HOW THE AUTOMOBILE HAS EFFECTED AMERICA

How The Automobile Has Effected America

How the Automobile Has Affected America

Thesis Statement

From the middle of the second millennium, through the Industrial Revolution, to the end of the 19th century, other technological advancements influence society as never before.

Introduction

Throughout time, technological and scientific advancements have always had an impact on society. Other discoveries helped people move out of caves into stand-alone structures creating the first distinctive cultures. Although the fields of mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, metallurgy, and hydraulics were developed long before the laws governing their functions were understood, early scientific and technological breakthroughs of tool making, boatbuilding, and dam building helped form the societies and cultures of modern man (Technology, Encarta). This research paper will focus on the automobile as the one technology that had the greatest influence on our economy, society and culture from 1865 to 1960. Of course the automobile wasn't the only innovation that changed the socioeconomic course of the United States(Cloud, 2003).

. Guttenberg's printing press, Leonardo da Vinci's science and artworks predicting future of scientific advancements, John Harrison's mechanical clock which allowed precise timing of controlled observation - the scientific method (Harrison, Encarta), the steam engine powering the Industrial Revolution (Bellis, Steam) and Joseph-Marie Jacquard's invention of the automatic loom; a machine that replaced human labor.

Transportation after the Civil War was by foot, horse (and horse drawn trolley), or train.Manufacturers built their factories in urban centers near railways and shipping centers to make delivering their finished goods easier.

This resulted in people leaving the farms and moving into the cities to find higher paying jobs in the factories. In addition, the time period after the U.S. Civil War to 1960, sometimes referred to as the Second Industrial Revolution, saw an unprecedented wave of technical and scientific advancements that carried industry and society to new levels (Second Industrial Revolution, Encarta). Inventions such as:

Economic miracles during the decades after the Civil War increased the wealth in America enormously. Dr. Eric Mayer illustrates that the standard of living rose sharply, and American workers of the 1920s enjoyed greater comforts than their counterparts in other industrial nations because of the economic growth generated by tremendous automobile sales after World War I (Mayer). Three types of engines powered the first automobiles: steam, gasoline-fired internal combustion, and electric.

Batteries did not exist that would allow a car to have much speed or travel long distances and steam powered engines were costly to build and maintain compared to the gas powered engines. As a result, early American automobile pioneers Ransom E. Olds (the REO Speedwagon) and Henry Ford (the Model T) rejected steam and electrical powered automobiles, refined the assembly line process and built reliable gasoline internal combustion engines. A historian has said that Henry Ford freed the common people from the limitations of their geography (Automotive Industry).

At the beginning of the century, the automobile was a toy for the rich. However, Henry Ford did two important things to make his cars accessible to the general ...