Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1899 — AUTOCARS FOR THE MAILS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AUTOCARS FOR THE MAILS.

Postoffice Department Experiments With Them in buffalo. For some time past the Chicago postal authorities have been experimenting with autocars for use in the postal service. Heretofore collection wagons have been hauled by weary horses. In the big down-town district where collections are of hourly happening men on foot do‘the work. But In the outer districts the contract wagon with its despondent nag is the

real thing. Bat the Government has had its attention called to the fact that It is possible to collect the mails by means of horseless carriages. Experiments so sap seem to demonstrate the practicability of the idea. In Buffalo N. Y., the use of such cars has been successful, but it should be borne in mind that Buffalo is a city of asphalt streets and lack of grades. Chicago postal authorities do not believe that they will prove successful in the outlying districts of Chicago, -although swifter' service is a thing much to be desired. So long as the project is wholly in the experimental stage no special type of mall car to be operated automatically can be fixed upon as the style of greatest utility. But in the cases where cars have been used a general type has been used. Capacity for the storage of bundles of letters is a prerequisite. The express wagons used have great storage capacity. They are electric cars with storage batteries as motors. In the man cars the same general plan has so far been carried out. The wagons are much like those now hi use. They have a covered seat, where the operator can sit and manege the machine. They He lew on stnrdy trucks of iron, bat light In cons Ur uction. They have the covered body with a door In the rear, which con be locked after the collector has deposited the content* of a mafl box. They have thirty-inch wheels with pneumatic

carry nearly all of the carrying capacity. The gearing will, be rigged much like a four-wheeled hose reel of light steel, with a space back of the forward trucks for the placing of the battery or whatever kind of motor is to be used. The vehicle back of this will hang low as the ordinary mall wagon does, thus providing a receptacle for the collections. The machine can be operated by one man, as is the case at present He will sit in the box seat in front, where the motor and steering gear will come close to the

hand. When the vehicle Is stopped for any purpose be can dismount and take on or discharge his collections as readily if not more so than he does now while hie nag Is browsing on the grass plats near the curb. Strength and lightness are tbe two essentials In the construction. Recent experiments seem to demonstrate that the automobile can be used on country roads with as much success as the bicycle can.

THE OLD MAIL WAGONS AND THE NEW.