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In the first hundred years of active life, it has been described as a menace ands a blessing, a blight and a godsend, as a savior of our countryside and cities, and as their curse, as socially divisive and the greatest social leveler. It has been worshipped and reviled, celebrated and scorned. " The automobile is an invention that has had a tremendous impact on society. The automobile has taken diverse segments of the American population; farmers, small town residents and urban dwellers and given them access to the same opportunities and experiences. Autos have given us motels, shopping plazas, drive-thru's, vacations, commuting, and, certainly not the least, suburbia. The genesis of the automobile is one of the most profound and important chapters in the development of American culture. Before the automobile, people traveled by means of bicycles, trains, street cars and horse-drawn carriages.
These methods of transportation were slow, limited and not private. Up until the about 1880, inventors experimented with building a "horseless carriage. " These experiments were powered mainly by steam, and were not practical. They traveled at slow speeds (six miles an hour), were very noisy, frightened horses, smelled awful and polluted the air. Sometimes the coals (used to make steam) would fall off the auto, and burn wooden bridges down. Railroads and stage coach lines hated the automobiles because they did not want competition. Autos were scarce and ridiculed by most of the population. "The car began life as a rich man's toy, rather than a means of transport or as an instrument of social change. " They were displayed in circuses because they were considered a wacky idea with no future.
The development and acceptance of the automobile in America took place around the turn of the century, from 1895 to 1910. The most successful steam car was the Stanley Steamer, invented in Newton, Massachusetts in 1897 by Francis and Freeman Stanley. It was produced until 1924. The steam car did not fare well because it was not suited for long distance travel, was too hard to start and posed the hazard of an open fire. In the late 1890 's and early 1900 's the electric car was the most popular type of automobile. William Morrison was the creator of this type of car.
People liked the electric car because it was easy to operate, ran quietly and did not give off fumes. Unfortunately for modern society, the electric cars could not go faster than 20 miles an hour, and the battery had to be recharged every fifty miles. The electric car lost popularity because of these two problems which were overcome with the invention of the gas powered engine in 1879, by George B. Selden of Rochester, New York. "The first gasoline powered vehicle, an experimental model, was not built until the 1860 's, and gasoline automobiles were not produced commercially in this country until a few years before the start of the twentieth century. " The patent on Selden's internal combustion engine was not granted until 1895, and it was this patent that had a profound revolutionary effect on the fledgling automobile industry. Charles and J.
Frank Duryea were the most notable of the pioneers of the gasoline automobile. The Duryea Motor Company produced the first gas powered car in 1893 - 1894. In 1896, they produced thirteen identical cars, the beginning of mass automobile production in the United States. Only one of these cars remains today, in the Smithsonian institution.
Autos in Europe were touted as being superior to the American car. A slightly different model of the Duryea won a road race in England proving that American automobile development was on a par with European efforts. The work of Henry Ford, Elwood Haynes, Stephen Banner, Charles Brady King, and Ransom Olds in experimenting with gasoline engines, was beginning to change the perception of the car by the American people. They built many test automobiles during the 1890 's. Haynes invented the carburetor and muffler, which improved the automobile.
He also invented a cobalt metal alloy named Stellite which was important in metal working tools. Ransom Olds developed the first US car to be sold abroad. He founded the Olds Motor Works in Detroit in 1899. He pioneered the development of a light weight, one cylinder, inexpensive car called the "Curved Dash. " Many thousands of these cars were sold by 1906.
In 1904 Olds left the Olds Motor Works and formed the Reo Motor Company. Many people consider him to be the founder of the American auto industry. Two developments spurred the growth of the automobile industry in 1901. Gasoline prices were reduced as a result of oil fields discovered in Texas. The supply of gasoline was greatly increased so that automobiles could be operated inexpensively.
The other development was the advent of mass production and the use of assembly lines. Ransom Olds built the first factory specifically for manufacturing cars. Unfortunately, it burned down in 1900. Olds arranged for outside machine shops to manufacture the engines and transmissions for his cars. The parts were brought to the factory and were wheeled from one worker to another to be assembled. In 1901, 425 cars were produced, in 1902, 3750 cars were made and in 1903, 5000 cars were produced.
Other manufacturers began to use mass production techniques. A important enhancement to mass production came when Henry M. Leland, the president of Cadillac Automobile Company, came up with the idea for interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts can be used in any car of the same model.
Up to this point, parts were made to fit only one car so that repairing or replacing a part was very difficult. Leland proved the value of his theory by sending three cars of the same type to England. Mechanics took the cars apart, jumbled the parts together and then reassembled the cars successfully. The "horseless carriage" era of automobile manufacturing came to an end in 1906. That year the United States took over world leadership of the automobile industry. The Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Buick plants set records for motor car production.
Production increased by 25 %, and the plants turned out 32, 200 cars. Automobile production increased by 25 % again in 1907. Cadillac and Buick began producing large powerful cars which were accepted by the public. The Ford Motor Company slipped unnoticed into the growing automotive industry. While steam and electric cars were still manufactured, the gas powered automobile was clearly the future of the automotive industry. Henry Ford became a prominent figure in the automotive industry in 1905.
Ford had experimented for years with cars. Before establishing the Ford Motor Company, he had little commercial success in the motor car industry. He founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899, but it went out of business in 1902. The Henry Ford Company lasted for one year, from 1901 to 1902.
He formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903, when the market for motor cars was bountiful. Cadillac and Buick could not keep up with the demand for cars, so Ford stepped right in... "With twenty-eight thousand dollars in cash, the Ford Motor Company was founded, and only one month later the bank balance showed just two hundred twenty-three dollars and sixty-five cents. At about this time, they sold their very first car at the full price of eight hundred and fifty dollars... within a year, the directors shared nearly one hundred thousand dollars in dividends. " Ford believed that producing an affordable car was the key to success in the growing automotive market. Ford produced the Model T in 1908. The car was originally sold for $ 850. 00.
The price was reduced to as low as $ 400. 00 in 1916. Ford was able to produce the inexpensive high quality cars because he used and improved on the modern manufacturing techniques, pioneered by Olds and Leland. A little known fact is that the Dodge Brothers, who later formed the Dodge Motor Company in 1915, ran a machine shop in Detroit. Ford contracted with them to build engines and transmissions for his Model T. The Dodger brothers built the insides of more than 500, 000 Model Ts. Ford...
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