This winter is not to he allowed to pass without the usual addition to the collection of wonderful machines that are intended to make use of the slippery surface of a frozen lake or river in order to enable a rider to attain railroad speed in locomotion, writes Arthur Leslie in New York Press. The only difference between this machine and those that inventive brains have produced in previous winters, is that nothing quite so ambitious and wonderful has ever been attempted.
    Briefly, the invention is an eight-seated machine to travel on ice. The mechanical genius who is at present engaged in constructing it is Harry Lenz, of 113 West 124th street, New York city. How the machine will look when finished is shown in the accompanying illustration, which is drawn by our artist from a pencil diagram submitted by Mr. Lenz.
    The sketch shows the machine as it will be seen on Central Park lake, New York, where Mr. Lenz will give a trial exhibition of the working of the invention as soon as it is completed. The new contrivance is built almost on the lines of an ordinary sextette. The difference, of course, is seen in the runners, which are three in number, two in the rear and one in the front. The leading runner is intended to be used by the steersman. Seated at the front of the machine the head rider will turn the wheel by simply twisting the pointed steel prow to the right or the left, in precisely the same way as the, steersman of a many seated road machine steers by turning the front wheel. The tires of the new contrivance for traveling on ice are made of solid rubber, and are provided with spikes at regular intervals. As the machine is propelled forward by means of the pedals, these spiked wheels will grip firmly the surface of the ice, and, when the runners have attained headway, they will serve to steady and act as a brake on a machine that might otherwise travel, with so much motive power as eight riders provide, at a dangerously fast pace.
    There have been ice bicycles before, but a machine to travel on ice that will accommodate eight riders at one time, and which combines wheel propulsion and the gliding movement of steel runners in the manner provided by the invention of this Lenz machine, is the crowning novelty of them all. Mr. Lenz proposes at the trial exhibition to have the eight seats of the machine occupied by a bevy of girl riders. He rightly judges that they will enhance the attractions of the occasion. He states that he will carefully train the girls beforehand, so as to prevent the possibility of any accident occurring to mar the success of the trial. After a careful study of the accompanying illustration the reader will probably arrive at the conclusion that such a machine as that shown, propelled in the manner indicated, will be granted the right of way on any body of frozen water in the country.

From—The Dupuyer Acantha. (Dupuyer, Mont.), 27 April 1899. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.