first number of 'The Autocar' was published on November 2, 1895, or more than a year before the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896 came into operation. The bulkiness of its present form is a testimony alike to its own prosperity and to the growth of the automobile industry. It is well printed and illustrated, and is published every Friday at threepence by Iliffe & Sons, Ltd., 3 St. Bride Street, London, and Coventry.

The 'Automotor and Horseless Vehicle Journal' was also early in the field, its first number having been issued in October 1896.