Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/81

Rh side curtains, too, have the effect of keeping out sound, which is a slight disadvantage, though considering that a motor-car is the most rapidly travelling vehicle on the road, the danger is not so much to be feared from behind as from something within sight. Over the driver's head is a wire luggage basket which conveys the heavier impedimenta of the tourists. Under the two back seats are locked drawers for valuables and anything that may be wanted en route. Under the front seat inside the carriage are electric batteries for the lamps with which the interior is lighted. The front seat can be let down if necessary, and its place taken by a net into which it is convenient to throw such things as books, cameras, a sponge-bag (containing materials for a hasty toilet on the road), maps, newspapers, fruit, and the hundred and one odds and ends one collects in a day's travel.

The material with which the interior of the carriage is lined is that pale buff cloth familiar to travellers in French first-class railway carriages. I feared that it would easily soil, but M. Kellner assured me that experience has proved it to be the best material, and he was entirely right; the carriage has now been running a year, it has been all over France and England, and it looks as good as new. The sides are a mass of pockets in which we stow all manner of unconsidered trifles. It is remarkable, indeed, what can be got in and upon a carriage of this sort; for, in addition to the personal belongings of the tourists, there are the engineer's and servant's spare clothes, and always a certain amount of special lubricating oil.

As the Serpollet boiler is heated by ordinary paraffin, we have not the petrol difficulty, for paraffin, or, as it is called in France, pétrole ordinaire, is procurable everywhere in almost any civilised or uncivilised country; indeed, it is as easy to obtain as water, which is, however, occasionally not so readily found as one might think — on the great plains of central France one may occasionally travel for an hour or two without being able to replenish one's water supply. My advice to travellers generally by steam automobiles is to take in water whenever they can,