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World History of the Automobile
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World History of the Automobile 2001 Edition, September 1, 2001
Description / Abstract:
Introduction
Thousands of years separate the invention of the wheel and the first self-propelled vehicle. The intervening centuries witnessed wind-powered vehicles (Figure 1), wheeled sailing ships, and muscle-driven vehicles (Figure 2), in which human or animal power, hidden or in plain sight, served as motive power. However, these did not represent real progress, because neither wind nor muscle power was faster, more powerful, or blessed with greater endurance than the combination of horse and wagon. In other words, development of self-propelled road vehicles depended on finding a suitable power source.
The availability of this power source around 1885, in the form of a lightweight combustion engine, resulted in a paradigm shift 50 years after the railway had revolutionized transportation. Suddenly, it was possible to equip not only two-wheeled vehicles, coaches, and trucks, but also ships and boats, streetcars, airships, airplanes, fire engines, and many other devices with an engine that, thanks to liquid fuel carried on board, could operate anywhere. Motorized road transport quickly overcame the decades-old advantage of the railroad, and set new standards for free-ranging surface transportation, time savings, and individual mobility. In the process, mass motorization has spawned problems of its own which threaten to grow to uncontrollable proportions: energy consumption, dwindling resources, environmental pollution, climate changes, and traffic accidents, to name just a few. The automobile must be regarded not only from technological or economic standpoints, but also from an ecological perspective.
Thousands of years separate the invention of the wheel and the first self-propelled vehicle. The intervening centuries witnessed wind-powered vehicles (Figure 1), wheeled sailing ships, and muscle-driven vehicles (Figure 2), in which human or animal power, hidden or in plain sight, served as motive power. However, these did not represent real progress, because neither wind nor muscle power was faster, more powerful, or blessed with greater endurance than the combination of horse and wagon. In other words, development of self-propelled road vehicles depended on finding a suitable power source.
The availability of this power source around 1885, in the form of a lightweight combustion engine, resulted in a paradigm shift 50 years after the railway had revolutionized transportation. Suddenly, it was possible to equip not only two-wheeled vehicles, coaches, and trucks, but also ships and boats, streetcars, airships, airplanes, fire engines, and many other devices with an engine that, thanks to liquid fuel carried on board, could operate anywhere. Motorized road transport quickly overcame the decades-old advantage of the railroad, and set new standards for free-ranging surface transportation, time savings, and individual mobility. In the process, mass motorization has spawned problems of its own which threaten to grow to uncontrollable proportions: energy consumption, dwindling resources, environmental pollution, climate changes, and traffic accidents, to name just a few. The automobile must be regarded not only from technological or economic standpoints, but also from an ecological perspective.
World History of the Automobile 2001 Edition, September 1, 2001