Automobiles Then and Now
The automobile has become an important part in our nations economy. In fact such an important part that is has called for many changes through out its history. One of the main changes is the body. In the 1950's the body was made mostly of steel. This was okay if you like bulky, heavy, gas guzzling cars. The main reason why steel was so widely used is that the steel industry was so huge and steel was so cheep that it was the logical thing to use. However with all the advances in plastics it did not make sense to use steel when a lighter more durable substitute became readily available and much cheaper. Steel is still used though today because of its strength and protection to the passengers.
Changes in the mechanical technology have affected the automobile over the last 50 years. In the 1950's the engines where high compression, produced a lot of horsepower, and used more fuel, often called “gas guzzlers.” This was not a big problem because gas was only around 20 cents a gallon. Back in the ‘50's m almost everyone who had a vehicle added to the engine to give it more horsepower. The carburetor was the main source of activity of the “shade tree” mechanic. This is the part of the engine which give it the fuel. The carburetor was a very delicate piece of machinery. It always required a bit of tinkering here a turn there. You could never get it just right. The fuel injection system fixed most of these problems. Since it has many fixed parts there is very little to do to it. The computer of the car controls it and maximizes fuel economy. This was a big help when emission standard where placed on cars. The only thing left to do was lower the compression of the engine in order to stow down the usage of ...
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As James Flink points out in The Automobile Age, the village store and the local banks were the businesses most vulnerable to the new competition (47). Robert E. Wood, former vice president of Sears, explains how businesses moved to the suburbs, "When the automobile reached the masses, it changed this condition [the funneling of consumers into the town centre] and made shopping mobile. In the great cities Sears located its stores well outside the main shopping districts, on cheap land, usually on arterial highways, with ample parking space (Wollen 13)." Thus city centers came to be seen as sites of congestion, whereas the surrounding areas were regarded as accessible and convenient. The rapid proliferation of shopping complexes outside of the city center in the 1950s left down town a crime-ridden wasteland of vacated stores. City centers no longer featured traditional shops; instead they contained gas stations, parking lots, and inns whose focus was on the travelers and their cars (Wollen 13).
The impact of the automobile between 1900 through 1945 was immense. It paved the way for a future dependency on the automobile. To paint a better picture, imagine life without an automobile. Everyday life would be dull, cumbersome, and tedious. An individual's mobility would be very limited. Basically, the life without an automobile could not be fathomed. The importance of the automobile is often taken for granite. Society may not know what appreciate the impact of the automobile and effects it has created. The impact of the automobile had both positive and negative effects on America between 1900 through 1945. Automobile provided an outlet for individuals and spread the freedom of travel among all classes of people. It also helped to introduce rural dwellers to the aspects of urban life and vice versa. One of the negative effects was that automobiles helped to put of big decline in the use of railroads. Over the course of the paper, I will try to expose the huge impact of the automobile an early twentieth century life.
In the July 1997 issue of Commentary, James Q. Wilson challenges the consensus among academia’s finest regarding the automobile in his bold article, Cars and Their Enemies. Directed towards the general public, his article discredits many of the supposed negatives of the automobile raised by experts, proves that the personal car is thriving and will continue to thrive because it meets individual preference over other means of transportation, as well as presents solutions to the social costs of cars. Wilson emphasizes that no matter what is said and done in eliminating the social costs of the automobile, experts are not going to stop campaigning against it.
Due to the growing prevalence of stock car racing, muscle cars came into power during the 1960s, which has become known as the Golden Age of Muscle. Lasting from 1960 to 1972, muscle cars enjoyed over a decade of power, and, regrettably, a four decade hibernation. In the past six years, muscle cars have reemerged in the form of the Charger, Challenger, Mustang, and Camaro. The new cars’ styling pays tribute to their Golden Age predecessors. This is the new muscle car age, with competition and corporate pride higher than ever.
Flink’s Three stages of American automobile consciousness fully express the progress of the whole automobile industry. From the first model T to the automatic production, it gives me an intuitive feeling of the automobile history from a big picture. On the other hand, Kline and Pinch focus more on a certain group of people--farmers or people who live in the rural area, they use it as an entry point to talk about automobile, alone with the role and duty transition between male and
After the steam engine was created in the early 17th century, many people and companies tried to take that same technology and apply it to automobiles. Nobody was successful until a British inventor by the name of Richard Trevithick created a multi passenger automobile that ran on a power source that was driven by a steam-propelled piston at high pressure (Bellis). Up until the mid 1900’s cars were only produced by specifically skilled blacksmiths, and were very expensive. There were only about 4,000 cars produced from the 1890’s to mid 1900’s (Bellis).
In the twentieth century, the introduction of the motor vehicle in the United States became not only noteworthy, but also vital in the development of modern American civilization. This technologically complex machine led citizens to vast future dependency on the invention. While mobility was suddenly not limited to alternative, more convoluted options such as railroad stations or bicycles, yet copiously amplified to aid convenience and expanded leisure opportunities. From auto-racing to redesigning infrastructure, motor vehicles allowed progression, digression, and essentially uttermost change to lifestyles of the American people.
has dramatically changed the way many cars are being built today. For one, cars are
on a car as it passed them. A skeleton of a car went in and after each
The world of technology is ever changing and advancing. With the automotive industry in play technology is constantly surpassing what is available today with what can be done for tomorrow. Technology and the automotive industry go hand in hand with constant improvement to components of cars. Due to technology advancement there is competition within the car industry, especially between American car companies and European car companies. European car companies provide their buyers with innovative variety and revolutionary luxuries. European car technology is superior to American car technology due to their safety, entertainment, and luxury features.
Starting in the late 1700's, European engineers began tinkering with motor powered vehicles. Steam, combustion, and electrical motors had all been attempted by the mid 1800's. By the 1900's, it was uncertain which type of engine would power the automobile. At first, the electric car was the most popular, but at the time a battery did not exist that would allow a car to move with much speed or over a long distance. Even though some of the earlier speed records were set by electric cars, they did not stay in production past the first decade of the 20th century. The steam-driven automobile lasted into 1920's. However, the price on steam powered engines, either to build or maintain was incomparable to the gas powered engines. Not only was the price a problem, but the risk of a boiler explosion also kept the steam engine from becoming popular. The combustion engine continually beat out the competition, and the early American automobile pioneers like Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford built reliable combustion engines, rejecting the ideas of steam or electrical power from the start.
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The trends that have been most instrumental in the shaping of America over the past sixty years have been suburbanization and the development of our consumer culture. These two phenomena have changed not only the face of America, but also the fabric of our society, our values and aspirations. Suburbanization and consumer culture are broad, sweeping terms that encompass many different catalysts of change. However, the automobile is an important product and tool of both of these institutions. This paper examines the inundation of American society by the automobile during the post war era as a key catalyst for the rise of consumer culture, its role in facilitating suburbanization and some of the negative impacts the automobile has had on America. Over the past sixty years America has changed greatly to become what it is today, and these changes have largely been driven by our national love affair with the automobile.
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