electric engines

Today, as electric engines are resurging amid the green revolution and fuel-cost consciousness, it’s hard to imagine how electric cars lost market share to gasoline. But internal combustion proponents worked

steadily to reduce their engines’ drawbacks.

Gasoline engines operate in a relatively narrow range of rotational speeds. While this is not a problem for a lawn mower that chomps away at a steady rate, it is a big problem in powering a car from zero to 60 miles per hour. The invention of the transmission (and much later the automatic transmission) made gasoline and diesel engines competitive.

Starting a gasoline engine was a difficult and dangerous job until Charles Kettering’s invention of the automatic starter removed that

liability. Kettering also invented the electric ignition system, leaded  gasoline (now outlawed due to concerns of lead in the environment), four-wheel brakes, and safety glass.

While gasoline-powered cars became easier to operate, steam remained complex. Although a well-run steam car could keep up with both electric and gasoline cars, steam became increasingly more impractical by comparison.

Initially, engine-powered vehicles were toys for the wealthy. Electric and steam-powered cars never broke out of that mold. Electrics were especially expensive to purchase, although they were cheaper to operate

than gasoline—the same as today. The companies that made steam and electric cars focused on serving the limited customer base of the rich. Utility took a backseat to class appeal.

When Henry Ford’s grand experiment with mass production took shape, the cost of gasoline cars plummeted. He succeeded in his goal to make cars affordable for the working class. Now people could use cars as practical transportation and not just for weekend picnics. By 1917 the race for dominance had been won by gasoline proponents. Although there were some 50,000 electric-powered cars in the United States that year, there were 70 times more gasoline-powered cars.

Ford succeeded because his engineers were successful in solving the problem of production. The 1908 Model T was so successful that Ford had trouble keeping up with demand in his traditional assembly

plants. The Model T ran well on the unpaved roads of America and it ran with little need for expert maintenance—which is good, because little was available. Since Ford was selling every car they could manufacture, they focused on increasing production. It took Ford six years to develop the moving assembly line, which was launched in 1914.

The combination of technological innovations and the economic rise of the middle class ushered in the age of the internal combustion machine. Steam and electric vehicles were soon forgotten. Trucks followed cars by a few years. The Winton Motor Carriage Company made the first in 1898. Unlike cars, trucks caught on  slowly.There wasn’t a ready market for them. Horse-drawn wagons were far less costly and were more efficient in some industries. In the home delivery of milk, for example, the horse would move down the street

independent of the driver who was walking to leave bottles on the front porches of customers. No gasoline-powered truck could operate unattended like a horse-drawn wagon. And although gasoline-powered

trucks could travel farther faster, most deliveries were local and horses worked well for those. Also, the largest businesses had the most money invested in the existing technology—horses and the tack they required—and were protective of that investment and resistant to new technology.

The need to haul more heavy goods farther coupled with the addition of the trailer lead to increased sales of trucks. But it was during World War I that trucks proved reliable. Following the war the road systems in the United States and Europe were improved, making trucks even more practical. And each new innovation in engine technology, suspension, and steering made trucks the practical choice. Today we take gasoline-powered cars and trucks for granted. Some 45 million are built worldwide every year. But is the end in sight? Will other more environmentally friendly engines take its place?

© 2009 by Ed Sobey
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–
A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5
1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.
TL146.5.S63 2008
629.2—dc22
2008046620