IGNITION!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHEELED VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

Why gas-guzzling cars? Why is our transportation dominated by four wheels powered by a gasoline-snorting engine?

People have been using wheels for nearly 6,000 years. The invention of the wheel probably occurred many times in many places and no event of inception was recorded. At first wheels were powered by the people who made them. Hitching animals to move carts started around 4,000 years ago.

Animals work well pulling people and cargo, but have some serious drawbacks. By the 1880s, New York City had to dispose of 15,000 dead horses that had been left in the streets each year. The city was also engaged in the business of collecting and disposing of 20 tons of horse manure every day. Watching a car belch its exhaust may annoy us, but picture following a team of horses clopping down the street soon after they had eaten their oats. There were serious health concerns about the piles of rotting manure left scattered throughout the city and the accompanying flies. People also complained of the din of iron horseshoes hitting the paving; the noise was so loud that people had trouble talking to one another on the streets. Life for the horses wasn't so great either. Life expectancy of a working horse was about four years, and many were mistreated.

The steam engine changed everything. The concept for steam power had been around since the first century — Hero's Engine, called an aeolipile, was a working steam engine but an impractical one. In the 18th century tinkers started applying new technologies of metallurgy to containing and controlling the power of steam. James Watt made a huge contribution by building an improved steam engine with an external condenser. This innovation thrust steam power into the realm of practicable technology.

The first steam vehicle in the United States was a strange device made by inventor Oliver Evans. Evans's contraption, named the Orukter Amphibolos, could run on land or water. It was designed as a motorized river dredge that could travel over land to get to the dredge site. The dredge was probably never used but inspired generations of early American inventors to try steam power.

Steam power for vehicles was popular well into the 20th century. In 1906 driver Fred Marriott set a land speed record of 121 mph in the Rocket, a steam-powered race car. The Rocket set a new record of 132 mph the following year before crashing.

But steam wasn't alone as a power source for vehicles. Scientific discoveries had led to practical applications for electricity, including the electric motor. By the end of the 19th century, car companies were making both steam and electric vehicles. And a few companies were starting to use the newly invented internal combustion engines.

At the start of the 20th century, internal combustion automobiles ran a distant third behind those powered by steam or electric engines. Electric cars especially were safer to use, provided a smoother and quieter ride, and were easier to operate. Industry experts predicted the demise of the gasoline engine as it was noisy and unreliable, and it delivered an uncomfortable ride. The only certainty in the future of vehicle engines seemed to be that people would be driving cars powered by either steam or electricity.

Today, as electric engines are resurging amid the green revolution and fuel-cost consciousness, it's hard to imagine how electric cars lost market share to gasoline. But internal combustion proponents worked steadily to reduce their engines' drawbacks.

Gasoline engines operate in a relatively narrow range of rotational speeds. While this is not a problem for a lawn mower that chomps away at a steady rate, it is a big problem in powering a car from zero to 60 miles per hour. The invention of the transmission (and much later the automatic transmission) made gasoline and diesel engines competitive.

Starting a gasoline engine was a difficult and dangerous job until Charles Kettering's invention of the automatic starter removed that liability. Kettering also invented the electric ignition system, leaded gasoline (now outlawed due to concerns of lead in the environment), four-wheel brakes, and safety glass.

While gasoline-powered cars became easier to operate, steam remained complex. Although a well-run steam car could keep up with both electric and gasoline cars, steam became increasingly more impractical by comparison.

Initially, engine-powered vehicles were toys for the wealthy. Electric and steam-powered cars never broke out of that mold. Electrics were especially expensive to purchase, although they were cheaper to operate than gasoline — the same as today. The companies that made steam and electric cars focused on serving the limited customer base of the rich. Utility took a backseat to class appeal.

When Henry Ford's grand experiment with mass production took shape, the cost of gasoline cars plummeted. He succeeded in his goal to make cars affordable for the working class. Now people could use cars as practical transportation and not just for weekend picnics. By 1917 the race for dominance had been won by gasoline proponents. Although there were some 50,000 electric-powered cars in the United States that year, there were 70 times more gasoline-powered cars.

Ford succeeded because his engineers were successful in solving the problem of production. The 1908 Model T was so successful that Ford had trouble keeping up with demand in his traditional assembly plants. The Model T ran well on the unpaved roads of America and it ran with little need for expert maintenance — which is good, because little was available. Since Ford was selling every car they could manufacture, they focused on increasing production. It took Ford six years to develop the moving assembly line, which was launched in 1914.

The combination of technological innovations and the economic rise of the middle class ushered in the age of the internal combustion machine. Steam and electric vehicles were soon forgotten.

Trucks followed cars by a few years. The Winton Motor Carriage Company made the first in 1898. Unlike cars, trucks caught on slowly. There wasn't a ready market for them. Horse-drawn wagons were far less costly and were more efficient in some industries. In the home delivery of milk, for example, the horse would move down the street independent of the driver who was walking to leave bottles on the front porches of customers. No gasoline-powered truck could operate unattended like a horse-drawn wagon. And although gasoline-powered trucks could travel farther faster, most deliveries were local and horses worked well for those. Also, the largest businesses had the most money invested in the existing technology — horses and the tack they required — and were protective of that investment and resistant to new technology.

The need to haul more heavy goods farther coupled with the addition of the trailer lead to increased sales of trucks. But it was during World War I that trucks proved reliable. Following the war the road systems in the United States and Europe were improved, making trucks even more...