Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/79

Rh motor. My own experience is that a long run on a wet day in hilly country will, as a rule, find out what is wrong.

One must not on the other hand be too critical. In showing off a horse or a motor-car it not seldom, unfortunately, happens that neither is seen at its best. I remember in the summer of 1901 going for five months without a puncture of any kind in a certain twelve-horse car. I was punished for a little bragging by the occurrence of no fewer than three punctures one afternoon, while conveying a friend, to whom I had been congratulating myself, on a comparatively short journey.

Hardly any class of motor-car is so generally useful for country-house work as an omnibus. Wishing for something more speedy than an eight-horse Panhard, I purchased a twelve, and converted my old friend into an omnibus, which has proved eminently satisfactory for station work. Carrying four inside and one beside the driver, with ample room for luggage, it is a great relief to a horse stable in very hot or very wintry weather. It is geared down to twelve miles an hour, and pneumatic tyres have given way to solid. Were I ordering a new omnibus, I should not do so without at least a twelve-horse engine and seating capacity for ten, with luggage; and for heavy work in hilly country an even higher horse-power would be very desirable. My carriage was converted by an ordinary firm of London carriage-builders, who made no pretence of building lightly, and who were not aware that long journeys at twelve miles an hour will in time cause the windows to shake. These, however, are the only defects we have discovered in the converted carriage, which has frequently made journeys of a hundred miles a day with passengers and luggage. The form, of course, is not suited for long distances, as sitting sideways all day becomes very fatiguing.

There are now so many forms of covered vehicles that it is difficult to recommend one particular shape in preference to another. One form, however, possesses a danger with which I should like to deal. I refer to those carriages which are entered by raising the front seat, which have no other means of