The History of Beginning of Cars and Electric Cars - Essay Example

Did You Know the History of Beginning of Cars Nicholas Joseph Cugnot is considered the first one who invented the vehicle which moved under its own power. It was constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. A second unit was built in 1770 which weighed 8000 pounds and had a top speed of 2 mph on the cobble stone streets of Paris. 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. Many attempts were being made in England by the 1830's to develop a practical vehicle that didn't need rails. 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. 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. In 1873, Karl Benz developed a successful gas-powered two-stroke piston engine. After this he focused on developing a motorized vehicle. His Patent Motorwagen, 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. 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. Did You Know the Invention and Advantages of Electric Cars Today it has been 100 years of the advent of electric cars. It has an interesting history of development and its still carry on. It was first developed in France and England during the last quarter of 19th century. During late 1890s and early years of 20th century, a lot of innovations were made in motor vehicles industry. Till 1895, Americans didn't begin to devote attention to electric vehicles. It was the first commercial application in America which established as a fleet of New York City taxis in 1897. The early electric vehicles were little more than electrified horseless carriages and surreys. For example, in 1902 Wood's Phaeton which had top speed of 14 mph, a range of 18 miles and cost $2,000. The years 1899 and 1900 were the sky-scraping point of electric vehicles in America, as they outsold all other types of cars. With the passage of time, the car industry got prosperity and the motor vehicle used to be turned into steam, electric, or gasoline versions. Most early electric cars were ornate with massive carriages and designed for the upper class with cost under $1,000. However, by 1910, they had fancy interiors, with expensive materials, and averaged $3,000. Electric vehicles enjoyed success into the 1920s with production peaking in 1912. At the start of its advent in 20th century, electric cars got popularity as it had many advantages over their competitors. They did not have the noise, smell and vibrations associated with gasoline cars. Unlike gasoline cars, electric vehicles did not require gear changes. Also, steam-powered cars suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings. The steam cars had less range before needing water than the range of an electric car on a single charge As compared to steam-powered and gasoline cars, the electric cars was the preferred choice of many because it did not require the manual effort to start. With other cars there was a hand crank while there was no wrestling with a gear shifter in electric cars. Did You Know the Inventors of Steam Cars During 18th & 19th Century It is the open fact that automobile was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. Actually there is an evolution that took place worldwide. In 1769, a French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725 - 1804), invented the very first self-propelled road vehicle. It was a military tractor which was manufactured under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal. Cugnot used a steam engine to power his vehicle. It was used by the French Army to haul artillery at a whopping speed of 2.5 mph on only three wheels. The vehicle had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to build up steam power. The boiler and steam engine were separate from the rest of the vehicle and placed in the front as shown in Appendix "A". The next year, Cugnot built a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers. After Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, numerous inventors did a great job in this field. These are discussed in the following lines shortly. 1. In 1801, Richard Trevithick built a road carriage powered by steam (shown as Appendix "B"). It was the first powered engine in Great Britain. During 1820 to 1840, steam-powered stagecoaches were in regular service in Great Britain. Later on, these were banned from public roads and as a result Britain's railroad system developed. 2. In 1789, Oliver Evans invented the first steam-powered land vehicle for United States. 3. In the United States, numerous steam coaches were built from 1860 to 1880. Inventors included Harrison Dyer, Joseph Dixon, Rufus Porter, and William T. James. 4. Amedee Bollee built advanced steam cars from 1873 to 1883 while 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 won a 200-mile race. Did You Know that Karl Benz Designed and Built the World's First Practical Automobile to be Powered By an Internal-Combustion Engine Karl Benz was a German engine designer and automobile engineer. The circle of life took him to a bicycle repair shop in Mannheim owned by Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Elinger. In 1883, these three engineers established a company to produce industrial machines. The name of the company was Benz & Company Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik, usually referred to as, Benz & Cie. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees; it soon began to produce gas engines as well. The company gave Benz the opportunity to indulge in his old passion of designing a horseless carriage. Based on his experience with, and fondness for, bicycles, he used similar technology when he created an automobile. In 1885 Karl Benz designed and built the first vehicle intended from the ground up to be powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine. Versions of this Tri-Car (as shown in Appendix "C") were produced for a number of years in several variations. It featured wire wheels with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced Ruhmkorff coil ignition but, unlike Daimler, only evaporative cooling, rather than a radiator. Power was transmitted by means of two roller chains to the rear axle. Horizontally structured engine, four-cycles, single-cylinder, water-cooled, bore 116 mm., stroke 160 mm, displacement 1600 cc and 3/4 hp were the major specifications. Karl Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it the Benz Patent Motorwagen. It was the first automobile entirely designed as such, not simply a motorized carriage, which is why Karl Benz is regarded by many as its inventor. Did You Know the Famous Quotes of Prolific Inventor Henry Ford Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and the Henry Ford Company (which later became Cadillac). Henry Ford spent most of his life in manufacturing. As a technological genius and a folk hero, he was the creative force behind an industry of unparalleled size and wealth which thoroughly changed the economic and social character of the United States within few decades. How did he change the whole scene His following famous quotes show his vision and approach towards this achievement. 1. Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. 2. I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible. 3. If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own. 4. It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. 5. If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. 6. Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them. 7. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. 8. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. 9. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. 10. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. 11. One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't. Did You Know the Milestones Achieved by Henry Ford Henry Ford was a great engineer of 19th century. His brief biography and milestones are given in the table below. Year Milestone 1863 Born July 30 in Greenfield Township, now Dearborn, Michigan. 1879 Leaves family farm for Detroit to work in machine shops. 1888 Marries Clara Bryant moves to 80-acre farm in what is today Dearborn. 1891 Secures position as engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company; returns to Detroit. 1893 Edsel Bryant Ford, only child of Henry and Clara Ford, born. 1896 Completes his first automobile, the Quadricycle, and drives it through the streets of Detroit. 1899 Ends employment with the Edison to devote full attention to the manufacture of automobiles. 1899 Made chief engineer and partner in the newly formed Detroit Automobile Company. 1901 Henry Ford Company organized with Ford as engineer. Ford resigns over dispute with bankers 1902 Henry Ford Company becomes the Cadillac Motor Car Co. 1903 Ford Motor Company is officially incorporated. Model A appears on the market in Detroit. 1908 Ford begins manufacturing the famous Model T. 1910 Begins operations at factory in Highland Park, Michigan. 1913 Introduces first moving automobile assembly line at Highland Park manufacturing facility. 1914 Ford Motor Company' begins paying its workers $5.00 for an eight hour day. 1917 Begins construction of industrial facility on the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan. 1918 Loses his bid for the U.S. Senate. 1919 Edsel B .Ford, son of Henry Ford, is named president of Ford Motor Company. 1921 Ford Motor Company dominates auto production with 55 percent of industry's total output. 1927 Transfers final assembly line from Highland Park plant to the Rouge. 1927 Production of the Model T ends, and the Model A is introduced. 1937 "Battle of the Overpass" occurs between Ford security staff and United Auto Workers union. 1941 Ford Motor Company signs a contract with UAW. 1943 Edsel B. Ford dies at age 49. 1947 Henry Ford dies at age 83, at Fair Lane, his Dearborn, Michigan home 1999 Ford was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people. Did You Know How Electric Car Is Different from Gas Powered Cars Technically, an electric vehicle is a form of transportation that uses electricity as its power source. Examples of some electric vehicles include golf carts, trolleys, forklifts, and even your remote control car. All of these vehicles use some form of electricity to power an electric motor that makes the vehicle move. Although the name electric vehicle encompasses a wide variety of vehicles, but here only electric cars are considered. It is a wrong perception that an electric car is just an enhanced golf cart, but many will be surprised to find out that there are electric vehicle sports cars, sport utility vehicles, and even pickup trucks. In fact, many electric cars are converted from gas-powered cars, so they look just like an ordinary car. Another surprising factor is that how an electric vehicle is different from a gas-powered car. Basically, an electric car consists of electric motor instead of an engine and 16-30 batteries instead of a gas tank. The batteries that most electric vehicle uses are actually the same type of batteries that start the gas-powered car i.e. Lead Acid. Since Lead Acid batteries are used in almost every gas powered car, they are very cheap and easy to find, and that is why many electric vehicles use them. One of the shortcomings of Lead Acid batteries are that they are big in size, heavy and cannot store the sufficient amount of energy. Electric vehicles that use Lead Acid batteries have been plagued with a limited range for years. Today, new types of batteries are now being used in the market like Nickel Metal Hydride and Lithium Ion. Unluckily these types of batteries raise the price of the electric vehicles because they are much more expensive than ordinary batteries. Did You Know the Tragic Car Story of UK Can you imaging Ford, Chrysler, GM motor in the USA ever stop making cars Could you imaging the Japanese such as Honda, Nissan, and Mazda ever stop making cars Then when you come back to Europe, could you imagine Italy allowing Fiat or Ferrari to close down and stop making cars Of course you couldn't and the fact is, it just wouldn't happen and this would be the case in several other nations around the world. However in the UK we don't seem to see the value in maintaining the motoring heritage, if it can't be profitable, then it must die, it does not matter about the marque or how the world sees the UK. Ironically from a nation that has so much history within such a small island, you would also think that it would mean much more. Here are some examples Companies Year Austin 1905 to 1986 Hilman 1907 to 1976 Lagonda 1906 to 1990 Alvis 1920 to 1967 MG 1923 to 2005 Morris 1913 to 1984 Riley 1906 to 1969 Triumph 1923 to 1984 Sunbeam 1899 to 1976 There are some names still around, Lotus owned by GM motors, Mini owned by BMW, Land Rover owned by BMW, Jaguar owned by Ford and of course James Bond's favorite car the Aston Martin, which has just been bought by a consortium back from Ford. Let's hope it remains in the UK! The issue is around management, controlling costs and the support from the government, that all large businesses need a hand from time to time. A lot of British Marques disappeared in the seventies when many of the brand names came together as British Leyland. This was probably the biggest mistake in British car manufacturing, as cars were badly made, suffered from strikes for bad working conditions and benefits and there was just no pride in the brand. Did You Know the Rudolf Diesel's Early Life and Technical Life Though best known for his invention of the pressure-ignited heat engine that bears his name, the French-born Rudolf Diesel was also an eminent thermal engineer, a connoisseur of the arts, a linguist, and a social theorist. Diesel's inventions have three points in common: They relate to heat transference by natural physical processes or laws; they involve markedly creative mechanical design; and they were initially motivated by the inventor's concept of sociological needs. Diesel originally conceived the diesel engine as a facility, readily adaptable in size and costs and utilizing locally available fuels, to enable independent craftsmen and artisans better to endure the powered competition of large industries that then virtually monopolized the predominant power source-the oversized, expensive, fuel-wasting steam engine. His engines were used to power pipelines, electric and water plants, automobiles and trucks, and marine craft, and soon after were used in applications including mines, oil fields, factories, and transoceanic shipping. During 1885 Diesel set up his first shop-laboratory in Paris and began his 13-year ordeal of creating his distinctive engine. At Augsburg, on August 10, 1893, Diesel's prime model, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time. Diesel spent two more years at improvements and on the last day of 1896 demonstrated another model with the spectacular, if theoretical, mechanical efficiency of 75.6 percent, in contrast to the then-prevailing efficiency of the steam engine of 10 percent or less. Although commercial manufacture was delayed another year and even then begun at a snail's pace, by 1898 Diesel was a millionaire from franchise fees in great part international. Did You Know the Brief History of Car Industry and Development Ancient Chinese writers described steam-powered vehicles, and both steam and electric-powered cars competed with gas-powered vehicles in the late 19th century. 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). 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 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. References Coffey, F. "America on Wheels: The First 100 Years: 1896-1996." Printing House: Stoddart, 1998. Encarta Encyclopedia 2004. Flink, J. J. "The Automobile Age." Print House: New Ed., 1988. Ford, H., and Crowther, S. "My Life and Work." Garden City, New York, USA, 1922. Georgano, G. N. "Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930." London: Grange-Universal, 1985. John F. Moon. "Rudolf Diesel and the Diesel Engine." Piory Press, London, 1974. Lewis, D. L. and Goldstein, L. "The Automobile and American Culture." The University of Michigan Press, 1983. Ralph Stein. "The Automobile Book." Paul Hamlyn Ltd, 1967. Setright, L. J. K. "Drive On: A Social History of the Motor Car." Granta Books, 2004. Sorensen, Charles E. and Williamson, Samuel T. "My Forty Years with Ford." New York: Norton, 2004. Read More