Story of the automobile: Its history and development from 1760 to 1917 / With an analysis of the standing and prospects of the automobile industry

by H. L. Barber

Automobile Demand Made Accessories Necessary.

A history of the commercializing of the automobile which does not make mention of the manner in which the development of the industry called into being an almost endless list of incidental and accessory products, is not complete.

The production of the finished automobile involves a multiplicity of units, and as no automobile manufacturer makes all of these, but depends on independent factories for certain of them, there has been a multiplication of enterprises supplying products entering in the construction of automobiles, whose development and financial success have kept pace with those of the automobile itself.

Foremost in the list of accessories for the automobile are tires, and the industry in this product is of vast proportions. The production of automobiles—passenger and freight—having been 1,617,708 in 1916, and the manufacturers having delivered each of these vehicles complete with a set of four tires, the number of tires required for 1916 sales of automobiles alone was 6,470,832.

But the tires put out with new automobiles form only a slight proportion of the total tires sold by tire companies. It is stated that each of the over three million cars in use in the United States consumes an average of eight tires a year, so that automobile buyers are purchasers of probably 20,000,000 tires a year.

The pneumatic tire was one of the greatest factors in giving the automobile business its impetus. Charles Goodyear, in a broad sense, laid the foundation for popularizing the automobile, when, by accidentally dropping rubber on a stove, he discovered the principle of vulcanization.

The development of the automobile was retarded for years, because, while iron shod horses, it would not successfully shoe automobile wheels. The greatest obstacle to the mechanical perfection, as well as to the development of the automobile by general adoption, were road shock to the automobile and mutilation by the automobile of the roads.

The pneumatic tire removed both obstacles simultaneously.

The pneumatic tire was invented by an Englishman named Thompson, who patented it in 1845. Dunlop, an Irishman, was the pioneer manufacturer in 1888, and Michelin of France first applied it to the automobile.

The manufacture of body parts is obviously a tremendous industry, and while the body is a prime essential to the automobile, it was a part that existed in horse drawn vehicles, and, therefore, did not play the part that the pneumatic tire did in accelerating auto development.

Comparable in importance to the tire was the nonskid chain, the invention of Parsons, an English engineer, who patented it in 1903. As the pneumatic tire enabled the automobile to be used more successfully and in larger numbers in good weather, so the nonskid chain enabled it to be used in bad weather. Prior to its adoption automobiles were used to only a limited extent in wet or slippery weather. Its adoption is credited with having added one month a year to the possible use of every automobile, a result which would naturally increase the number of automobiles used, through making them more efficient, and by decreasing the life of a car through added use.

Next in importance in extending the field of purchasers of automobiles was the self-starter, the invention of Coleman, who, though little known to the public, is the inventor of so many things in electrical use as to be comparable to Edison.

The electric self-starter is credited with creating a million automobile buyers, a large proportion of whom are women, and with having added nearly 15 per cent to the service of the motor car.

Other aids to the successful commercialization of the automobile are solid tires, invented by Grant in 1896; the demountable rim, invented by Perlman in 1906; sliding transmission, the invention of Dyer; the nonskid tread, and chambered spark plugs, the latter invented by Canfield in 1898. Of minor improvements, of which there have been scores, the most notable were those of side doors, introduced by Marmon in 1902; tops to bodies, introduced in 1903; speedometer, gasoline pressure system, carburetor, shock absorber, electric lighting and oil gauge.

The evolution of the automobile has been facilitated by every improvement which makes it easier of operation, and the sale of motor cars has been increased by them.

The more one reviews the advance made by the automobile during the seventeen years of its commercialization, the more one can appreciate the feverishness characterizing its production, which can be seen and felt by anyone who visits the automobile manufacturing sections of Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis or Toledo. The demand is so great for automobiles, and they are being bought in such numbers, that the factories producing them work at a speed and under a pressure such as are paralleled in our industrialism only in munitions of war plants. Busy are the cities where automobile manufacturing forms an important industry, and busy they are likely to continue for years to come, for as a commercial industry the business of making and selling automobiles has not yet even approached high water mark, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge.

The country districts have yet to be heard from in louder tones. The possibilities of the automobile in the country, from a commercial standpoint, constitute a fascinating subject for speculation. Although there are over 6,000,000 farm families, only 300,000 automobiles were bought by them in 1916, indicating that the rural element so far has not really begun to take hold of the automobile, because the normal yearly sales of horse drawn vehicles, most of which were sold in the country, prior to the automobile’s adoption, were over 1,000,000.

By far the greatest proportion of motor driven vehicles bought in the country are now passenger vehicles. When the farmer wakes up to the economic superiority of the motor truck and motor tractor over the horse, the sales of other forms than passenger cars in the country will scarcely have any bounds. The best grounds for this belief lie in the fact that at present there are 5,000,000 horse drawn vehicles in use, against less than 300,000 motor trucks.

In this development of the motor freight vehicle in the rural districts, the matter of education will play its part, as it does in all evolution, but slowly, as it always does.

Just as the creation of farm products as a whole is being increased by educational means, so will the use of the motor wagon in place of the horse be increased by the farmers’ information and knowledge of its advantages and saving.

When the farmers all learn and realize the full extent to which the use of the work automobile pays dividends on their labor, the commercializing of this vehicle will be in quantities probably exceeding those of the passenger car.