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Caption: Dedication - Transportation Building Dedication Addresses
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tempered to the point of tolerating the continued existence of the "wheeled devil", and its seclusion somewhere out of eignt, hearing, or danger of further riotous doings. Thus eventuated the perservation, for most gratifying as it is to lenow, the original shaping through which steam was made to serve as the means of propulsion still remains intact. It oould to-day be fired up and moved, and would now be in the Baltimore & Ohio's Historical Collection had the offer of 50,000 francs or $10,000 the late Robert Garrett authorized for it been accepted. That this, the progenitor of the countless power propolled oreations on wheels that link together the ends of the earth, should have been devised neither for goods or passenger carrying purposes, or for pleasure or any one of the objects of present use, is the unique feature of the conception. Nicholas Gugnot was a Captain in the French Army and the trance inspiring him to the devising looked to substituting the energy of steam for the horses attached to the guns in the battery of artillery which he commanded. This to prevent putting the guns out of commission by the enemy's shooting the animals, as, also, to facilitate rapidity of maneuvers on the field. So far as known, Cugnot had no mechanical training, having been led, doubtless, by what had come in his way to read up on steam experimentation and adapt the power as has been described. The machine in itself shows the artilleryman's natural tendency in construction, the supporting frame being indicative of the gun
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