The early electrics were clumsy and heavy, but by 1915 they were greatly improved. The Edison cell was a lighter and longer-lived battery. The range was increased to 65 miles but speed was still slow, averaging less than 20 miles per hour.

The average cost of electricity had decreased from the 1903 level of 23 cents per kilowatt-hour to about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1913. Thus the electric car had many things working for it, but it was still a casualty of the time. The era saw almost 2,900 automobile manufacturers come and go. The competition was keen and only a handful of the best and toughest remained. Even Henry Ford struggled and had to reorganize and/or refinance several times before he found the winning combination.

Unfortunately electric vehicle manufacture never found a winning combination. This deficiency probably resulted from the general character of the industry-numerous small producers with limited production capability. Consequently the costs were higher for electrics. The Columbia Electric cost about $3,000,16 while the first Model A Ford (of 1902) cost $800.17 Economics, a master of destiny, was at work. H. L. Barber characterized the electric car industry this way: 18

But the electric car industry never has reached the proportions of the gasoline car industry. It has never advertised in the lavish manner adopted by gasoline car makers. It has not entered races to the extent its gasoline competitors have. It adopted conservative methods which have given it a slow growth. It is only within the last five years that shaft drives have been perfected in electric car construction, while producing controllers that would not arc, whatever the provocation, have been matters of slow evolution.

But that the electric car is a perfectly balanced piece of mechanism and the one type of the automobile with the least fits and starts, is conceded, and this superiority will doubtless enable the electric type to make up in the future in the major truck field what it has lost to the gasoline type in the passenger field.

There is little else to say.

SPARK IGNITION

The internal "explosion" engine must have amused many daring men from 1825 (the gas-vacuum stage) to the true harnessing of in

18 Hebb, David, Wheels on the Road, Collier Books. New York, 1966, p. 49.

"Bird, Anthony. The Motor Car 1765-1914. B. T. Batsford, Ltd.

13 Barber, H. L., The Story of the Automobile. A. J. Munson, 1917, p. 116.

ternal combustion by Nikolaus Otto. He invented the four stroke engine in 1867. The original Otto-cycle engine developed about three horsepower at about 180 revolutions per minute. It was a slow, heavy, and crude engine, but it was the seed for future work of Daimler and Benz. The Otto engine utilized illuminating gas as fuel.

Daimler converted this to gasoline, added hot tube ignition, regulated the engine speed by an "ingenious exhaust-valve operation" (since throttle valves were not developed),19 and by 1876 had increased the speed from Otto's 180 rpm to over 800 rpm. This was a major breakthrough engine weights dropped from 1,000 pounds per horsepower to a light 90 pounds per horsepower. Daimler mounted his engine in a car for the first time in 1885.

Another German inventor, Karl Benz, had been working on a twostroke engine. Unaware of Daimler's accomplishments, Benz created a light weight four-cycle engine. In contrast to Daimler's hot-tube principle, Benz utilized an electric ignition system. The first Benz vehicle was light weight and reached speeds of 10 mph in 1885. By 1894, Benz was producing 500 vehicles per year, a 500 percent increase over the production of 1886.20

These early developments established the basis for new pioneering in the United States by men with diverse backgrounds. The Duryea brothers were bicycle builders, Edwood Haynes was a gas company representative who was tired of traveling behind a horse, and Henry Ford, a tinkerer in his spare time, was chief engineer at Detroit's Edison Illuminating Co.

Ford's first design was a "quadricycle," a light and simple vehicle. By 1896, it was powered by a 3 hp spark ignition engine and was capable of speeds of about 25 mph. He worked on a second car during 1897– 1899; it was powered by a 2 cylinder, 4 cycle motor. The success of this machine was the basis for establishing the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899, which Ford resigned from Edison to join.

In January 1901 the Detroit Automobile Co. dissolved, Ford saying he could get no support for building a better car. After successfully building a racing car, however, Ford and several of his former associates reorganized, forming the Henry Ford Motor Co. in November 1901. Wanting to build another racer instead of a commercial car, Ford fell out with the others and left the new company in March 1902. The company then became the Cadillac Automobile Co.

Having completed his second racing car, in 1902-1903, Ford, together with Alexander Malcomson, formed the Ford Motor Company to produce commercial cars, beginning with the first Model A. However, in 1906 Ford and his partner split over a crucial decision. Ford wanted to concentrate on building a cheap, light car; his partner wanted to build bigger, more expensive models. Ford finally bought out Malcomson and focused his efforts on the inexpensive Model N, with volume production beginning in 1907. The price was $600.

The next major Ford model was the Model T, on which deliveries began in October 1908. With it Ford achieved his revolutionary goala low-priced car with a large sale volume. These two choices, mass production and catering to the low-price market, more than anything

10 Bird, p. 35.

20 Rird. p. 38.

else established the future of the automobile industry and its basic components, including the spark ignition engine. Ford's overwhelming success can be seen in the extent to which he increasingly dominated the market:21

His dominance of the cheap car field was nearly absolute: In 1913, the year he introduced the assembly line technique, he made 96 percent of the 185,000 to 190,000 autos manufactured and priced below $625. Ford's record of production is as follows: 22

The year 1911 was a momentous year for the automobile industry. The U.S. Court of Appeals decided that the Ford motor was not an infringement of the Selden patent of the motor invented by Brayton. This decision opened the way to free expansion of the entire industry. In addition, 1911 was the year that Henry Leland adapted the storage battery and electric starter to the spark ignition engine. The following year William Bendix developed the "Bendix drive" for the starter. The electric self-starter expanded the car buyer market by at least a million, most of whom were women.23 This market expansion made expansion of production and introduction of the assembly line worthwhile.

There is no argument that Ford's idea of quantity sales was correct and that it was paramount in giving the premiership of auto manufacture to the United States. All other manufacturers either adopted this philosophy and the associated production techniques or failed to compete.

But from this period on, competition in the industry was no longer among autos with different types of power plants, although an occasional challenge continued to occur. Successful competition now involved incremental differences in design of the spark ignition engine plus differing views of customer attitudes toward style, convenience, and other variables.

While dozens of firms failed, Ford prospered. Rising to compete, slowly at first and then more rapidly, was General Motors, led by the market sensitivity of William Durant and the cool financial and or

Nevins, pp. 488-89.

Barber, H. L., Story of the Automobile. A. J. Munson & Co., 1917, p. 94.
Barber, pp. 122-123.

21-389-73-2

ganizational genius of Alfred P. Sloan. Building on the known performance of the spark ignition engine, making innovations carefully and under controlled conditions, and moving firmly to exploit opportunities so identified, GM capitalized on Ford's original initiative, including his choice of engine.

The rapid growth in production, purchase, and operation of cars brought with it a corresponding demand for fuel. The Spindletop oil field in Texas, discovered in 1901, assured a plentiful supply of crude oil from which fuel for either the spark ignition engine or the steam engine could be refined. But the spark ignition engine demanded a more highly refined fuel (gasoline) than the steam engine, and the amount that could be distilled directly from crude oil was limited.

Thus, the development of the Burton cracking process by Standard Oil Co., by means of which more than twice as much gasoline per barrel of crude oil could be made, was a critical contribution to the continued expansion in use of the auto. That process assured a plentiful supply of "highly refined" gasoline at reasonable prices.

Despite the tremendous acceptance of the Model T, despite the choice by General Motors to compete on grounds other than engine type, and despite the improvements in oil refining that kept providing fuel for spark ignition engines as those engines improved, the steam engine was still not dead. Two more blows were required to

kill it.

The first of these was World War I. Doble, of steam engine fame, displayed a new prototype of a steam-powered car in 1917 and was swamped with $27 million in orders. Before he could begin to fill them the War Emergency Board stepped in. It needed production capacity and materials for the tools of war. The WEB discouraged Doble from making cars-and none of his $27 million in orders were fulfilled.

The military needed proven vehicles for war-and so ordered trucks with spark ignition engines from Ford and General Motors. Although Doble got a few war-related orders, he came out of the war much weaker relative to Ford and GM than he was in 1917.

After World War I, when motorists became more numerous, roads became better, and improving economic conditions fostered demands for higher performance in cars and their engines, the refining process was having trouble providing gasoline for higher-compression-ratio engines. Then Midgley of General Motors discovered tetraethyllead 24 which permitted the spark ignition engine to be improved as rapidly as motorists escalated their expectations.

What Ford, GM, and World War I could not do, chemistry did. Steam was dead.

DIESEL

The diesel is an internal combustion engine that relies on ignition by compression rather than by spark. The engine was developed by Rudolph Diesel in 1892. Its essential feature is a carefully timed injection of fuel into previously compressed air. Explosion of the fuel occurs when the temperature is raised to about 500° F. This temperature level is attained by compression ratios of 15:1 to 20:1.

24 Midgley, Thomas, "Some Fundamental Relations Among the Elements and Compounds as Regards the Suppression of Gaseous Detonation." Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 15, No. 4, April 1922, pp. 421-423.

The high compression ratio and the necessary bulk to withstand these pressures precluded the use of the engine in early road vehicles. This feature was not a deterrent to Franz Saurer and his son Adolph. The Saurer Works dates back to 1853 and is an outgrowth of a foundry. But in 1888, Adolph Saurer began manufacturing internal combustion engines for industrial uses. In 1898, the first Saurer automobile was built and by 1902 the Saurer cars were known for their toughness and hill climbing ability.

Rudolph Diesel collaborated with the Saurers in 1907 and 1908. This resulted in the first diesel powered truck. In 1911 a fully loaded diesel powered truck crossed the United States from coast to coast.25 The Saurer firm continues to specialize in huge diesel engines for a variety of applications, including railroads, trucks, busses, and industrial applications.

Mercedes-Benz's interest in the potential of diesel began about 1935 and the first diesel powered Mercedes appeared 17 years later. Acceptance of the diesel powered Mercedes is limited by its lower road performance, its noise, its odors, and its higher price.

25 Wherry, Joseph H., Automobiles of the World. Chilton Book Co. Philadelphia, 1968, p. 500.