Walter Arnold and the World’s First Ever Rushing Ticket
January twenty eighth, 1896 should have began out as an atypical day for the police constable chargeable for Paddock Wooden, Kent. As he pushed his bicycle by way of the quiet streets, he in all probability had nothing extra on his thoughts than questioning whether or not in the present day was the day he’d be capable to say “You’re nicked, son” to that rogue of a poacher.
Whereas continuing in an orderly style by way of the village, the peace of the constable’s common beat was abruptly and rudely shattered. He wasn’t to know that what was occurring was additionally an occasion of nationwide, and, finally, worldwide significance.
Belting previous the bobby at a scary 8mph, a motorist by the identify of Walter Arnold was about to enter the document books in a burst of exhaust fumes and a flurry of authorized exercise. Not solely was he clearly breaking the pace restrict for considered one of these infernal machines, which was 2mph, but additionally, and much more damningly, he had no man with a crimson flag previous him because the regulation required.
The bobby on the beat set off in scorching pursuit on his regulation problem bicycle, lastly catching up with this deranged highway racer after 5 miles. Having captured his man, what was a bobby to do in pre-speeding ticket days? It’s not onerous to think about a subsequent scene between motorist and constable.
“Gasp – didn’t you hear me shouting at you to drag over sir? – cough – should ask you to accompany me – grasp on a minute – wheeze…“
“Have you ever considered asking your superiors for an improve, constable? I may present them with an excellent deal on a Benz motor, most interesting German engineering…”
“Now I’ve received my breath again, I’m writing you a quotation, sir.”
Walter Arnold was no atypical motorist. He was additionally one of many earliest automotive sellers within the nation and the native provider for Benz automobiles. He was nicely forward of the occasions and arrange his personal automotive firm producing “Arnold” motor carriages on the identical time. It must be stated that the following publicity surrounding his dashing offence in all probability wasn’t completely unwelcome, and it was definitely a recreation changer for the car.
The London Every day Information detailed the 4 counts, also referred to as “informations”, on which Walter Arnold confronted expenses at Tunbridge Wells court docket. Arnold’s automobile was described a number of occasions within the newspaper court docket report as a “horseless carriage”, and the case clearly raised some fascinating philosophical in addition to authorized factors for the bench.
The primary depend, which reads oddly now, was for utilizing a “locomotive with no horse,” the following for having fewer than three individuals “answerable for the identical”, indicating the enduring affect of horse-drawn and steam locomotion when it got here to legislating the brand new automobiles. Subsequent got here the precise dashing cost, for driving at greater than two miles per hour, and eventually, a cost for not having his identify and deal with on the automobile.
In defence, Arnold’s barrister acknowledged that the present locomotive acts had not foreseen such a automobile, throwing within the names of a few elite customers, Sir David Salmons and the Hon. Evelyn Ellis, who had by no means had any issues whereas out and about in theirs. Whether or not this was supposed to impress the court docket or to make some level about one regulation for the wealthy and one other for the person on the street is just not completely clear.
Since this was a case that might set a precedent, referencing names of people that had been within the public eye would keep away from the issue that has turn out to be a by-word for judges who’re out of contact – the “who he?” response. The origin of this phrase, steadily referenced by satirical journal Non-public Eye, lies within the response of 1 decide within the Nineteen Sixties who was heard to ask in court docket “Who’re the Beatles?”
Mr Cripps, defending, stated that if the Bench thought-about the automobile was a locomotive, due to this fact presumably legislating it inside present acts, they need to cost a nominal high-quality. Finally, Mr Arnold was fined 5 shillings for the primary depend of “utilizing a carriage with no locomotive horse” (aka “horseless carriage”) plus £2.0s.11d prices. On every of the opposite counts, he was to pay 1 shilling high-quality and 9 shillings prices. Successfully then, his dashing offence price him a shilling. All in all, the publicity it created could have made it value it.
The case could have had an affect on the adjustments to laws shortly afterwards. The person with the crimson flag was now not required, presumably resulting in labour alternate workers scratching their heads over what to do with a ability that clearly wasn’t that transferable. The fearsome machines now not wanted a minimal of three individuals to manage them (“Whoa automotive, ah stated whoa, whoa!” to paraphrase cartoon character Yosemite Sam).
There’s greater than a contact of 1 well-known literary character about Mr Arnold, whose love of dashing appears to match that of Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Toad in ‘The Wind within the Willows’: “‘Superb, stirring sight!’ murmured Toad. ‘The poetry of movement! The true option to journey! The one option to journey! Right here in the present day – in subsequent week tomorrow! Villages skipped, cities and cities jumped – at all times someone else’s horizon. O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!’”
Not like Toad, nevertheless, who ended up in “the remotest dungeon of the best-guarded hold of the stoutest fortress in all of the size and breadth of Merry England”, his sentence prolonged for “gross impertinence to the agricultural police”, Arnold sped off into an excellent new daybreak. The pace restrict now rose to a wide ranging 14mph, and drivers all through the land, together with Walter Arnold in his Arnold Benz, celebrated with the Emancipation Run from London to Brighton.
Arnold’s lovely little automobile took centre stage on the Hampton Court docket Concours of Class in 2017. Clearly displaying the ancestry of horse-drawn automobiles in its design, with carriage lamps on both facet and a coachman fashion bench with footboard, it is a crucial a part of our previous, telling us a lot about one of the vital important transitional intervals of human historical past.
Miriam Bibby BA MPhil FSA Scot is a historian, Egyptologist and archaeologist with a particular curiosity in equine historical past. Miriam has labored as a museum curator, college tutorial, editor and heritage administration guide. She is at the moment finishing her PhD on the College of Glasgow.