Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1893 — A BENZINE CAB. [ARTICLE]

A BENZINE CAB.

One Solution of the Problem of Rapid Transit on Country Roads. The benzine cab is the most novel means of transportation in Germany. It is a four-wheeler, guided by a touch of the finger on a lever, and provided with motive power by a benzine engine which neither heats nor smokes the occupants. The first of this style of cab was completed a month ago in a Mannheim factory, and was started on an exhibition trip to Berlin. It rolled over the country roads at a rate of fifteen or sixteen miles an hour, and at an expense of half a cent’s yrorth of benzine per mile. In every citv on his route the conductor, who is at the same time engineer, has run his cab through the streets, taken on and let off curious passengers, and made his way across crowded market places to show the ease and safety with which the machinery can be managed. The cost of the cab is but SI,OOO, and this can be reduced in the process of wholesale manufacture to $450 or SSOO. The inventor expects that it will revolutionize the present system of transportation between country towns and between cities and their suburbs.