Excerpt from Digest of United States Automobile Patents From 1789 to July 1, 1899: Including All Patents Officially Classed as Traction-Engines for the Same Period; Chronologically Arranged Under the General Heads of Spring, Steam, Gas, Air, Electricity, Gearing, Traction-Engines and Miscellaneous

The Automobile, as the word is now commonly understood, is a comparatively recent product of the inventive and mechanical ingenuity Of the age. It is in a large measure the result Of new adaptations of previous devices intended for locomotion under different Circumstances, the patents for which have fallen under different heads in the Official classification and are thus found in no one place in the great aggregation Of patents granted in the history of the Government.

The patents digested in this volume, therefore, have been collected from various classes as a result of much careful examination and searching, by which alone those engaged in the art can -\secure all that bears directly upon it. Believed that this work is complete within the lines laid down.

The compiler. Has often been met with the question of including or ex cluding. Various kinds Of patents in analogous lines, but. Feeling that, in stepping outside Of what appeared to be the natural boundaries, there would be. Difficulty in finding any place to stop, he has excluded most devices when Obviously intended for tracks exclusively and such devices as those designed only for storing energy at intervals for use in hill climbing-as an adjunct 'to propulsion 'by hand or foot. While it is evident that the patents given here may have devices analogous to those applied to other and very different industries, such will appear in the references cited against them, a complete list Of which is given in the index by number, name and date. The value Of this index can hardly be overestimated because it actually gives in a nutshell the standing Of any Class of device covered by a patent, as well as all interferences, parties to them and 'the decisions.

As the vehicles commonly known as traction-engines, and which have long been in use; have many devices especially applicable to steam propulsion on high? Ways, it has been deemed best to include the whole Official class. Others, Officially classed 'with them, will _be found under the regular arbitrary heads in the other portion Of the 'book.

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