Without horses.

Gasoline Carriage Invented in Los Angeles.

The Trial Trip Satisfies All the Maker’s Most Sanguine Hopes of Success.

Over Bad Roads or Hills.

The First Journey Early on Sunday Morning.

It carried enough gasoline to run from Los Angeles to San Francisco — J. Philip Erie’s Achievement.

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A horseless carriage has been invented and built here in Los Angeles which has proved a success, and which promises to outrival in its ability to travel over bad roads and on heavy grades all its competitors hitherto invented.

The trial of the new gasoline-propelled automobile carriage took place early yesterday morning, when the streets were deserted except for a few sleepy policemen and wildly-careering milkmen. The trial trip was set for the “we, sma’ hours” because the inventor, J. Philip Erie, knew that if it were at any less unearthly hour, the spectacle would attract a crowd which would interfere seriously with the progress of affairs.

For months J. Philip Erie, a wealthy New York civil engineer and inventor, who has of late been living in California on account of his health, has been working on his ideas for a motorcarriage. Over $30,000 has been spent in the experiments. Almost every detail of the machinery had to be invented as the work progressed, and now that the machine is done, it is protected by over thirty separate patents.

At 2 o’clock yesterday morning, the work began of getting the carriage out of the shop on West Fifth street, where it has been built. The carriage was pushed down the long alley, and out on Broadway. The gasoline engine was set to working, the machinery put in motion, and with a twist of the lever the first horseless carriage ever seen in Los Angeles moved off.

Then Mr. And Mrs. Erie and a half dozen guests climbed into the carriage. Down Broadway it moved, around the corner onto Sixth street, along the awful Sixth street pavement so smoothly that the passengers scarcely felt any motion at all, south on Main street for a block, crossing car tracks and chuck-holes innumerable without any trouble, and then down the Seventh street hill to the east for over a mile, went the motor. When it came to a gutter, it rolled down one slope and up the other without the slightest trouble. Rocks, chuck-holes and car tracks were as nothing. Upgrades and downgrades were no trouble at all, and in every way the vehicle satisfied the wishes of its inventor….

Yesterday morning only one of the cylinders was used, but in spite of the fact the vehicle ran with utmost smoothness and ease. When the four cylinders are used, and that could have been done yesterday morning if it wished to do so, the machine will go at the rate of twenty miles an hour, without any trouble, and it is believed that because of the method of its construction, neither hills nor rough roads can interfere with its successful working.

The trial was a gratifying success in every way. One fear which had been felt beforehand was that the machine would scare horses, because of its unique appearance and because of the noise of the gasoline motors and the gasoline explosions. A number of teams were passed during the trial trip, but they showed not the slightest fear of the novel spectacle.

The motor wagon

In appearance the motor-wagon is not unlike a massive tally-ho. The body of the carriage is high above all the machinery, which is enclosed below in a black box. This box is lined with asbestos, giving perfect ventilation to the engines and preventing any heat from reaching the body of the carriage. The fumes of the gasoline are barely noticeable, being all below and behind the carriage, and nearly all noise is prevented by the device of making all gears alternately of wood fiber and steel. The wheels are of steel, with pneumatic tires in which the rubber, being an inch thick, is practically proof against punctures. The only part of the machinery that is visible is a polished copper cylinder underneath the front of the carriage and the nickel-plated levers which are used to start and stop the machinery, or to operate the steering-gear….

Mr. Erie pins his faith to the gasoline motor for road vehicles for many reasons. It is economical in the beginning, for all that is required to run it is ordinary stove gasoline and not much of that. This wagon carries enough gasoline in its storage tanks to run three hundred miles, and could easily take with it sufficient fuel for twice the distance. If, by any chance, gasoline could not be procured in the course of a long driving tour, the tanks would be filled with ordinary kerosene, which does nearly as well.

Light weight and compactness of machinery is another advantage grained with the gasoline motor. The weight is just about one-half of that required for a motor run by either steam or electricity, and the machinery is much simpler and more easily operated.

This innocent-looking black tally-ho has about twenty-five miles an hour concealed in its vitals. Its usual pace is expected to cover from seventy-five to a hundred miles a day, uphill and down, over gravel, mud or sand. None of the electric carriages manufactured carries sufficient power to run more than twenty miles on a smooth road, which on a heavy grade or a rough road the power is expended in less than half the distance….

It is now nearly two years since the automobile carriage sent out through the city last night began to take shape …. This is the first motor carriage ever built west of the Mississippi River. In all probability it will not be long before a factory is established in Los Angeles for the manufacture of motor wagons.