strange to say, continued to run more or less successfully until
prohibited by law from using the highways, because of their interference
with the horse traffic. Therefore the locomotive and the railroads
throve at the expense of the automobile, and the permanent iron-bound
right of way of the railroads left the highways to the horse.

The old-time automobiles were cumbrous affairs, with clumsy boilers, and
steam-engines that required one man's entire attention to keep them
going. The concentrated fuels were not known in those days, and
heat-economising appliances were not invented.

It was the invention by Gottlieb Daimler of the high-speed gasoline
engine, in 1885, that really gave an impetus to the building of
efficient automobiles of all powers. The success of his explosive
gasoline engine, forerunner of all succeeding gasoline motor-car
engines, was the incentive to inventors to perfect the steam-engine for
use on self-propelled vehicles.

Unlike a locomotive, the automobile must be light, must be able to carry
power or fuel enough to drive it a long distance, and yet must be almost
automatic in its workings. All of these things the modern motor car
accomplishes, but the struggle to make the machinery more efficient
still continues.

The three kinds of power used to run automobiles are steam, electricity,
and gasoline, taken in the order of application. The steam-engines in
motor-cars are not very different from the engines used to run
locomotives, factory machinery, or street-rollers, but they are much
lighter and, of course, smaller--very much smaller in proportion to the
power they produce. It will be seen how compact and efficient these