Contents Table:

Foreword.............................................................................................................. 2

Chapter I – The Beggining of the Automobile .............................................. 4

Chapter II – Production of Automobiles Begins............................................. 7

Chapter III – How the Car Changed the County, Town by Town ............... 10

Chapter IV – The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century............... 13

Chapter V – Famous Automobile Manufacturers ........................................ 16

Henry Ford .................................................................................... 16

Karl Benz ....................................................................................... 20

Chapter VI - Automobiles and the Environment........................................... 24

Chapter X - Automobile Industry and Development..................................... 26

Industry History and Development................................................ 26

Modern Industry.............................................................................. 27

Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 29

Foreword

The History of the Automobile

I think we live in a world which is currently influenced by human inventions from the last few

decades. Some of us do not imagine life without some devices or simple things that others invented

before our time. Some good examples would be the television, invented in Germany in the 19 th century,

the calculator, invented in the United States of America in the middle of the 20 th century, the telephone,

invented in Italy in the 19th century, the mechanical clock invented way back in the 14 th century, or the

automobile which has its roots in the 14th century but as non-motorized vehicles built by the Italians and

got its original form and structure in the 19th century.

I frequently ask myself: “How would our lives be if so many things weren’t invented?”. It is a

question every human being has reached at some point in their lives. Also a frequent question I tend to

ask myself is: “What else will the human mind think of?”. May be something that will at least try to make

life easier. I always ask myself these questions because everything that man invented is impressive, the

result of hard work, hours, days, weeks, months or may be even years of failed experiments but they kept

working at something they didn’t even know for sure it’s going to be appreciated. They deserve all our

respect and we must thank them for always.

People looked at automobiles then as a way of showing your financial power. After the

development of car industry different types of cars appeared expensive cars and less expensive cars so

that almost anyone can afford a car. Therefore, the difference between the year 1886 and the year 2007 is

that in 1886 if you saw someone who had a car you could say that that person is rich, but, in 2007 it

depends on the type of car one is driving so that you can say he is a rich person. It is just like a well

known saying: “You are what you drive”.

An American organization has recently made a public opinion poll regarding the top 10 all

time inventions. The car is placed on a well deserved rank 7 because cars permitted rapid transportation

of people and goods, we can save much more time and energy.

Certainly there are many bad features automobiles that have always been pointed out so that

somebody would take action and try to find a quick remedy to these situations. Cars are among the most

“unfriendly” when it comes to the environment. They emit many pernicious gases that when they are

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The History of the Automobile

inhaled by citizens can cause many diseases. On this problem science has already started to work on by

trying to build a car that does not affect the environment in any way due to the fact it runs with water.

Another bad aspect involving cars is the number of accidents that occur every year because of disobeying

the law.

Statistics show that aproximately 3000 people die every day in car accidents worldwide. I

would never say that the invention of the automobile was worth it. It never will be. But it is not the

invetion of the automobile that is responsable for this. We all are responsable because as time passed

there were more and more accidents which means the automobile development lead to this. First of all the

speed that a car can reach is far beyond what it was meant to reach in the first place. Excessive speed is

the primary cause leading to an accident. So it has always been our fault, we can not value as we should

something so useful that can be safe if we want it to be safe.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER I

The Beginning of the Automobile

Several Italians recorded designs for wind driven vehicles. The first was Guido da Vigevano

in 1335. Vaturio designed a similar vehicle which was also never built. Later Leonardo da Vinci designed

a clockwork driven tricycle with tiller steering and a differential mechanism between the rear wheels.

Steam-powered self propelled vehicles were devised in the late 17th century. A Flemish priest,

Ferdinand Verbiest, presented in 1678 a small steam car. The car was made for the Chinese emperor.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot successfully demonstrated such a vehicle on a real scale as early as 1769.

Cugnot's invention initially saw little application in his native France, and the center of innovation passed

to Great Britain, where Richard Trevithick was running a steam-carriage in 1801.

Such vehicles were in vogue for a time, and over the next decades such innovations as hand

brakes, multi-speed transmissions, and improved speed and steering were developed. Some were

commercially successful in providing mass transit, until a backlash against these large speedy vehicles

resulted in passing a law, the Locomotive Act, in 1865 that self-propelled vehicles on public roads in the

United Kingdom must be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn.

The first vehicle to move under its own power for which there is a record was designed by

Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. A replica of this vehicle is on display at

the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, in Paris. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D. C. also has a

large scale model.

A second unit was built in 1770 which weighed 8000 pounds and had a top speed on 2 miles

per hour and on the cobble stone streets of Paris this was probably as fast as anyone wanted to go it.

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The History of the Automobile

The early steam powered vehicles were so heavy that they were only practical on a perfectly

flat surface as strong as iron. A road thus made out of iron rails became the norm for the next hundred and

twenty five years. The vehicles got bigger and heavier and more powerful and as such they were

eventually capable of pulling a train of many cars filled with freight and passengers.

Many attempts were being made in England by the 1830's to develop a practical vehicle that

didn't need rails. A series of accidents and propaganda from the established railroads caused a flurry of

restrictive legislation to be passed and the development of the automobile bypassed England. Several

commercial vehicles were built but they were more like trains without tracks.

The development of the internal combustion engine had to wait until a fuel was available to

combust internally. Gunpowder was tried but didn't work out. Gunpowder carburetors are still hard to

find.

Steam cars had been built in America since before the Civil War but the early one were like

miniature locomotives. In 1871, Dr. J. W. Carhart, professor of physics at Wisconsin State University,

and the J. I. Case Company built a working steam car. That was enough to encourage the State of

Wisconsin to offer a $10,000 prize to the winner of a 200 mile race in 1878.

The 200 mile race had seven entries, of which two showed up for the race. One car was

sponsored by the city of Green Bay and the other by the city of Oshkosh. The Green Bay car was the

fastest but broke down and the Oshkosh car finished with an average speed of 6 mph. From this time until

the end of the century, nearly every community in America had a mad scientist working on a steam car.

Many old news papers told stories about the trials and failures of these would be inventors.

After developing a successful gas-powered two-stroke piston engine in 1873, Karl Benz

focused on developing a motorized vehicle. His Patent Motorwagen (or Motor Car), introduced in 1886,

is widely regarded as the first purpose-built automobile, that is a vehicle designed from the ground up to

be motorized. Benz unveiled it officially on July 3, 1886 on the Ringstrase in Mannheim, Germany. The

vehicle was patented with German patent number 37435, which Benz applied for on January 29, 1886.

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The History of the Automobile

Henry Ford had an engine running by 1893 but it was 1896 before he built his first car. By the

end of the year Ford had sold his first car, which he called a Quadracycle, for $200 and used the money to

build another one. With the financial backing of the Mayor of Detroit, William C. Maybury and other

wealthy Detroiters, Ford formed the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899. A few prototypes were built

but no production cars were ever made by this company. It was dissolved in January 1901. Ford would

not offer a car for sale until 1903.

Ford Quadracycle (1896)

The first closed circuit automobile race held at Narragansett Park, Rhode Island, in September

1896. All four cars to the left are Duryeas, on the right is a Morris & Salom Electrobat. Thirteen Duryeas

of the same design were produced in 1896, making it the first production car.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER II

The Production of Automobiles begins

Motorwagen built in 1886

Automobile History just celebrated its 120th birthday, a short time for a World now

unimaginable without cars. Very few people, though, contributed to shape the story. Reading about their

lives is obviously fascinating. But those were times when Men and their Machines were so intimately

related, one can't be named excluding the other. Sometimes they have the same story! One thing is for

certain. As a result of their geniality, we saw the world change in ways never experienced before, and

possibly, never to be experienced again. 

Automobile History officially began January 29, 1886, when Karl Benz applied for a patent for the

later recognized first car invented, his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Almost simultaneously, Gottlieb Daimler,

after inventing the first Otto's cycle petrol engine, was working on the first four-wheeled automobile ever

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The History of the Automobile

built, the Daimler Motorized Coach, in partnership with his long time friend Wilhelm Mybach.

In America, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash was the first mass produced car in the world, thanks to

Ransom Eli Olds' geniality and his assembly line. History has also been made recently with the fastest car in

the world breaking the 250mph (400km/h) road car's barrier, by a legendary car from a legendary marque!

Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. At first he concentrated on creating a

reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine. A patent on the

design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his engine on New Year's Eve and was granted a

patent for it in 1879. Benz built his first three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in

Mannheim, dated January of 1886.

This was the first automobile designed and built as such, rather than a converted carriage,

boat, or cart. Among other items Benz invented are the speed regulation system known also as an

accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water

radiator. He built improved versions in 1886 and 1887 and went into production in 1888: the world's first

automobile production. His wife, Bertha, made significant suggestions for innovation that he included in

that model. Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was

introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France,

already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products.

Because France was more open to the early automobiles, more were built and sold in France through

Roger than Benz sold in Germany.

In 1886 Gottlieb Daimler fitted a horse carriage with his four-stroke engine. In 1889, he built

two vehicles from scratch as automobiles, with several innovations. From 1890 to 1895 about thirty

vehicles were built by Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the

Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Daimler seem to

have been unaware of each other's early work and worked independently. Daimler died in 1900. During

the First World War, Benz suggested a co-operative effort between the two companies, but it was not

until 1926 that the they united under the name of Daimler-Benz with a commitment to remain together

under that name until the year 2000.

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The History of the Automobile

In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with

Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. They were inspired by

Daimler's Stahlradwagen of 1889, which was exhibited in Paris in 1889.

The first American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine supposedly was designed in

1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in

1879. Selden did not build an automobile until 1905, when he was forced to do so, due to a lawsuit

threatening the legality of his patent because the subject had never been built. After building the 1877

design in 1905, Selden received his patent and later sued the Ford Motor Company for infringing upon his

patent. Henry Ford was notorious for opposing the American patent system and Selden's case against

Ford went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ford, and anyone else, was free to build

automobiles without paying royalties to Selden, since automobile technology had improved so

significantly since the design of Selden's patent, that no one was building according to his early designs.

In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success

with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. One of the major problems was the poor

state of the road network. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as

having made the first petrol powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William

Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles came from the Daimler

Motor Company, founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, and making their first cars in 1897.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER III

How the Car Changed

the County, Town by Town

In 1903, in Winfield, Kansas Mr. H. T. Trice is seen standing in from of the first car in town.

Actually it was more like a truck and was used to haul customers out to see land. The railroads brought

potential customers to town and Mr. Trice picked them up at the depot and took them out to his new

developments.

 

Steam power was widely used in the 1880's and 1890's on the farms of America. Cowley

County had its share of these behemoths and had a large group of people with the ability to use, and the

skill to fix and repair them. The smaller, less expensive automobile, with an internal combustion engine

provided a new avenue of interest that was much more personal than the steam engine with its team of

attendants.

 Mr. Martin Baden of Winfield, Kansas and his new eight-cylinder Cadillac roadster. This car

was especially built for Mr. Baden, and was equipped with all modern appliances. Driving an automobile

required a high degree to technical dexterity, mechanical skill, special clothing including hat, gloves,

duster coat, goggles and boots. Tires were notoriously unreliable and changing one was an excruciating

experience. Fuel was a problem, since gasoline was in short supply. Mr. Baden became interested enough

to become a self-taught geologist and eventually discover major oil deposits in Cowley County, Kansas,

and surrounding area.

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The History of the Automobile

The drivers of the day were an adventurous lot, going out in every kind of weather,

unprotected by an enclosed body, or even a convertible top. Everyone in town knew who owned what car

and the cars were soon to become each individuals token of identity. The dirt roads were a challenge in

any weather. By 1910 Winfield paved the downtown streets with brick, horses were no longer welcome.

The mule drawn trolleys were upgraded to electric streetcars.

  By 1915 racing had become a passion all over the United States. A typical local race

track was at the Cowley County Fairgrounds in Winfield, Kansas. The local obsession with horse racing,

started by the earliest settlers in 1870, turned to the new technology of auto racing. Local farm boys who

were familiar with motors and equipment used their talents on cars and motorcycles to go faster than

anyone in the county.

 

The horse racing facilities were quickly converted to the new, faster, more dangerous, and thus

more exciting, motor racing. See Bob Lawrence's Home Page for new sections on both Auto Racing and

Motorcycle Racing in Cowley County, Kansas.

Eventually the automobile change the face of small town America. The town gentry bought

cars, albeit fashioned to match their station in life. In Winfield, Kansas, Main Street went from a

gathering place for people and horses and wagons to a parking place for the ubiquitous automobile. The

Trolley Cars were displaced to make room for more cars. The brick streets were covered with asphalt to

provide a smoother ride for the automobile. The old fire maps of Winfield show the inexorable spread of

the automobile and all of the supporting businesses. Filling stations, auto dealers, battery stations, oil

depots all grew and expanded to displace to older technologies of the day. R. B. Sandfords Winfield

Carriage Works appears on the fire map of Block 127 in 1918. But on the same spot on Block 127 in

1925 it has been replaced by a Battery Station and an Auto Storage facility.

Midway through the century, cars had become a central feature of life for young people. The

cars owned by the students of Winfield High School in the fifties are typical of every where in America at

that time. It was mobility, status, challenge, and social freedom. It certainly hurt our football team at the

time. A typical excuse for not playing on the football team was that a student had to work to earn money

to pay for their car. When asked why they needed a car, the answer was invariably: to get to work!

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The History of the Automobile

After a century of the automobile, we can begin to assess the effects of long term transport by

internal combustion. Nearly every aspect of our lives has developed around this technology. Only now,

are we seeing new digital communications technologies, of the internet and beyond, that may eventually

displace some of the functions of the automobile and replace our current problems with a new set that

you, our grandchildren, will be charged with solving. Ask your grandparents about their first car. I'm sure

you will get to hear a great story.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER IV

The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century

Starting in the late 1700's, European engineers began tinkering with motor powered vehicles.

Steam, combustion, and electrical motors had all been attempted by the mid 1800's. By the 1900's, it was

uncertain which type of engine would power the automobile. At first, the electric car was the most

popular, but at the time a battery did not exist that would allow a car to move with much speed or over a

long distance. Even though some of the earlier speed records were set by electric cars, they did not stay in

production past the first decade of the 20th century.

The steam-driven automobile lasted into 1920's. However, the price on steam powered

engines, either to build or maintain was incomparable to the gas powered engines. Not only was the price

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The History of the Automobile

a problem, but the risk of a boiler explosion also kept the steam engine from becoming popular. The

combustion engine continually beat out the competition, and the early American automobile pioneers like

Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford built reliable combustion engines, rejecting the ideas of steam or

electrical power from the start.

Automotive production on a commercial scale started in France in 1890. Commercial

production in the United States began at the beginning of the 1900's and was equal to that of Europe's. In

those days, the European industry consisted of small independent firms that would turn out a few cars by

means of precise engineering and handicraft methods. The American automobile plants were assembly

line operations, which meant using parts made by independent suppliers and putting them together at the

plant. In the early 1900's, the United States had about 2,000 firms producing one or more cars. By 1920

the number of firms had decreased to about 100 and by 1929 to 44. In 1976 the Motor Vehicle

Manufacturers Association had only 11 members. The same situation occurred in Europe and Japan.

The first automobile produced for the masses in the US was the three-horsepower, curved-

dash Oldsmobile; 425 of them were sold in 1901 and 5,000 in 1904--this model is still prized by

collectors. The firm prospered, and it was noted by others, and, from 1904 to 1908, 241 automobile-

manufacturing firms went into business in the United States. One of these was the Ford Motor Company

which was organized in June 1903, and sold its first car on the following July 23. The company produced

1,700 cars during its first full year of business. Henry Ford produced the Model T to be an economical car

for the average American. By 1920 Ford sold over a million cars.

At the beginning of the century the automobile entered the transportation market as a toy for

the rich. However, it became increasingly popular among the general population because it gave travelers

the freedom to travel when they wanted to and where they wanted. As a result, in North America and

Europe the automobile became cheaper and more accessible to the middle class.

Popularity of the automobile has consistently moved with the state of the economy, growing

during the boom period after World War I and dropping abruptly during the Great Depression, when

unemployment was high. World War II saw a large increase in mass transit because employment was

high and automobiles were scarce. The rapid growth of car owners after World War II, particularly in the

United States and Western Europe demonstrated the population's favor towards automobiles. During the

war, automobile motors, fuel, and tires were in short supply. There was an unsatisfied demand when the

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The History of the Automobile

war ended and plenty of production capacity as factories turned off the war machine. Many people had

saved money because there was little to buy, beyond necessities, in the war years. Workers relied heavily

on mass transportation during the war and longed for the freedom and flexibility of the automobile.

A historian has said that Henry Ford freed common people from the limitations of their

geography. The automobile created mobility on a scale never known before, and the total effect on living

habits and social customs is endless. In the days of horse-drawn transportation, the practical limit of

wagon travel was 10 to 15 miles, so that meant any community or individual farm more than 15 miles

from a city, a railroad, or a navigable waterway was isolated from the mainstream of economic and social

life. Motor vehicles and paved roads have narrowed the gap between rural and urban life. Farmers can

ship easily and economically by truck and can drive to town when it is convenient. In addition, such

institutions as regional schools and hospitals are now accessible by bus and car.

Yet, the effect on city life has been, if anything, more prominent than the effect on the farms.

The automobile has radically changed city life by accelerating the outward expansion of population into

the suburbs. The suburban trend is emphasized by the fact that highway transportation encourages

business and industry to move outward to sites where land is cheaper, where access by car and truck is

easier than in crowded cities, and where space is available for their one or two story structures. Better

roads were constructed, which further increased travel throughout the nation. As with other automobile-

related phenomena, the trend is most noticeable in the United States but is rapidly appearing elsewhere in

the world.

Before the automobile, people both lived in the city and worked in the city, or lived in the

country and worked on a farm. Because of the automobile, the growth of suburbs has allowed people to

live on the outskirts of the city and be able to work in the city by commuting. New jobs due to the impact

of the automobile such as fast food, city/highway construction, state patrol/police, convenience stores, gas

stations, auto repair shops, auto shops, etc. allow more employment for the world's growing population.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER VI

Famous Automobile Manufacturers

Henry Ford-1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer-

The Inception of the Ford Motor Company

Ford showed mechanical aptitude at an early age and left (1879) his father's farm to work as

an apprentice in a Detroit machine shop. He soon returned to his home, but after considerable

experimentation with power-driven vehicles, he went (1890) to Detroit again and worked as a machinist

and engineer with the Edison Company. Ford continued working in his spare time as well, and in 1896 he

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The History of the Automobile

completed his first automobile Resigning (1899) from the Edison Company he launched the Detroit

Automobile Company.

A disagreement with his associates led Ford to organize (1903) the Ford Motor Company in

partnership with Alexander Malcomson, James Couzens (who devised and oversaw the company's

successful early business and accounting procedures), the Dodge brothers, and others. In 1907 he

purchased the stock owned by most of his associates, and thereafter the Ford family remained in control

of the company. By cutting the costs of production, by adapting the conveyor belt and assembly line to

automobile production, and by featuring an inexpensive, standardized car, Ford was soon able to

outdistance all his competitors and become the largest automobile producer in the world. He came to be

regarded as the apostle of mass production.

In 1908 he guided his chief engineer Harold Wills in the design of the Model T; nearly 17

million cars were produced worldwide before the model was discontinued (1928) and a new design—the

Model A—was created to meet growing competition. Highly publicized for paying wages considerably

above the average, Ford began in 1914—the year he created a sensation by announcing that in future his

workers would receive $5 for an 8-hr day—a profit-sharing plan that would distribute up to $30 million

annually among his employees.

Later Years

In 1915, in an effort to end World War I, he headed a privately sponsored peace expedition to

Europe that failed dismally, but after the American entry into the war he was a leading producer of

ambulances, airplanes, munitions, tanks, and submarine chasers. In 1918 he ran unsuccessfully for the

U.S. Senate on the Democratic ticket.

After weathering a severe financial crisis in 1921, he began producing high-priced motor cars

along with other vehicles and founded branch firms in England and in other European countries. Strongly

opposed to trade unionism, Ford—who incurred considerable antagonism because of his paternalistic

attitude toward his employees and his statements on political and social questions—stubbornly resisted

union organization in his factories by the United Automobile Workers until 1941. A staunch isolationist

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The History of the Automobile

before World War II, Ford again converted his factories to the production of war material after 1941. In

1945 he retired.

Other Accomplishments and Controversies

His numerous philanthropies, in addition to the Ford Foundation, included $7.5 million for the

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and $5 million for a museum in Dearborn, where in 1933 he established

Greenfield Village—a reproduction of an early American village. Ford also wrote, in collaboration with

Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work (1923), Today and Tomorrow (1926), Moving Forward (1931), and

Edison as I Knew Him (1930).

Ford's international reputation made him a natural target for journalists. His libel suit against

the Chicago Tribune in 1919 led to an examination by the Tribune attorney, intended to show Ford's lack

of education. Anti-Semitic articles in Ford's Dearborn Independent brought further legal controversy; he

was forced to apologize for the articles. In the 1930s, Ford was widely attacked for employing Harry

Bennett, a former boxer who established a squad of thugs to spy, beat up, and otherwise intimidate union

organizers.

Ford was also a poor manager who failed to capitalize on his company's early success. In the

1920s he failed to respond to consumer tastes by introducing new models and the company fell far behind

General Motors. By the time of his retirement, the company's accounting procedures were so primitive

that Ford's managers were unable to accurately tell how much it cost to manufacture a car and the

company was losing $9.5 million a month.

Later Generations

Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast

Ford industrial interests. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death, when

his father once more became (1943) president of the company. The eldest Ford soon retired again when

his grandson, Henry Ford 2d, 1917–87, b. Detroit, succeeded him in 1945.

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The History of the Automobile

The younger Henry Ford moved quickly to restructure and modernize the company, which had

slipped from the world's largest automobile manufacturer in 1920 to number three in the U.S. market in

1945. He removed a number of long-time Ford executives, such as Bennett, and for the first time in

company history, recruited outsiders for positions of responsibility.

The company spent $1 billion between 1945 and 1955 to expand its operations, introduced

successful new models, and raised $690 million in capital by offering stock to the public (1956).

Although Ford modernized and revitalized the company, his tenure also saw the introduction of the Edsel,

which lost the company $250 million, and Ford's autocratic management style forced a number of top

executives, such as Lee Iacocca, to quit. In 1960, Ford became chief executive officer and chairman of

the corporation, offices he held until retiring as CEO in 1979 and as chairman in 1980.

Although family shareholders continued to have voting control of the company, nonfamily

members headed Ford until 1999, when Bill Ford (William Clay Ford, Jr.), 1957–, became chairman.

Working at Ford Motor Company from 1979, Bill Ford became vice president of the commercial truck

vehicle center in 1994 and chairman of the finance committee in 1995. Since 2001, he has been chief

executive officer as well as chairman.

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The History of the Automobile

Karl Benz

-1844–1929, German engine designer, automobile engineer and manufacturer-

Karl Friedrich Benz (December 6, 1844 – April 4, 1929) was a German engine designer and

automobile engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile. Other

German contemporaries, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, also worked independently on the

same type of invention, but Benz patented his work first and, after that, patented all of the processes that

made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in automobiles. In 1886 Karl Benz was granted a

patent for his first engine, which he designed in 1878.

In 1885, Benz created the Motorwagen, the first commercial automobile, powered by a

gasoline engine, which was his own four-stroke design. The automobile had three wheels, being steered

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The History of the Automobile

by the front wheel and with the passengers and the engine being supported by the two wheels in the rear

—some now refer to it as the Tri-Car.

Among other things, he invented the speed regulation system known also as an accelerator,

ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, the water radiator, and the

carburetor.

In 1893 Karl Benz also introduced the axle-pivot steering system in his Victoria model. The

Benz Victoria was designed for two passengers and intended to be sold for a lower cost to encourage

mass production of the automobile.

In 1896, Karl Benz designed and patented the first internal combustion flat engine with

horizontally-opposed pistons, which continues to be the design principle for high performance engines

used in motorsports. This type of motor also is called a boxer engine, or, in German, a boxermotor.

Benz founded the Benz Company, precursor of Daimler-Benz, Mercedes-Benz, and

DaimlerChrysler. Before dying he would witness the explosion of automobile use during the 1920s,

thanks to his inventions.

Early Life

Karl Benz (Related to the Benz family today) was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, in

Karlsruhe, Baden (now part of Germany), to locomotive driver Johann George Benz and Josephine

Vaillant. When Karl was two years old, his father was killed in a railway accident, and his name was

changed to Karl Friedrich Benz in remembrance of his father.

Despite living near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. Benz attended the

local Grammar School in Karlsruhe and was a prodigious student. In 1853, at the age of nine he started at

the scientifically oriented Lyzeum. Next he studied in the Poly-Technical University under the instruction

of Ferdinand Redtenbacher.

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The History of the Automobile

Benz had originally focused his studies on locksmithing, but eventually followed his father's

steps toward locomotive engineering. On September 30, 1860, at age fifteen he passed the entrance exam

for mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe which he subsequently attended. He graduated

on July 9, 1864.

During these years, while riding his bicycle he started to envision concepts for a vehicle that

would eventually become the horseless carriage.

Following his formal education, Benz had seven years of professional training in several

companies, but did not fit well in any of them. The training started in Karlsruhe with two years of varied

jobs in a mechanical engineering company. He then moved to Mannheim to work as a draftsman and

designer in a scales factory. In 1868 he went to Pforzheim to work for a bridge building company

Gebrüder Benckiser Eisenwerke und Maschinenfabrik. Finally, he went to Vienna for a short period to

work at an iron construction company.

Benz's Factory and His First Inventions (1871 to 1882)

In 1871, at the age of twenty-seven, Karl Benz joined August Ritter in launching a mechanical

workshop in Mannheim, also dedicated to supplying construction materials: the Iron Foundry and

Mechanical Workshop, later renamed, Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working.

The enterprise's first year was a complete disaster. Ritter turned out to be unreliable and local

authorities confiscated the business. Benz then bought out Ritter's share in the company using the dowry

provided by the father of his fiancée, Bertha Ringer.

In July 20, 1872 Benz and Ringer married, later having five children: Eugen (1873), Richard

(1874), Clara (1877), Thilde (1882), and Ellen (1890).

Despite such business misfortunes, Karl Benz led in the development of new engines. To get

more revenues, in 1878 he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated all his efforts on creating

a reliable gas two-stroke engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine . A patent on

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The History of the Automobile

the design by Otto had been declared void. Karl Benz finished his two-stroke engine on December 31,

1878, New Year's Eve, and was granted a patent for it in 1879.

In 1895 Benz designed the first truck in history, with some of the units later modified by the

first bus company: the Netphener, becoming the first buses in history.

By 1904 the sales of Benz & Cie. were up to 3480 automobiles and the company remained the

leading manufacturer of automobiles. Along with continuing as a director of Benz & Cie., Karl Benz soon

would found another company—with his son, Eugen—that was closely held within the family,

manufacturing automobiles under another brand.

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The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER VII

Automobiles and the Environment

Pollutants derived from automobile operation have begun to pose environmental problems of

considerable magnitude. It has been calculated, for example, that 70% of the carbon monoxide, 45% of

the nitrogen oxides, and 34% of the hydrocarbon pollution in the United States can be traced directly to

automobile exhausts.

In addition, rubber (which wears away from tires), motor oil, brake fluid, and other

substances accumulate on roadways and are washed into streams, with effects nearly as serious as those

of untreated sewage. A problem also exists in disposing of the automobiles themselves when they are no

longer operable.

In an effort to improve the situation, the U.S. government has enacted regulations on the use

of the constituents of automobile exhaust gas that are known to cause air pollution. These constituents fall

roughly into three categories: hydrocarbons that pass through the engine unburned and escape from the

crankcase; carbon monoxide, also a product of incomplete combustion; and nitrogen oxides, which are

formed when nitrogen and oxygen are in contact at high temperatures. Besides their own toxic character,

hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides undergo reactions in the presence of sunlight to form noxious smog.

Carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are rather easily controlled by the use of high

combustion temperatures, leaner fuel mixtures, and lower compression ratios in engines. Unfortunately,

the conditions that produce minimum emission of hydrocarbons tend to raise emission of nitrogen oxides.

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The History of the Automobile

To some extent this difficulty is solved by adding recycled exhaust gas to the fuel mixture, thus avoiding

the oversupply of oxygen that favors formation of nitrogen oxides.

When a vehicle is new, it tends to run fairly clean and does not cause much pollution other

than tail pipe emissions and hydrocarbons that evaporate from the fuel tank while the vehicle is parked.  

Hydrocarbons are also released into the air when we fill our gas tanks.  If you don't believe me, take a

sniff next time you fill up.  Don't breath too deeply though as the vapors leaking into the air contain

several known or suspected carcinogens.  Topping off the tank also tends to cause fuel spills that will

evaporate quickly and add to the hydrocarbon levels in the air. As the vehicle begins to age, other systems

will eventually start to wear and create additional pollution problems.

In the past century, the automobile has come a far way from Henry Ford’s Model T. In the

United States there has always been a high demand for cars, and with that demand comes the need for

speed, and a need to have the best. And that is what major automobile industries have been giving our

society because they know that they can profit greatly from it. These industries know what sells and they

take advantage of it. In order to improve automobiles so that they meet these needs of our society,

automobile industries turn to technology. Technology is what has turned the Ford Model T into a Ford

Mustang 5.0. Of course with this technology comes flaws. The biggest and most obvious flaw is

pollution. Because of pollution, we find ourselves asking the question of whether this technology has

helped our society more than it has hurt it. And now that we have identified the problem, how can it be

fixed, and how will fixing the problem of automobile pollution affect society also?

The automotive industry has made steady improvements in the area of fuel efficiency, and

they promise more improvements to come. Automotive engineers have cut the weight of cars in half in

the last 25 years.   The miles-per-gallon rating of passenger cars has improved 39 percent in the last ten

years. Unfortunately, fuel consumption has increased by 19 percent. According to Vital Signs, the

increased emissions from the world's vehicles lead to global warming, acid rain, smog, and the disastrous

health effects of air pollution.  The internal combustion engines in cars produce oxides that combine with

water vapor in the air to form acid rain.  Smog is formed from the chemical reaction between unburned

hydrocarbons and the oxides of nitrogen in automobile exhaust.  The tons of carbon dioxide produced by

burning gasoline is the leading cause of the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming. Vehicles

contribute to an estimated 60-70 percent of urban air pollution.  Automobiles do not maximize the energy

they are producing, creating unnecessary waste. The largest area of needed improvement in the

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The History of the Automobile

automobile is energy efficiency.  Only 13 percent of the energy used by today's vehicles is used for

propulsion.  The most promising solution to this problem is alternative fuel vehicles.

CHAPTER VIII

Automobile Industry and Development

I. Industry History and Development

Although ancient Chinese writers described steam-powered vehicles, and both steam- and

electric-powered cars competed with gas-powered vehicles in the late 19th cent. Frenchman Jean Joseph

Étienne developed the first practical internal-combustion engine (1860), and later in the decade several

inventors, most notably Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, produced gas-powered vehicles that ultimately

dominated the industry because they were lighter and less expensive to build.

French companies set the design of the modern auto by placing the engine over the front axle

in the 1890s and U.S. manufacturers made important advances in the mass production of the auto by

introducing cars with interchangeable machine-produced parts (one such car was created by Ransom E.

Olds in 1901).

In 1914 Henry Ford began to mass produce cars using assembly lines. In addition, his practice

of providing loans to consumers to buy cars (1915) made the model-T affordable to the middle class. In

the 1920s, General Motors further changed the industry by emphasizing car design.

The company introduced new models each year, marketed different lines of cars to different

income brackets (the Cadillac for the rich; the Chevrolet for the masses), and created a modern

decentralized system of management. U.S. auto sales grew from 4,100 in 1900 to 895,900 in 1915, to 3.7

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The History of the Automobile

million in 1925. Sales dropped to only 1.1 million in 1932 and during World War II, the auto factories

were converted to wartime production.

Development of the automobile was retarded for decades by over-regulation: speed was

limited to 4 mph (6.4 kph) and until 1896 a person was required to walk in front of a self-propelled

vehicle, carrying a red flag by day and a red lantern by night. The Stanley brothers of Massachusetts, the

most well-known American manufacturers of steam-driven autos, produced their Stanley Steamers from

1897 until after World War I.

The development of the automobile was accelerated by the introduction of the internal-

combustion engine. Probably the first vehicle of this type was the three-wheeled car built in 1885 by the

engineer Karl Benz in Germany. Another German engineer, Gottlieb Daimler, built an improved internal-

combustion engine c.1885. The Panhard car, introduced in France by the Daimler company in 1894, had

many features of the modern car.

II. The Modern Industry

Mercedes Benz e200 (year 2001)

After 1945, sales once again took off, reaching 6.7 million in 1950 and 9.3 million in 1965.

The U.S. auto industry dominated the global market with 83% of all sales, but as Europe and Japan

rebuilt their economies, their auto industries grew and the U.S. share dropped to about 25%.

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The History of the Automobile

Beginning in the early 1980s, Japanese and, later, German companies set up factories in the

United States; by 1999, these were capable of producing about 3 million vehicles per year. As a result, the

three big U.S. auto makers now produce only 66% of the cars sold in America. In the early 1990s, over

$140 billion worth of motor vehicles and parts were produced in the United States by companies

employing more than 210,000 workers.

Complaints about auto pollution, traffic congestion, and auto safety led to the passage of

government regulations beginning in the 1970s, forcing auto manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency

and safety. Auto companies are now experimenting with cars powered by such alternative energy sources

as natural gas, electricity, and solar power.

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The History of the Automobile

Bilbliography

D. L. Lewis and L. Goldstein, The Automobile and American Culture (1983), The

University of Michigan Press;

J. J. Flink, The Automobile Age (1988), Print house: New ed Edition;

J. A. C. Conybeare, Merging Traffic: The Consolidation of the International

Automobile Industry (2004), Printing house: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

F. Coffey, America on wheels: the first 100 years: 1896-1996, Printing house:

Stoddart - 1998

Encarta Encyclopedia 2004

-http://www.questia.com – Books Online

-http://www.wikipedia.com

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