Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The first main-line railway in the United States was a section of the Baltimore
and Ohio in 1829 using horses to pull the cars. By 1831 this railroad began exper-
imenting with the use of steam engines.
The commercial success of these early railroads generated interest in railroads
worldwide. Governments became involved in planning and regulating rail routes. In
the United States, railroads played a fundamental role in the opening of the West,
transporting goods, passengers, and mail. With improved roads and with the ad-
vent of air travel, railroads have remained an efficient and economic system for
shipping products long distances over land.
Cars and Trucks
By the end of the 19th century, use of the horse for transport was viewed as
problematic:
Commentators have concluded that, at the time, the developed world had
reached horse capacity and any appreciably greater numbers of horses
would have been quite literally insupportable, and that the motor vehicle had
raised the quality of urban life by driving the smell and squelch of the horse
from the streets. (Lay 1992, 167)
Early engines were used to transport products, but Richard Dudgeon of New
York built a steam-powered car in 1858. Although forty or more steam cars were
built between 1860 and 1880 in the British Isles, none was mass-produced.
In 1860 Étienne Lenoir of Paris patented an internal combustion engine that
burned gasoline. Georgano (1972, 29) credits Karl Benz as the father of the auto-
mobile in 1885. “Benz planned his car as an organic unit of chassis and engine,
not as a conversion of a horse-drawn vehicle, but, more important, it had direct
descendants which were on sale within a few years” (Georgano 1972, 29).
Production of motorcars increased from two in 1886 to eleven thousand by
1900 (Lay, 168). During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, cars were used to
provide emergency services, and their use was given a substantial amount of pub-
licity. Cars and trucks made a significant contribution during World War I, and car
usage increased after the war.
By 1904 Detroit was producing 20 percent of cars made in the United States.
Ransom Olds began mass production of the Oldsmobile in 1902, and Henry Leland
produced a Cadillac with completely interchangeable parts. Henry Ford introduced
the Model T in 1908 and began mass production of the car. By June 1909, 100
cars per day were being made. Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913,
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