www.historiayleyenda.com

 History of the automobile, the first steam machines that replaced the horse vehicles .

The application of the gasoline motor in the transport, photos of the automobile in its beginnings.

The modern gas motor was invented in 1860, and transformed in a commercial possibility in 1878, thanks to the works of Otto. The gasoline motors used in the automobiles work under the same plan that the quadricycle of Otto. They have, nevertheless, a different outer aspect, because they have been adapted to fill a particular object. The invention of the new motor immediately gave great impulse to the study of the vehicles without horses. In 1884, a German inventor, called Gottlieb Daimler, constructed and patented a gas motor, small, but endowed with a great speed, that had very little weight for the driving force that it developed. The ignition was obtained by means of a hot tube helped by the heat of the compression. This machine was followed in 1875 by a patent in the type of crank motor , that became famous in the history of the construction of automobiles .In the same year, Daimler patented an application of its motor to the bicycles, giving therefore the first idea of the use of the new motor for vehicles. For this machine devised the first carburetor to volatilize gasoline or spirits, so that they could burn in a gas motor.

After many experiments, Daimler obtained the invention patent, in 1889, of a double inclined motor, that was very adaptable for the automobiles. This motor was known with the denomination of "V" type and several of the best motors for airplanes and automobiles had been done in this form, like the famous motors "Liberty", although, naturally, these ones represented extremely developed and perfected machines compared to the primitive Daimler motor .

OUTLINE OF THE VEHICLE OF KARL BENZ

In 1886, Karl Friendrich Benz of Mannheim (Germany), patented a tricycle moved by a gasoline motor. This vehicle was so successful and it was made in great scale, Benz is thus considered as one of the great precursors of this industry. The great successes of Daimler and Benz stimulated, naturally, the experimentation, and immediately appeared many inventors. Among them , several French, such as Serpollet, Peugeot, Panhard, Levassor, De Dion Bouton and others, that have contributed in a great degree to perfect the mechanism of the new form of vehicles. The enthusiasm extended quickly to England and the United States of America. The Duryeas constructed its first vehicle automobile in the United States, in 1891 and in the beginning of the XX century, the vehicles moved by gasoline had been developed until leaving their good success ensured.

The concept of these precursors with respect to how an automobile must be constructed was very different from the type that is familiar to us nowadays. They thought, naturally, in a vehicle similar to the vehicles dragged by horses, as those that were used in their time, but with a motor instead of the horse; and until the year 1900 this idea subsisted, But, in 1900 the main characteristics of the modern machine began to arise from that chaotic state. The motor appears in front of the conductor and at the top of the frame; the wheels are lower and the tires of universal use. The derrick of the old coachman begins to disappear; the motor is connected with the shaft by means of a chain; but later all this was transformed immediately into the direct method of the present conduction, and the numerous improvements and refinements that have made the automobile so surely and so easy to drive now, began to appear then in fast succession. Whereas any piece of an apparatus is in the phase to be developed, to perfect itself and, therefore, to change, is not economically possible to produce these pieces in great amounts, because they do not compensate the expenses necessary to construct special tools and whatever is necessary for production in great scale. Therefore, while the automobile was in an experimental period, and during the phase of fast development , the manufacture related operations took place by hand in a large extent.

Towards the years 1930s, nevertheless, it became well visible that the general form of the automobile had gotten to be sufficiently stabilized to be able to guarantee the production in great scale , with the consequent reduction of prices and increase in the number of the buyers.

Terminal end of the platform where the progressive assembly took place . In the figure the workers are shown giving the last touch to a Dodge automobile. In the right platform can be seen a car completely finished ready to be used. In the initial end of the long movable platform, the unit corresponding to the frontal shaft and the unit corresponding to the rear shaft were assembled forming a unique armor, and this combination began to march with the platform. These platforms had sometimes more than 180 meters long and moved at a speed of about two meters per minute. Since there were many frames ready throughout the platform and moving with this one at the same time the workers could assemble until around 300 vehicles in each platform of a Ford installation, in an eight hours day .

The speed of the platforms in this operation varied with the nature of the product and could be reduced until a meter per minute average speed .

According to the armor constituted by the front and rear drive shafts ,successive groups of workers located throughout the route moved with the platform, who followed this one, fitting the shock absorbers , wheels, mudguards, gear director, motor, gas tank, radiator and body, everything in a perfectly arranged logical succession set beforehand. Many and small incidental operations necessary to complete the assembly, even putting gasoline in the deposit and lubricating all the bearings would take place successively as the frame was passing, and when this one arrived at the end of the route , it had become a complete automobile. Some of the special units were transported by other superior movable platforms; others descended by special slopes from the higher floors, but all these portions arrived at the exact site and in the moment at which they were necessary, so that there would not be necessity to wait for them. At the end of the platform, the rear wheels were adjusted with a pair of great channeled wheels that excelled of the ground. These channeled wheels were moved by an electrical motor, and by means of them the rear wheels of the automobile were rotated and the whole chain of the mechanism made to work itself to give security that everything was correctly connected and in route order.

	Photo: The steam ship "Onondaga" of the Ford Motor Company , loaded in Detroit, unloading in Buenos Aires, Argentina merchandise straight to the Ford trucks, of one ton of wight , to be transferred to the Ford branch (photo towards 1925). Enlarge photo
	Photo: Daily total production in a FORD factory, this photograph taken circa 1928 shows the daily production of 1000 complete chassis in the factory of Detroit.
	Photo: Department of bodywork in the Pierce Arrow Company, many manufacturers of automobiles would buy the bodyworks to specialists who dedicated themselves exclusively to this branch of the industry. (Circa 1928)

Slope track to test the recently manufactured automobiles. Track of test of the Dodge motors company . All automobile were subjected to a mechanical trial before being approved by the factory, to appreciate if they worked well and if they had power to go up slopes.

 History of the automobile, the first steam machines that replaced the horse vehicles .

<< Back - Next >>