NATS 1840 – Lecture 14 – The Automobile
- The automobile is pervasive & integrated in North America
- Pervasive: millions \owned, millions produced
- Integrated: birth and death occur in cars, as well as conception,
work, eating, we do almost everything we do elsewhere in cars
- Cars have been around since before most of us born
- restrictions on use: licensing and cost of operation
- Cars are intertwined with pop culture, North American values;
they are indicators of individual freedom and economic prosperity,
sign of adulthood
- altered urbanization, expansion reinforced car
Current Concerns about The Automobile
- Internal combustion engine, gasoline, greenhouse gasses
- Scale of automobile use, exhaust as an environmental and health
problem
- The Kyoto accord reduction of greenhouse gas 6% below 1991
- Reducing car emissions, targets, reduce total number, reduce
pollution of individual cars.
- Hybrid cars now available, electric cars are soon promised
- Changing design of car to solve problem is “technological fix”
- Changing the way cars are used (carpooling) is social fix
Kirsch and the Electric Car
- Electric, gas & steam cars, turn of century
- 1898 a New York Sun article stated that,
At that busy corner, Grand Street and the Bowery, there may
be seen cars propelled by five different methods of
propulsion – by steam, by cable, by underground trolley, by
storage battery and by horses. [Kirsch, 11]
- 1885 Gottlieb Daimler & Carl Benz, liquid benzene fuel for cars
- 1887, Rudolph Diesel, compressed fuel injection
- Commercial electric and steam cars predated gasoline powered
cars
- First electric car in 1894, electric cabs in NY in 1897
Steam, Electricity and Internal Combustion
- Turn of century, steam power well developed, 150 years
experience with steam engines & trains, thermodynamics
- Electrical technology: electromagnetic theory, electric trams,
lighting, power generation and battery development from the
laboratory tradition meant that electricity was very well understood
- Internal combustion less-developed technology, less experience,
benefited from science (thermodynamics & chemistry), and steam
technology
- Chemical industry, petrochemicals, dye technology (printing and
textiles), established industries and old traditions
Internal Combustion Development
- Internal combustion engines initially less reliable & efficient
- Technological achievement of internal combustion
- Rudolf Diesel,
… traced the origin of the engine he invented to his training
at the Munich polytechnic. In 1878 he heard a lecture there
on Carnot’s theorem concerning the ideal conditions for
expansion of gases in an engine’s cylinder… this ideal, as he
later wrote, ‘pursued me incessantly’. [Pacey, 172]
- Carnot’s scientific work, Diesel engine, steam engine data
- Carnot’s increase in temperature increased efficiency of heat
engine, gasoline burnes hot
The Competition
- Science (chemistry, thermodynamics, electromagnetism),
technology (steam engines and electrical motors)
- horse & automobile
- between 800,000 and 1.3 million pounds of manure each
day in New York City
- Automobile, technological fix
- Automobiles expensive, heat and cold, further and faster than
horse
- expanding populations, manufacturing and production, shipping
capacity
- Automobiles and horses, military and commerce, WWII, rural
and poor
Steam Cars
- Lighter, high pressure & temperature
- Steamboat, train boiler explosions 1800’s, stigma
- Steam flexible , gasoline, kerosene, wood or coal
- Pure water, clogging, unreliable, expensive to fix, and too
dangerous
Electric Cars
- Electric engine flexibility, 2-3X rated power (hills, mud),
gasoline stall
- Stopped & restarted easily, commercial use
- Fueling, technical & organizational challenges
- 1909 over 4000 central charging stations over United States
- Standardization poor, charging technology unreliable
- Electric industry ignored, vanity technology
- Batteries: limited storage capacity, charging times varied
- Long distance rail shipping, local by automobile, electric cars
sufficient
- Markets expanded, greater range of internal combustion
advantage
- Electric motors: frequent small adjustments by experts
- Private clients, speed, range & performance, commercial clients
wanted cost-effectiveness and a respectable range
Internal Combustion Cars
- Internal combustion lighter, higher speeds, accidents, wear and
tear, social menace, initially constant breakdowns
- Simpler to fix, little technical knowledge
- Sensitive to fuel impurities, engine problems until fuel
standardized
- Gasoline & kerosene widely available, heating and lighting
- Long distance touring (private users), before gas stations
- Infrastructure investment not needed in the beginning
Wartime Influences
- Standardization of parts, “American system of manufacture”
- Military firearms industry in mid-1800’s
- 1913, Henry Ford, mass production, standardized parts
- WWII, military internal combustion, range and simplicity
Gasoline as a Fuel
- Mid-1800’s, oil in US, chemical analysis at university,
commercial applications
- Early 1900’s, electric lighting replacing kerosene, need for new
demand
- Gasoline: low flash point and a high temperature of combustion
- Cracking method, gasoline from crude oil
- Oil has complex, heavy, long chain molecules, “cracked” or
broken down to produce lighter kerosene and gasoline
- By 1911, chemists working for oil companies developed methods
to crack petroleum using high temperatures and pressures
- Improvements eliminated “knock”, increased efficiency & purity
Advantages of Internal Combustion
- Private users liked range, simplicity; ease of fuelling
- Electrical industry ignored car market, failed to standardize
- Oil industry saw demand for cars, innovated to meet needs
- Businesses liked range & reliability for growing urban population
- Military adoption of gasoline engine gave it early support
- Chemical improvements: cheap, plentiful and efficient fuel
- Population growth, cheap automobiles, the desire to travel far and
fast, all contributed to the demand for the internal combustion car
- Expanding urban population also demanded products & services,
this drove the commercial adoption of internal combustion vehicles
Kirsch’s Argument
- Electric car initially more flexible, comparable range for most
applications, and of sufficient speed
- Gasoline cars were more prone to breakdowns (knock, stalling,
general), less reliable, easier to fix
- Improvements expected for electric, success of industry
- While waiting, consumers chose IC cars IC cars then improved,
uel & engine efficiency
- “waiting” for competitive battery, IC dominated market, standard
technology
The Rise of the Internal Combustion Automobile
- 1913 - 1929, annual car & truck manufacturing increased from
1/2M to 4.5M+, most internal combustion
- By 1914 35,000 electric & 1.5M internal combustion cars.
- Federal, state & industrial investment in car infrastructure: roads,
fuel, repair facilities, parking lots, traffic police, courts, insurance
- 1927, annual car-related deaths 21,000+, injuries higher
- WWII contributed to the domination of the IC automobile
- Postwar industrialization & rising populations increased demand,
oil price shocks in 1970’s, improvements in production & design,
no significant reduction in demand
Lessons from the Past
- People expect long distance travel, speed, standardized parts
- Industry, commerce, labor and urban development, fast, fuelefficient vehicles.
- Hybrid cars and performance requirements.
- infrastructure, charging technology, road infrastructure
- Effect of attaching millions of electric cars to electricity grid
- 25% of electrical power in Canada fossil fuel generated
- electric cars: traffic volume, accidents, urban planning