transition and impact:
The automobile industry entered the mainstream in the 1920s. Finally, the average family could consider owning a car. Manufacturers had found ways to make cars more efficiently, and safer to drive. Roads designed for horses were being replaced with roads for cars. Engines were more powerful than ever before, and some interiors were almost as comfortable as home furniture. Tunnels were being built, gas service stations were popping up left and right. Owning a car completely changed people’s lives. Suddenly families could travel to the city on the weekend. A new, mobile society greatly helped the already bustling economy. At the beginning of the century the automobile entered the transportation market as a toy for the rich. However, it became increasingly popular among the general population because it gave travelers the freedom to travel when they wanted to and where they wanted. As a result, in North America and Europe the automobile became cheaper and more accessible to the middle class.
Top Car brands:
New makes of cars proliferated - from the low cost Model T Ford through to the expensive Duesenberg and even more expensive Rolls Royce. Most of the carmakers no longer exist or have been amalgamated but many of the old car names like Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Lincoln, and Oldsmobile live on today. Others like the Auburn, Cole, Crow, Davis, Dixie, Durant, Elcar, Grant, King, Kline, Lafayette, Kurtz, Marmon, Mercer, Overland, Peerless, Pilot, Roamer, Saxon, Stearns, Velie, Wescott and Winton are only seen in vintage car shows today.
Henry Ford
While working as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, Henry Ford (1863-1947) built his first gasoline-powered horseless carriage, the Quadricycle, in the shed behind his home. In 1903, he established the Ford Motor Company, and five years later the company rolled out the first Model T. In order to meet overwhelming demand for the revolutionary vehicle, Ford introduced revolutionary new mass-production methods, including large production plants, the use of standardized, interchangeable parts and, in 1913, the world’s first moving assembly line for cars. Enormously influential in the industrial world, Ford was also outspoken in the political realm. Ford drew controversy for his pacifist stance during the early years of World War I and earned widespread criticism for his anti-Semitic views and writings.
Things to take away from 1920
- Economic boom! Everyone can afford an automobile
- Moving Assembly lines,. Mass production with lower costs.
- More luxuries. Power steering, electric starters, hydraulic single peddle brakes.
Henry ford:
- American industrialist and entrepreneur
- Founding of the Ford Motor Company
- introduced moving assembly line
- paved the way for advances in automobiles
Credits:
Created with images by rich701 - "three girls in a car - 1911 DeTamble" • Fæ - "Photograph taken at the head of 5th Street on Fremont looking east, showing possibilities of extending 5th Street thru to Olive Street, Los Angeles, 1922 (AAA-EN-134-9)" • dok1 - "The Thompson Family" • Seattle Municipal Archives - "Third Avenue, 1921" • foundin_a_attic - "Renault 18CV circa 1919" • Cea. - "Henry Ford on innovation"