Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile - Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur" by Arthur Jerome Eddy
page 32 of 299 (10%)
page 32 of 299 (10%)
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In this first day's run of thirteen hours, the distance covered by
route taken was one hundred and seventy miles; deducting all stops, the actual running time was nine hours and twenty minutes, an average of eighteen miles per hour while the machine was in motion. For an ordinary road machine this is a high average over so long a stretch, but the weather was perfect and the machine working like a clock. The roads were very good on the whole, and, while the country was rolling, the grades were not so steep as to compel the use of the slow gear to any great extent. The machine was geared rather high for any but favorable conditions, and could make thirty-five miles an hour on level macadam, and race down grade at an even higher rate. Before reaching Buffalo we found the gearing too high for some grades and for deep sand. On the whole, the roads of Northern Indiana are good, better than the roads of any adjoining State, and we were told the roads of the entire State are very good. The system of improvement under State laws seems to be quite advanced. It is a little galling to the people of Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio to find the humble Hoosier is far ahead in the matter of road building. If all the roads between Chicago and New York averaged as good as those of Indiana, the trip would present fewer difficulties and many more delights. The Professor notes that up to this point nine and three-quarters gallons of gasoline have been consumed,--seventeen miles to the |
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