The work of opening up the country far and near,by straightening and improving existing roads,and laying out new ones that combine the solidity of the Appian Way with the smoothness of modern asphalt,was largely done by convicts,working under the direction of State and Government engineers.Every State contained a horde of these unprofitable boarders,who,as they formerly worked,interfered with honest labour,and when idle got into trouble.City streets had been paved by the municipality;country roads attended to by the farmers,usually very unscientifically.Here was a field in which convict labour would not compete,and an important work could be done.When once this was made the law,every year showed improvement,while the convicts had useful and healthful occupation.
"The electric phaetons,as those for high speed are called,have three and four wheels,and weigh,including battery and motor,five hundred to four thousand pounds.With hollow but immensely strong galvanically treated aluminum frames and pneumatic or cushion tires,they run at thirty-five and forty miles an hour on country roads,and attain a speed over forty on city streets,and can maintain this rate without recharging for several days.They can therefore roam over the roads of the entire hemisphere,from the fertile valley of the Peace and grey shores of Hudson Bay,to beautiful Lake Nicaragua,the River Plate,and Patagonia,improving man by bringing him close to Nature,while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well.
"To recharge the batteries,which can be done in almost every town and village,two copper pins attached to insulated copper wires are shoved into smooth-bored holes.These drop out of themselves by fusing a small lead ribbon,owing to the increased resistance,when the acid in the batteries begins to 'boil,'though there is,of course,but little heat in this,the function of charging being merely to bring about the condition in which part of the limestone can be consumed,the batteries themselves,when in constant use,requiring to be renewed about once a month.
A handle at the box seat turns on any part of the attainable current,for either going ahead or reversing,there being six or eight degrees of speed for both directions,while the steering is done with a small wheel.
"Light but powerful batteries and motors have also been fitted on bicycles,which can act either as auxiliaries for hill-climbing or in case of head wind,or they can propel the machine altogether.
"Gradually the width of the streets became insufficient for the traffic,although the elimination of horses and the consequent increase in speed greatly augmented their carrying capacity,until recently a new system came in.The whole width of the avenues and streets in the business parts of the city,including the former sidewalks,is given up to wheel traffic,an iron ridge extending along the exact centre to compel vehicles to keep to the right.Strips of nickel painted white,and showing a bright phosphorescence at night,are let into the metal pavement flush with the surface,and run parallel to this ridge at distances of ten to fifteen feet,dividing each half of the avenue into four or five sections,their width increasing as they approach the middle.All trucks or drays moving at less than seven miles an hour are obliged to keep in the section nearest the building line,those running between seven and fifteen in the next,fifteen to twenty-five in the third,twenty-five to thirty-five in the fourth,and everything faster than that in the section next the ridge,unless the avenue or street is wide enough for further subdivisions.If it is wide enough for only four or less,the fastest vehicles must keep next the middle,and limit their speed to the rate allowed in that section,which is marked at every crossing in white letters sufficiently large for him that runs to read.It is therefore only in the wide thoroughfares that very high speed can be attained.In addition to the crank that corresponds to a throttle,there is a gauge on every vehicle,which shows its exact speed in miles per hour,by gearing operated by the revolutions of the wheels.
"The policemen on duty also have instantaneous kodaks mounted on tripods,which show the position of any carriage at half-and quarter-second intervals,by which it is easy to ascertain the exact speed,should the officers be unable to judge it by the eye;so there is no danger of a vehicle's speed exceeding that allowed in the section in which it happens to be;neither can a slow one remain on the fast lines.
"Of course,to make such high speed for ordinary carriages possible,a perfect pavement became a sine qua non.We have secured this by the half-inch sheet of steel spread over a carefully laid surface of asphalt,with but little bevel;and though this might be slippery for horses'feet,it never seriously affects our wheels.There being nothing harder than the rubber ties of comparatively light drays upon it--for the heavy traffic is carried by electric railways under ground--it will practically never wear out.
"With the application of steel to the entire surface,car-tracks became unnecessary,ordinary wheels answering as well as those with flanges,so that no new tracks were laid,and finally the car companies tore up the existing ones,selling them in many instances to the municipalities as old iron.Our streets also need but little cleaning;neither is the surface continually indented,as the old cobble-stones and Belgian blocks were,by the pounding of the horses'feet,so that the substitution of electricity for animal power has done much to solve the problem of attractive streets.
