Sometimes the past hints of a future so far ahead it must have seemed mad at the time. The Verbiest model was for a four-wheeled carriage, on which an aeolipil

Sometimes the past hints of a future so far ahead it must have seemed mad at the time. The Verbiest model was for a four-wheeled carriage, on which an aeolipile was mounted with a pan of burning coals beneath it. A jet of steam from the aeolipile impinged upon the vanes of a wheel on a vertical axle, the lower end of the spindle being geared to the front axle. An additional wheel, larger than the supporting wheels, was mounted on an adjustable arm in a manner to adapt the vehicle to moving in a circular path. Another orifice in the aeolipile was fitted with a reed, so that the steam going through it imitated the song of a bird.