The first invention of an automobile was by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, a French military officer, who built a carriage that ran on a bulky steam engine. The next year, the US inventor Nathan Read, received a patent for his own steam carriage. During the 18th century, these were the few experiments with mechanizing the carriage. About a hundred years later in 1877, Dr. N. A. Otto, a German inventor, patented his internal combustion engine that he invented in 1876. The internal combustion engine had many advantages over the steam engine in weight and efficiency. Because the internal combustion engine manufactured its own energy, it was far lighter than the bulky steam engine. Eleven years later in 1886, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz used the internal combustion or petrol engine in a carriage. The conversion to the automobile had begun.
In 1896 an American named Henry Ford exhibited a 4-cycle, 2-cylinder, 4-wheeled cart in Detroit’s Bagley Avenue. After his first demonstration, he began to build racing cars for publicity. Then in 1903, Ford Motor Company sold its first car—a 2-cylinder car for $2,500. Nonetheless, Ford felt that the price was too much for a consumer vehicle. “The market for a low priced car,” Ford once said, “is unlimited.” A few years later in 1908, Ford Motor Company unveiled its $850 Model T, which included a folding windshield, a removable top, horn, and gas lamps. The 22.5 horsepower engine had a top speed of 35 miles per hour. When asked about the limited colour choice for the Model T, Ford jokingly replied, “You can have any colour—so long as it’s black”. By the time production of the ‘ Flivver’ or ‘Tin Lizzie,’ as the Model T was called, ended in 1927, Ford had sold over 15 million of them. Prices of the car steadily dropped as it became more popular; in 1923 it reached a low of $265. Many companies sprang up in wake of the Model T’s popularity. To help solve the problem of the engine ‘kicking’ when it was cranked, a Wisconsin based company sold an automatic spark retarder. Other companies tried to improve the simple design of the car by selling ‘1-man tops,’ rear-view mirrors, electric lamps, and various other accessories. Although companies competing with Ford did not compete on price, they tried to get people to buy their cars by adding more and more features that Ford neglected. Even before Ford introduced the Model T, other companies had started to use shock absorbers and electric lights. Another drawback of the Model T was that it had to be cranked by hand in order to start. When a friend of the president of Cadillac got killed cranking a car, he decided to invest in producing cars that started automatically.
Finally, in 1912, Cadillac began producing cars with automatic starters. By the time the 1920s rolled around, Henry Ford was knee deep in water. True, he had launched America into the automobile revolutions, but his failure to replace the Model T gave room to fierce competition. Every company, save only Ford, was adopting 4-wheel brakes, as well as numerous other improvements such as streamlined, sleek bodies, windshield wipers, and shatterproof glass. Shocked at the popularity of the other car lines, in 1927, Ford stopped production of the Model T, and began working on a new car. 6 months later, in 1928, Ford introduced the Model A, which was an overnight success. It had a 4-cylinder engine, whose 40 horsepower could power the car up to 64 miles per hour. It also had hydraulic shock absorbers to provide a smoother ride. 4 years later, in the midst of the Great Depression, Ford gambled with introducing a V-8 based car. He decided to, and the $500 dollar workhorse, was also a success. The next ten years brought about more innovations than any previous decade. Safety tops became standard; Studebaker introduced clutchless gear shifting; and radios became options on almost every car. Even after World War II, engineers introduced some very novel features. Power braking, and soon power steering became standard.
