The decade kicked off with a bang, or more specifically a sequence of very fast bangs. In the context of technology, the first few decades of the 1900s saw the widespread introduction of the internal combustion engine. In a way, this technology took the baton from the steam engine of the 1800s. You may be surprised to know that, during the 1800s, there were in fact steam-powered cars. These cars took up to 45 minutes to start up in wintry weather and had to be topped up with substantial amounts of water, both factors which limited their range. There had to be better solutions. And there were. The first hydrogen car appeared in 1808, while 1838 saw the first primitive electric car, and 1870 ushered in the first gasoline car. In 1885, Karl Benz produced the first gasoline-powered car that wasn’t just a one-off (Benz’s company would eventually become Mercedes-Benz). A Lot of the First Cars Were…Electric? Early gasoline-powered cars weren’t perfect, however. To get them started, you needed a lot of muscle to wrestle with the hand crank; even changing gears was complicated. The throttle was actually on the steering wheel. For these reasons, electric cars were seen as the best way forward for personal transport. They were whisper-quiet, easy to drive, and required relatively little effort to run. Big names such as Ferdinand Porsche (founder of the Porsche motor company) and Thomas Edison went all-in on electric. Porsche’s very first car, in 1898, was an electric model. One year later, Edison set out on a mission to make longer-lasting batteries for cars. He believed electric transport was clearly the future. Despite many attempts, he ultimately abandoned this vision a decade later. Electric cars were perfectly fit for short trips around the city, as country roads weren’t suited for cars at the time. By 1900, only 22 percent of cars were powered by gasoline, while 40 percent were electric, and the remaining 38 percent ran on steam. At the turn of the century, the car (electric or otherwise) was seen as an expensive novelty. Only royalty and the very rich could experience the benefits of personal automatic transport. To have a world where the common man could travel as he pleased required a disruption in the way cars were produced. Cars needed to be affordable. It was a man named Henry Ford who would bring this into reality.
Henry Ford: The Father of the Affordable Automobile In 1891, the Edison Illuminating Company took on a bright twenty-eight-year-old engineer. He was a natural, and quickly rose up the ranks. In just two years’ time, he was Chief Engineer. His name was Henry Ford. Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, in Michigan. When he was thirteen, his mother passed away and his father decreed that Henry was to take over the family farm. Although he had great love for his mother, he despised the idea of a life of farm work. Ford showed interest in mechanical tasks as a child, and, when he was around fifteen years old, he would repair watches for friends and neighbors.
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