car
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The Ford plant in Detroit, Michigan, USA, in the early 1900s. Henry Ford produced the first mass-market car, the Model T, selling 15 million between 1908 and 1927.
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In this 1910 photograph, a man demonstrates the ease with which the wheel of a Model T Ford motor car could be changed. Ford's early cars had to be able to cope with rough road conditions and the tyres would often need to be mended.
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Production-line manufacturing was first put into effect in the car industry. The industry remains a prime example of the process. Cars in all stages of construction move slowly from stage to stage, and are progressively put together, painted, polished, and tested.
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A robot welder seals the corners of a car's windscreen frame. The human welder no longer participates in the process, but a human electronic technician has to monitor the working of the robot, repair it if necessary, and stop the production line if something goes awry. Progress may require less overall human input, but inevitably requires some human skills.
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A jaunty or jaunting car, a two-wheeled, horse-drawn cart, crosses a bridge in the Gap of Dunloe, a beautiful tourist area southwest of the town of Killarney in County Kerry.
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Henry Ford, Tex Rickard, and Henry's son Edsel Ford, standing in front of a Model A Ford. This photograph was taken in Madison Square Garden in New York, USA, in 1927, the year in which the first Model A rolling prototype was produced. It was not until 1928 that the Model A was commercially manufactured, and replaced the original Model T Ford.
Small, driver-guided, passenger-carrying motor vehicle; originally the automated version of the horse-drawn carriage, meant to convey people and their goods over streets and roads.
Most are four-wheeled and have water-cooled, piston-type internal-combustion engines fuelled by petrol or diesel. Variations have existed for decades that use ingenious and sometimes less polluting power plants, but the motor industry has failed to improve on the current basic design for the consumer market. Experimental and sports models are streamlined, energy-efficient, and hand-built.
Origins
Although it is recorded that in 1479 Gilles de Dom was paid 25 livres by the treasurer of Antwerp in the Low Countries for supplying a self-propelled vehicle, the ancestor of the car is generally agreed to be the cumbersome steam carriage made by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769, still preserved in Paris. Steam was an attractive form of power to the English pioneers, and in 1803 Richard Trevithick built a working steam carriage. Later in the 19th century, practical steam coaches were used for public transport until stifled out of existence by punitive road tolls and legislation.The first cars
Although Jean Etienne Lenoir patented the first internal-combustion engine (gas-driven but immobile) in 1860, and Siegfried Marcus built a vehicle which was shown at the Vienna Exhibition (1873), two Germans, Gottleib Daimler and Karl Benz, are generally regarded as the creators of the car. In 1885 Daimler and Benz built and ran the first petrol-driven car (they worked independently with Daimler building a very efficient engine and Benz designing a car but with a poor engine). The pattern for the modern car was set by Panhard in 1891 (front radiator, Daimler engine under bonnet, sliding-pinion gearbox, wooden ladder-chassis) and Mercedes in 1901 (honeycomb radiator, in-line four-cylinder engine, gate-change gearbox, pressed-steel chassis). Emerging with car manufacturers Haynes and Duryea in the early 1890s, US demand was so fervent that 300 makers existed by 1895; although only 109 were left by 1900.In 1896 (after the Red Flag Act had been repealed) Frederick Lanchester produced an advanced and reliable vehicle, later much copied.
Cars as an industry
The period 1905–06 inaugurated a world car boom continuing to the present day. Among the legendary cars of the early 20th century are: De Dion Bouton, with the first practical high-speed engines; Mors, notable first for racing and later as a silent tourer; Napier, the 24-hour record-holder at Brooklands in 1907, unbeaten for 17 years; the incomparable Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost; the enduring Model T Ford; and the many types of Bugatti and Delage, from record-breakers to luxury tourers. After World War I popular motoring began with the era of cheap, light (baby) cars made by Citroën, Peugeot, and Renault (France); Austin, Morris, Clyno, and Swift (England); Fiat (Italy); Volkswagen (Germany); and the cheap though bigger Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge in the USA. During the interwar years a great deal of racing took place, and the experience gained benefited the everyday motorist in improved efficiency, reliability, and safety. There was a divergence between the lighter, economical European car, with its good handling, and the heavier US car, cheap, rugged, and well adapted to long distances on straight roads at speed. By this time motoring had become a universal pursuit.After World War II small European cars tended to fall into three categories, in about equal numbers: front engine and rear drive, the classic arrangement; front engine and front-wheel drive; rear engine and rear-wheel drive. Racing cars had the engine situated in the middle for balance.
From the 1950s a creative resurgence produced in practical form automatic transmission for small cars, rubber suspension, transverse engine mounting, self-levelling ride, disc brakes, and safer wet-weather tyres.
| A typical present-day medium-sized saloon car has a semi-monocoque construction in which the body panels, suitably reinforced, support the road loads through independent front and rear sprung suspension, with seats located within the wheelbase for comfort. It is usually powered by a petrol engine using either a carburettor to mix petrol and air for feeding to the engine cylinders (typically four or six), or an electronic fuel injection system. The engine is usually water cooled. High-performance diesel engines have been developed for use in private cars, and it is anticipated that this trend will continue for reasons of economy. From the engine, power is transmitted through a clutch to a four- or five-speed gearbox and from there, in a front-engine rear-drive car, through a drive (propeller) shaft to a differential gear, which drives the rear wheels. In a front-engine, front-wheel drive car, clutch, gearbox, and final drive are incorporated with the engine unit. An increasing number of high-performance cars are being offered with four-wheel drive, giving superior roadholding in wet and icy conditions and allowing off-road driving. |
Cars and pollutionCars are responsible for almost a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. The drive against pollution from the 1960s and occasional fuel crises led to experiments with steam cars (cumbersome), diesel engines (slow and heavy, though economical), solar-powered cars, and hybrid cars using both electricity (in town centres) and petrol (on the open road). The industry brought on the market the stratified-charge petrol engine, using a fuel injector to achieve 20% improvement in petrol consumption (the average US car in 1991 did only 27 mi/gal); weight reduction in the body by the use of aluminium and plastics; and ‘slippery’ body designs with low air resistance, or drag. In 1996 Daimler-Benz unveiled the world's first car to be powered by fuel-cell, which may become the industry's most practical pollution-free alternative. It can cover 155 mi/250 km and reach speeds of over 100 mph/160 kph. |
| Microprocessors were also developed to measure temperature, engine speed, pressure, and oxygen/CO2 content of exhaust gases, and readjust the engine accordingly. In 1992, General Motors and Ford joined forces to develop a battery to propel pollution-free vehicles. $130 million was allocated for research on the project, with an equal amount to be provided by the US Department of Energy. Many developments in the fight against pollution were introduced first by the large and vigorous Japanese motor industry. |
car
| Popular name for automobile. |
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