Contents Table:

Foreword..............................................................................................................

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

Chapter II Production of Automobiles Begins.............................................

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

Environment...........................................
Chapter

and

the

24

Automobile

Development.....................................

Industry

and

26

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

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

The History of the Automobile

Bibliography ...........................................................................

..........................

29

Foreword

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 19th century, the
calculator, invented in the United States of America in the middle of the 20th century, the telephone,
invented in Italy in the 19th century, the mechanical clock invented way back in the 14th 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 werent 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 didnt even know for sure its 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
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The History of the Automobile

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
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.

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
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The History of the Automobile

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.
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

The History of the Automobile

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.
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.

The History of the Automobile

CHAPTER II

The Production of Automobiles begins

Motorwagen built in 1886

The History of the Automobile

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 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.

The History of the Automobile

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.
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.

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.
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The History of the Automobile

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.
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

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The History of the Automobile

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!
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

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The History of the Automobile

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 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.

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The History of the Automobile

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 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.

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The History of the Automobile

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.

CHAPTER VI
Famous Automobile Manufacturers

Henry Ford
-18631947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer-

16

The History of the Automobile

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 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 designthe
Model Awas created to meet growing competition. Highly publicized for paying wages considerably
above the average, Ford began in 1914the year he created a sensation by announcing that in future his
workers would receive $5 for an 8-hr daya profit-sharing plan that would distribute up to $30 million
annually among his employees.

Later Years

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The History of the Automobile

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, Fordwho incurred considerable antagonism because of his paternalistic
attitude toward his employees and his statements on political and social questionsstubbornly resisted
union organization in his factories by the United Automobile Workers until 1941. A staunch isolationist
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 Villagea 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.
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The History of the Automobile

Later Generations
Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 18931943, 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, 191787, b. Detroit, succeeded him in 1945.
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
-18441929, German engine designer, automobile engineer and manufacturer-

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The History of the Automobile

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 by the front
wheel and with the passengers and the engine being supported by the two wheels in the rearsome 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.
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The History of the Automobile

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.
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 Gebrder
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 fiance, Bertha Ringer.
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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 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 companywith his son, Eugenthat 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
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The History of the Automobile

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. 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 Fords 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
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The History of the Automobile

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 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
tienne 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).

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The History of the Automobile

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
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 wellknown 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 internalcombustion 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 internalcombustion 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

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The History of the Automobile

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%.
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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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

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

-http://www.wikipedia.com

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