Cars at the Turn of the Century and Beyond... by Omar-El-Safty

Cars first hit the road in the late 19^th century and after initial skepticism, the horseless carriage became extremely popular. Henry Ford put cars on the map with the Model T in 1908. The car was made affordable for the average Joe with Ford’s assembly line technology. By 1918 nearly half of all cars in America were Model T’s. Ford was producing finished cars about every ten seconds.

The great-grandfather of the automobile was the Fardier, a three-wheeled steam-powered contraption which went about two mph and was built in 1771 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot under commission by the French minister of war. It was actually slower than a horse-drawn vehicle so it was scraped.

In 1873, Frenchman Amedee Bollee built a 12-passenger steam car but again was slower than natural “horse-power”. People were waiting for the internal combustion engine. This modern wonder came in Germany in 1889 through the work of Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. The 1.5 horsepower, two-cylinder gas engine with a four-speed transmission traveled at an astounding 10 miles per hour!

The bicycle actually spurred the desire for a new conveyance to take one person from place to place. The increasing production of the Model T led to great demand for the federal government to get involved in road development. Farmers were in need of ways to transport crops and this resulted in the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 in which funds were made available to state highway agencies to help with road improvements to get America moving. To this end, Henry Ford made the comment, "I will build a car for the great multitude.

We value our automobiles today more than any other modern convenience. We owe so much to their influence during the early part of the twentieth century. Cars boosted the economy and changed the American lifestyle. In rural areas, more highways were built and small business owners opened up shops to take advantage of the traffic. 

In rural areas, more highways were built and small business owners opened shop to take advantage of the traffic. In urban areas, traffic jams were a new annoyance but they also symbolized economic success and a sign that more people were buying and selling. The high productivity in cities and affordability of car meant continued economic growth in the early part of the 20^th century.

The idea of the open road and travel came into focus with the advent of the automobile. In Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road, the author suggested the use of a car “in order to free the downtrodden’s soul and mind.” 

With more people using cars, other transportation like public transit and railroads became much less popular because arrival times and destinations were not as precise as with their personal automobile. As a result traffic jams became something that the modern world has learned to live with as people moved to the city looking for better pay and working conditions.

Sources:

http://iron.lmc.gatech.edu/classes/djakacki3/jakackiwikif10/index.php/Automobiles_in_U.S.:_1900-1920_(Jonathan_Porter

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/automobile.htm

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcar3.htm

http://tchaunationalhistoryday.weebly.com/