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STC100LectWk7-AHistoryoftheAutomobile.htmlSTC 100 Dr Adam Lucas
- Origins & sources of automobile technology
- Early development of:
electric vehicles steam-powered vehicles petrol-fuelled internal combustion engines
- Factors in success of automobile
- Factors in decline of electric & steam-powered
vehicles
5) Factors in success of internal combustion engine
Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688)
Flemish Jesuit missionary,
mathematician, astronomer.
In 1670s designed a steam-propelled trolley as toy for Chinese Emperor (65 cm long).
Some claim as earliest automobile, but scale model was so small, inaccurate to describe as ‘car’.
No evidence vehicle ever actually built.
Le Pere Ferdinand Verbiest
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804)
French military engineer & inventor generally credited with having constructed
earliest self-propelled mechanical vehicle first to successfully create device for
converting reciprocating motion of steam piston into rotary motion by means of ratchet
mechanism
built two steam-powered vehicles for hauling
cannons
1769 model reached top speed of 5 kph but
ran out of steam after 15 minutes
1771 model ran into wall on test run & French
Govt withdraw funding support
1769 model
1771 fardier à
vapeur
Many material & production technologies used later in automobiles originated in bicycles (Volti 2004: 2)
chain-and-sprocket drive pneumatic tyres ball bearings tension-spoke wheels advanced metal-stamping techniques Brazed tube construction
Bicycle helped promote culture of personal
mobility (Volti 2004: 2)
rail & ship transportation comfortable, but followed set
timetables
bicycles could be ridden on roadways anywhere,
anytime.
Hiram Maxwell, auto manufacturer, on why
automobile didn’t emerge until after 1880:
“the bicycle had not yet come in numbers & had not
directed men’s minds to the possibilities of independent, long-distance travel over the ordinary highways.” (1937)
- Steam-powered engines
- Electric engines
- Gas-powered engines
- Petrol-fuelled internal combustion engines
Each drive mechanism had advantages & disadvantages, but the internal combustion engine won out in sales & popularity by 1910.
40% Steam-powered vehicles
Steam-powered vehicles first developed early 1800s. Had several advantages over internal combustion engines during
early years (see below).
1906: Stanley ‘Rocket’ attained 204.4 kph at Ormond Beach, FL. 1907: Stanley ‘Rocket’ attained 317 kph at Ormond Beach, FL, hit a bump, became airborne, crashed & smashed (speed record nixed).
Stanley ‘Rocket’ 1906
Advantages
Delivered peak torque at low
rotational speeds.
No need for geared
transmission & fewer moving parts.
Reasonably quiet & vibrated
less than internal combustion engines.
Very fast & rapid
acceleration.
Disadvantages
Took 30 secs-45 mins to turn
water into steam.
Large & heavy heat
exchanger & radiator.
Required considerable advance planning & continuous oversight.
Prodigious appetite for water. High fuel consumption
(kerosene) to boil water.
By 1920, petrol-powered cars had surpassed steam cars in terms of power, technology & price.
Founded in 1899 by John B. Walker in Tarrytown,
New York.
1899-1902: produced 5,000 steam-powered
automobiles.
Locomobiles unreliable, difficult to operate,
subject to paraffin fires, small water tanks (32 km range per tank)
Took around 30 seconds to raise steam using
flash boiler burning naphtha.
Used two-cylinder steam engine with wooden
chassis.
Typical 2-seater model in 1904 retailed for $850. Firm abandoned steam vehicles in same year for
gasoline-powered internal combustion engines.
Jan 1901 steam-powered
1907 Type E Touring
1828-1838: several inventors create small-scale
electric-powered vehicles in Hungary, US, Scotland, Netherlands.
1840s 4:
1867:
1881:
patents for electric rail & electric trains in use in coal mining.
Austrian inventor Franz Kravogl displays electric-powered two-wheel cycle at World Exposition in Paris.
French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrates three-wheeled electric automobile at International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.
1890-1: 1st electric car developed by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa.
- 1st commercial application in US as New York taxis built by Electric Carriage & Wagon Co.
- Camille Jenatzy’s ‘rocket- shaped’ vehicle, Jamais Contente, reached top speed
- f 106 kph.
- 1920s Electric vehicles continued to
- hold most speed & distance records.
NYC taxi cabs, ca. 1900
Jamais Contente, 1899
Riker electric automobile, ca. 1900
- built in Elizabethport, New Jersey, 1898-1901
- batteries recharged overnight
- designed to be chauffeur driven
- two electric motors mounted in front of each end of rear axle
- batteries mounted front & rear of cabin
Baker electric automobile, 1909
- built in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1899-1914
- 1906: produced 800 cars, largest electric vehicle maker at the time
- 1907: 17 models, ranging in price from $850- $4,000
Waverley Electric Company, 1898-1915
Waverley electric buggy, ca. 1909
- built in Indianapolis, Indiana
- carriages with electric motors
- tiller steering with no wheel until 1911
Advantages
No vibration, smell or
noise
More economical to run
than gasoline cars
No gear changes No manual effort
required to start
Disadvantages
Relatively slow (24-32
kph)
Limited range (50-65 km) Lack of electric power
infrastructure
Perceived as “ladies’ cars”
by men
A group of mostly female motorists gathered before the fountain at the Albright Art Gallery c. 1909, in Buffalo, NY.
1900: basic electric car retails under $1,000 (roughly $26k equivalent); average costs $3,000 (roughly $78k equivalent).
1905-12: electrification of US & European cities & residences
leads to surge of popularity.
Mostly popular with upper classes: massive carriage-like
structures with high rooves to accommodate gentlemen in top hats & ladies in ornate head gear.
1912: 33,842 electric vehicles registered in US – peak of
electric cars sales.
1917: 1st hybrid petrol-electric vehicle released by Woods Motor Vehicle Co., Chicago, but too slow for price & difficult to service.
Engine based on principle of combustion of air-fuel
mixture inside engine (contrasted with external combustion of fuel to heat water in boiler for steam
engine).
Earliest efforts to create internal combustion engine
involved engines fuelled by gunpowder, created by Chinese, Mongols & Arabs in 13th century.
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) used gunpowder to
drive water pumps (internal combustion piston engines) for Versaille palace gardens, supplying 3,000 cubic metres of water per day.
Constructed double-acting engine which ignited mix of air & gas which pushed piston from one end of cylinder to other
end, producing single power stroke.
Process repeated, piston producing second power stroke as it
moved back, expelling exhaust gases left over from first stroke.
Disadvantage was air-fuel mixture not compressed before
ignition, resulting in limited power & efficiency.
Higher thermal efficiency than steam engines. Used to power vehicle in 1862, but took six hours to cover ten
kilometres.
Invented 1st internal combustion engine to burn fuel directly
in piston chamber.
1st to make practical use of four-stroke principle (‘Otto cycle’)
in 1876:
- Downward movement of piston creates partial vacuum which sucks mixture of air & vaporised fuel into combustion chamber admitted by opening valve.
- Mixture then compressed by upward movement of piston.
- Ignition of fuel-air mixture pushes piston down & turns crankshaft to which it’s connected.
- Piston moves up again, ejecting exhaust gases from combustion chamber through port opened by second valve.
Within 10 years Otto’s company sold 45,000 units as
stationary power plants for industrial applications.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtk4hx3Zcc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1NhANcC
L4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TduyjTpWd
Daimler & Maybach were former
employees of Otto.
In 1885, Daimler & Maybach installed
four-stroke, single-cylinder 0.5 hp engine into wooden-framed two wheeler.
Demonstration model not intended to
be ridden any distance, but often considered to be first motorcycle.
In 1886, installed same engine in a
stagecoach & a boat.
In 1885, Benz constructed three-wheeled Motorwagen
in Mannheim using engine based on Otto’s principles. Innovations included:
- custom-designed tube frame
- wire wheels
- four-stroke engine mounted between rear wheels
- advanced coil ignition
- evaporative cooling rather than radiator
- transmission via two roller chains to rear axle
Engine less advanced than Daimler’s & Maybach’s,
producing only 0.75 hp at 250 rpm.
Benz invented first gasoline-powered automobile &
patented all processes which made internal combustion engine feasible automobile technology.
Family business founded in eastern France in
1700s manufacturing sheet metal & variety of metal products.
1842 began making coffee, pepper & salt grinders, crinoline dresses (with steel rod frames), umbrella frames, saw blades, wire wheels.
Bicycle production began in 1882
with ‘Le Grand Bi’ penny-farthing.
1889: Peugeot built four steam powered, three-wheeled automobiles.
1890: steam abandoned in favour of
petrol-fuelled internal combustion engine
built by Panhard under licence from
Daimler;
car had three-point suspension & sliding
gear transmission.
1895: 1st car with rubber tyres 1896: 1st Peugeot engines built – 8
hp horizontal twin-cylinder fitted to rear of vehicle.
Peugeot Type 19 (1899)
1892: 29 cars built 1894: 40 1895: 72 1898: 156 1899: 300
1st American car built in 1893 with gasoline-powered internal
combustion engine: ‘Ladies Phaeton’.
Built in Springfield, Massachusetts, inspired by Scientific American
article about Benz car.
Brothers began business as bicycle manufacturers in Washington
DC, later Chicopee, Massachusetts.
1895: Duryea car wins Chicago Times Herald race in Chicago - 1st
US auto race in which any entrants finish; Duryea Motor Wagon company is 1st American firm to build gasoline-driven cars.
1896: thirteen cars sold. 1917: stopped manufacturing due to low production & sales.
Ransom E. Olds
Founded by Ransom Eli Olds in 1897 in
Lansing, Michigan
Olds sold out in 1899 & company moved
to Detroit
Curved Dash (1901-04) 1st mass-produced
car
1901: 425 automobiles sales 1904: 5,500 automobile sales Buggy-like body with single-cylinder, 7 hp
engine mounted between front & rear wheels
Top speed of 30 kph Poor brake system & tiller steering meant
higher speeds were dangerous!
1905 popular hit
1897: Harry Tarrant produces 1st petrol-driven,
fully enclosed Australian automobile in
Melbourne.
1903: Australian Motoring Association formed in NSW, SA & VIC.
Early 1900s: Australia imports most vehicles from
UK & America. Most early motorists are upper class & upper middle class.
1909: mass production makes motoring affordable for people on lower incomes.
Primarily contingent upon successful development of several crucial technical
components:
drive mechanism (engine) cooling system transmission system wheels & tyres brake system steering system vehicle chassis
Several cultural changes, or changes in social attitudes, also important in acceptance of automobiles:
Residents in densely populated urban areas tended to use
streets for games, socializing, buying & selling, etc, not for transport.
Residents in rural areas complained about dust thrown up by cars, motorists trespassing on private property, stealing fruit & littering.
Both groups initially responded by placing obstacles in paths of motor vehicles, including digging up roads & stretching
barbed wire across highways (!).
As prices of vehicles came down & became more affordable,
& vehicles had to be registered & drivers licensed by law, attitudes to automobile became far more favourable.
Utility: certain professions & occupations e.g.,
doctors, managers, engineers & salesmen, found cars useful in their work.
Social groups such as urban poor & farmers
regarded cars as anti-social, disruptive nuisance. Risk & Revenue: local & state authorities
regarded cars as potential public safety hazard, but also source of tax revenue for provision of appropriate infrastructure.
Use of muffler (1897) reduces noise of internal
combustion engines.
Invention of electric starter (1912) makes cranks in
gasoline cars obsolete.
Improved road infrastructure between cities of
Europe, North America & colonies from 1920s onward requires vehicles with greater range.
Discovery of large reserves of petroleum in Texas,
Oklahoma & California substantially reduces price of gasoline.
Mass production of cheaper gasoline vehicles by
companies such as Ford:
1912 – electric roadster sold for $1,750 (roughly $39k
equivalent)
1912 – steam-powered roadster for $4,800 (roughly
$109k)
1912 – gasoline roadster sold for $650 (roughly $15k) 1915 – Ford Model T sold for $440 (roughly $9.4k) 1916 – Ford Model T sold for $360 (roughly $7.2k)
Steam-powered cars had higher standard of performance in
terms of speed & power, but required great deal of driver vigilance.
Most early cars not intended for everyday transport, but for
sport & entertainment: electric cars were not considered exciting by most men.
Perception of electric cars as ‘feminine’ put off male drivers. By early 1910s, various technological improvements meant
gasoline-powered cars offered best compromise between potential for high performance & reasonable practicality.
Electric & steam-powered cars largely disappeared from
market by 1930s.
Technical
reverse salients with gasoline-powered vehicle technology overcome by
1912
problems with range of electric vehicles & complexity of maintaining
steam-powered vehicles not overcome by 1912
road & refuelling infrastructure favours gasoline-powered vehicles
Economic
relative price of mass-produced electric & steam-powered vehicles could price not compete of gasoline with radically gasoline-powered reduced by vehicles 1910s in mass market
Cultural/Psychological
male preference for ‘sporty’ cars perception of electric cars as ‘feminine’ once mass-production made cost of vehicles affordable to people on
lower incomes, perception of automobile as embodiment of arrogance & egotism of moneyed classes began to subside.
