No epoch in the world’s history, therefore, was so favorable as the period of 1900-1917 for commercializing the automobile. It was timed just to the moment for quick and dramatic success. The period was coincident with the high water marks reached in the increase of population and in the nation’s money-making. Advertising had reached a stage of development it had not attained before.
Stars in Their Courses Fought for the Automobile.
We must credit enthusiasm for some of the influence in the success of the industry. We will have to admit that it is present in the factory and in the selling mart, in the shows and on the road. A satisfied customer, the best advertisement, finds expression in the loyal recommendation an owner gives his own make of car; enthusiasm of maker, of salesman, of owner—it runs along the line, and if advertising is the gasoline which makes the car go, enthusiasm is the oil which keeps the bearings of the industry lubricated.
The year 1898 saw the first real attempts of manufacturers in the United States, either of gasoline, electric or steam cars, to make them in any quantity.
The gasoline cars that were pioneers were the Duryea, the Ford and the Haynes, but until 1898 these were distinctly still in the field of experimentation. Ford personally built a car run by a gasoline motor of the two-cylinder, four-cycle type of his own construction, and this car ran 25 miles an hour. Ford was second only to Duryea who constructed the first gasoline car built in the United States.
Duryea persisted in producing a buggy type of car, and failed to get any sale for it. Ford and Haynes had no better luck in finding purchasers for their cars.
Alexander Winton entered the field after Duryea, Ford and Haynes, and in 1898 sold the first gasoline car that was bought for use in the United States.
Ford built his first car in 1893. It was not a perfect car, but better than any which had preceded it. He built his second car in 1895, with a 4 × 4 two-cylinder, four-cycle motor. In this year he organized the Detroit Automobile Company with a capital of $50,000. Ford owned one-sixth interest, and drew $100 a month salary as chief engineer.
In the six years Ford remained with the Detroit Automobile Company it put out only two or three cars. In 1901 Ford severed his connection with the company, which shortly became the Cadillac Automobile Company, and is now the Cadillac Motor Car Company. The Cadillac has had a successful career, and is one of the cars of which a particularly large number has been sold.
Leaving the Detroit Automobile Company, Ford started a machine shop of his own, and in 1902 produced a car with a 90-inch wheel base, and which is now regarded as standard gauge, using the two cylinders, 4 × 4, and a double opposed engine.