Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/523

 10 S. XL MAY 29, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

431

MECHANICAL ROAD CAKEIAGES (10 S. xi. 305, 374). A seventeenth-century example is Stevinus's " celebrated sailing chariot," of which Uncle Toby was so inopportunely reminded by the sudden appearance of Dr. Slop. The volume of ' Tristram Shandy ' (second of the original issue) containing this passage was written in 1759, and the words "It is on solid mechanical principles," which conclude the paragraph quoted by MB. BLEACKLEY from The Public Advertiser of 16 May in the same year, might have been in Sterne's memory when he made the elder S handy say :

" For notwithstanding I know nothing of the chariot in question, the inventor of it must have had a very mechanical head ; and tho' I cannot guess upon what principles of philosophy he has atchieved it ; yet certainly his machine has been constructed upon solid ones, be they what they will, or it could not have answered at the rate my brother mentions." P. 19, vol. ii. in six-vol. edition of 1782.

The curiosity of the reader as to the mechanism is not satisfied, for in reply to Shandy's " Pray, Dr. Slop, upon what principles was this self-same chariot set a-going ? " the accoucheur replies evasively, " Upon very pretty principles, to be sure."

Simon Stevin's statue in the Place Stevin at Bruges has agreeable associations for the literary-minded among the numerous English residents. EDWARD BENSLY.

Aberystwyth.

The oldest motor-car on record is said to have been designed and built in 1660 by a Jesuit missionary in China to carry him on his rounds. It was driven by a jet of steam playing on a mill-wheel connected by gearing with one of its axles. Can this statement be verified ? But even if it can, it will not apparently prove to be the earliest invention of its kind, as the following patent, relating to a carriage driven by wind, will show :

" Paten de anno vicesimo primo Jacobi Begis B. x die Junij con Hugoni Upton licence e authority for the sole making of an Instrument w* 1 ' shalbe dryven by the wynde for the trans- portacon or carriage of anything by lande for xxj yeres."

The following announcement, which appeared about a month after that quoted at the first reference by MB. ALECK ABRA- HAMS, is noteworthy as giving a few addi- tional particulars :

" This is to acquaint all Lovers of Ingenuity, " That there is lately arriv'd from the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, and is now. to be seen at the Mitre Tavern, Charing Cross, a most curious Chaise that travels without Horses.

" This beautiful and convenient Machine is thought, by several curious Gentlemen who have seen it, to be one of the most complete Pieces of Mechanism ever invented, having those good properties which will always recommend Things of this sort, to be so simply contriv'd, and easily manag'd, as to travel upwards of forty Miles a Day, with very little Trouble to the Bider, or Danger of being put out of Order. The whole Thing, though capable of carrying three Persons, weighs less than Two Hundred Weight.

" Note, It is to be seen any Hour of the Day, by any number of Gentlemen or Ladies, from Nine in the Morning till Nine at Night without Loss of Time." Dotty Advertiser, April 13, 1742,

None of the above inventions is mentioned in a ' History of Steam Carriages on Turn- pike Roads,' a tract in which it is stated that the celebrated James Watt took out a patent for a steam carriage in 1784. " For a long time," observes the author,

" subsequent to the discovery of the active pro- perties of steam, it appears to have been confined to a rectilinear action, and solely employed in raising water." 1834.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney invented a steam carriage in 1827 which had " a tubular boiler " constructed " on philosophical principles," upon a plan "totally distinct from anything previously in use," to quote his own description of it. A full explana- tion, with an illustration, is to be found in The Mirror for 1827, p. 393.

In the same periodical for 1839, p. 194, will be found an illustration of the " Accele- rator," " intended for the transit of goods and passengers on common roads at a speed equal to that attained by the railway engine, and at a less expense."

The " Aellopodes," invented by Mr. Revis of Cambridge, was a carriage " light and elegant in form, which the traveller moved by stepping first with one foot and then with the other the treddles being immediately behind him." This machine was about 12ft. in length, cost 301. or thereabouts, and was invented in 1838.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

ROBERT No YES (10 S. xi. 288). Robert Noyes was an artist whoso drawings have been much admired by judges for their delicacy and wealth of detail. He was father of the late Henry Noyes, for many years well known as an artist and art master at Shrewsbury and Chester ; grandfather of Archdeacon Noyes and of Dr. Henry Noyes, late chaplain of the Embassy Church in Paris ; and great-grandfather of Mr. Alfred Noyes the poet. Unfortunately, the works of Robert Noyes have been dispersed by