The History of the Automobile

Carl Benz.

The automobile has been around for approximately 120-130 years. According to the Dictionary, a patent is a government authority or license conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention. When Carl Benz obtains a patent for his invention in 1886, he uses the title Patent Motor Car. In August of 1888, Carl's wife Berta steps in and drives the Patent Motor Car with her two eldest sons which births the first Petrol Station. With the axial pivot steering system, Benz  solved the problem of steering the front two wheels simultaneously. When Benz&Co and The Diamond Motor Company merged, the new company was named Mercedes Benz. As a pioneer in technology, Carl Benz experienced something that most other pioneers do not; he lived to see his dream come true. 

Henry Ford and the Model T.

The assembly line sped up the manufacturing of automobiles dramatically by producing cars in one tenth the amount of time it took to produce them by hand. The Model T Ford was introduced in 1909 and first sold for $950. Henry Ford payed his workers $5 an hour and reduced the amount of hours worked from 9 to 8 hours, thus allowing him to have 3 production shifts working and produce cars around the clock. The Model T Ford had a horsepower of 20 and had many manufactured body styles. Three of them being the Roadster, a Two door, and Station Wagon. Almost 15 and a half million Model T's were built. To start the Model T, you had to hand crank it but because it had a fairly small engine and had low compression it only took half a turn to start. Since cities were just developing, the Model T Ford had to be built to drive on anything as most roads were terrible, since most people traveled by horse and buggies before the automobile was invented. As well, the car had to be built to drive through snow in the winter, mud and water in the spring, and bumpy country roads.

My Video Selections.

The Ford Edsel.

--> This car was named after Henry Ford's only son and it has gone down in history as a synonym for failure.

--> A lot of people said it was ugly or looked funny even though Ford's son Edsel was known to be a tasteful man.  

--> The Edsel was largely ridiculed for it's distinctive horse-collar grill which soon became known as the toilet seat grill.

--> Even though the Edsel's marketing cost was an estimate of somewhere between 250-350 million dollars, Ford pulled the Edsel from it's line up only 3 years after it's debut.

Tucker's Dream Impacts Auto Industry.

--> Preston tucker's dream was to build an automobile company from scratch.

--> He aimed to build the 'safest car on the road' with a crush proof passenger compartment, a pop-out windshield in case of crashes, and triclopse head lights that featured a third light located in the middle of the car that rotated with the steering wheel to continuously light your path. 

--> The government ended up investigating his business practices, so more shares then automobiles were sold. 

--> Only 50 automobiles were made in total.

Automobile Timeline.

1935 - Flashing turn signals introduced

--> I find this point interesting as from the explanation of thermal interrupters, the technology seems very advanced for the time - I expected turn signals to have been invented much later. 

1939 - First air conditioning system added to automobiles

--> I find this point interesting as I also thought this would have been introduced much later then when it was. I wonder what the first air conditioning was like.

1966 - Electronic fuel injection system develops.

--> I find this point interesting as I never knew that this developed in Britain before coming to North America.

1970 - Airbags become standard

--> I find this point interesting as I expected this technique to be introduced earlier than when it was since it is such an important safety feature of the automobile today. It also surprises me that there was  only airbags on the drivers side at first.