Date sent:        Mon, 22 Apr 1996 20:26:23 -0400

History of the Automobile- 1920-present

 The United States became the forerunner in the automobile industry early and the automobile
 quickly found a place in almost every American home.  In the decades after World War I, 
 American demands on automobiles increased and the increased demands imbued many changes in
 the form and function of cars.  The United States was host to countless developments for
 the car and became a large influence in the future of the automobile and its industry.
 Pre-World War I automobiles were far from refined machines.  Manufacturers traveled a long
 way after the war to perfect their cars.  Perhaps the biggest improvement in car technology
 in this time period was the development of faster engines, mainly due to two factors.  New
 steel alloys and aluminum replaced cast-iron in the making of engines that were much
 lighter.  These new aluminum pistons could move twice as fast as the old cast-iron ones. 
 The second contributing factor for faster engines was the replacement of the side valves in
 the cylinders with valves operated by a camshaft.  This allowed the gasoline and air
 mixture to be sucked more quickly into the cylinder,  resulting in a better engine (Evans
 24).  The debut of the modern V8 engine was one significant engineering development of the
 1940s.  Companies had built V8s for years, Cadillac since 1915 and Ford since 1932.  But
 these were relatively heavy, long-stroke, low-compression engines, known for smoothness
 rather than performance (Ludvigsen and Wise 124).  With the new lighter technology,
 manufactures produced a new breed.  In 1949, Cadillac and Oldsmobile pioneered this new
 generation of V8s.  Their product was the forebear of the engines powering most large
 American cars up through the fifties and even until today.  America's efficient, powerful,
 light V8 gained fame around the worldwide for its performance and reliability (Cars 40s
 12).  Another extremely important engineering development was the perfection of the
 automatic transmission.  Oldsmobile, part of General Motors, had offered a semi-automatic
 transmission in 1937.  The company then dropped it in 1938 for GM's Hydra-Matic, the most
 successful automatic transmission of all time. General Motors owned the automatic
 transmission market to in the 1940s and other companies adopted the Hydra-Matic.  Buick
 built its Dynaflow Drive in 1948 and Chrysler developed its Fluid Drive, which eliminated
 most of the shift motions of early transmissions.  Chrysler continued to use these right on
 into the 1950s.  Ford was conservative, however, and stayed with the gear-shift, with and
 without overdrive, for all their 1940-1949 cars.  Reluctantly, Ford later offered the
 GM-built Hydra-Matic on the 1949 Lincoln.   Ford eventually developed an automatic of its
 own in 1951  (Car 40s 89).  Other smaller, independent companies stayed with stickshifts
 but some gave in and purchased the Hydra-Matic transmissions as well. Two independents that
 did not give in to the Hydra-Matic were Packard and Studebaker.  Packard's Ultramatic was
 the only automatic developed entirely by an independent without help from a transmission
 firm.   Studebaker teamed up with Detroit Gear to create an automatic, but it was not
 complete until 1950 (Evans 33). American engines and transmissions, the life lines of
 automobiles were soon impeccable, but the cars still needed other mechanical refinements. 
 Again, many changes transpired.  Hydraulic brakes became common and so too did windshield
 wipers, turn signals and dimming lights.  Superchargers were also developed in this era of
 innovation.  These were mechanically driven fans that increased the pressure of the air and
 gasoline mixture and allowed for much faster acceleration (Ludvigsen and Wise 47). 
 Unfortunately, pre-war automobiles could not brake well because they had brakes on only a
 few wheels.  In the twenties, brakes were fitted to all four wheels, providing much greater
 safety and stopping power.  In earlier cars, the magneto was the part that started the car
 and it needed rewiring every four or five years.  All around improvements in car
 dependability resulted in a new replacement.  The magneto began to be replaced by a more
 modern coil that lasted much longer (Ludvigsen and Wise 54). Other developments of the
 1920s-1950s took automotive comfort to a new level, which was becoming a major concern
 among buyers.   Shock absorbers and independent suspension became more common.  These
 additions allowed each wheel to move up and down separately over rough roads, and in turn
 gave a much smoother ride (Evans 29).  Pneumatic tires became standard and they also helped
 give a smoother ride.  Furthermore, tire life was prolonged by as much as 5,000 miles by
 the invention of cord fabric, a thick-ribbed cloth fitted beneath the rubber (Cars 50s 39).
  Cars were slowly smoothing out the wrinkles in the road and were mechanical sound. 
 Manufactures were going further by trying to make driving easier and more pleasurable.  In
 1922, Gottlieb Daimler experimented with in-car entertainment for the first time.  A radio
 set was fitted beneath the driver's seat and the driver could listen through headphones.  
 The idea was some years before its time, however, as radios were not very good and not many
 programs were broadcast.   In the thirties, some cars had adjustable steering columns to
 better suit the driver.  Better all-round visibility was another progression in this
 decade.  Yet another innovation to make the automobile more "user friendly" were
 synchromesh gears.  They made gear changing, during the time before the automatics, much
 smoother and no longer the nightmare it had often been in the early days of driving (Evans
 61).  The appearance of cars was increased in importance during this time period.  The
 predominant car color was black, however.  This was because accidents were frequent and
 black was the easiest color to match.  Henry Ford claimed that he could supply any person
 with a car of any color, as long as it was black.  In 1925, cellulose, or synthetic, paint
 was used on automobiles for the first time.  This made it easier to wash and polish than
 the older types of paint, and it did not scratch as easily.  Moreover, paint was applied by
 spray rather than by brush (Cars 40s 73).  During the late twenties, bumpers became a
 popular accessory, but they did not become standard until the late thirties.  Again,
 appearance became a factor.  At first, they were nickel plated but replaced with chromium,
 which needed less polishing to keep shiny (Cars 50s 7). The increasing importance in
 appearance ultimately procured extensive change in body design.  The design changes in the
 twenties and thirties saw the final break with the horseless carriage and the birth of the
 truly modern automobile.  Early cars, around the turn of the century, were upright
 "horseless carriages" in style, far from comfortable and wide open to the elements.  The
 cars of the 1910s had a slightly more streamlined appearance and the body was nearer to the
 ground, but they still had very square lines.  Most cars of the twenties were open tourers
 but some had a top and side windows for wet weather driving and only the most expensive
 models were enclosed sedans (Ludvigsen and Wise 172).  The bodies were still quite high and
 square but definitely not the horseless carriages of the past.  The continually
 streamlining of cars meant the disappearance of the great protruding headlights of the
 early cars.  They were set back into sloping wings, which themselves became curved and
 rounded parts of the car body.  In an attempt for greater interior space, the engine and
 seats were moved forward.  This also enabled more luggage to be stored in the trunk. Before
 long, except for sports models, most cars were four-seaters (Evans 45).  The twenties and
 thirties had made their mark but the 1940s was a decade when the motorcar was transformed
 once again.  Bolt-on-fenders and narrow, upright grilles went out of fashion.  Enveloped
 bodies came into use and cars became longer, lower and wider.  They now had flowing fenders
 and broad expanses of glass.  General Motors, who had "invented" automotive styling through
 its Arts & Colour Studio 10 years earlier, again helped set many trends throughout the
 1940s.  Among them were the pontoon-fendered fastback sedans and hardtops (Cars 40s 22).
 The changes in the thirties were very influential in the forties, nonetheless.  The
 thirties' classic foursquare styling was largely abandoned after World War II, but some of
 its expressions reappeared in the forties.  Some manufactures, like Ford and Mercury, still
 based their styling on the ideas of the thirties, with a perfection in line and form. 
 Chrysler products of the late forties were boxy and upright which symbolized the
 corporation's concern for ample interiors yet compact exteriors.  This is still true and is
 visible in Chrysler's cab-forward design of the nineties (Ludvigsen and Wise 16). According
 to some experts, cars of the fifties are what made the American transportation scene the
 "mess" it is today.  These cars were heavy, ungainly, beasts with power.  But there were
 several important automotive advances between '50 and '60.  For instance, torsion-bar
 suspension, new short-stroke V8s, ever improving automatic transmissions, fuel injection
 and unit construction were introduced.  The decade brought additional progress in body
 design, including more hardtops and the all-steel station wagon that was more car than
 truck (Cars 50s 114).  These years also marked some of the finest automotive designs of all
 time.  American cars of this decade are considered by many experts to have been safer than
 cars had ever been before.  Items such as seatbelts, padded dashes and sunken steering
 wheels were considered novelties, but proved to but useful .  The cars were also built
 differently in the fifties.  They had interiors of mohair and genuine leather and bodies of
 heavy-gauge steel.  Their makers avoided things like plastic, cardboard, decals and rubber
 bumpers.  While the average family car handled sloppily, it was built with more pure
 integrity than its predecessors.  Surprisingly, people still discover rust-free examples
 with their interiors, paint, and mechanical components in approximately the same shape as
 when they left the factory a quarter century ago (Cars 50s 139).  The early 1900s was the
 infant stage of the automobile.  The twenties was the start of a long journey of
 advancements for the American automobile.  Mechanically, cars were perfected.  Essential
 components such as the engine and transmission were totally transformed in addition to
 countless other parts.  The exteriors went through alterations and several distinctive
 forms.  From boxy to round and back to somewhere between to the two, cars went through just
 about everything.  Early cars were not pleasant to drive but by the end of this era, people
 enjoyed it.  Cars were literally built to last a lifetime and people took pride in their
 automobile.  From a carriage with a motor to a precision machine, the car has come a long
 way.



Bibliography

Cars of the 40s. ed. by Editors of Consumer Guide.  New York: Publications International,
Ltd., 1979.

Cars of the 50s. ed. by Editors of Consumer Guide.  New York: Publications International,
Ltd., 1978.

Evans, Arthur N.  The Automobile.  Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1983.

Ludvigsen, Karl and Wise, David Burgess, et al.  The Complete Encyclopedia of the American 
     Automobile.  Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books Inc., 1970.



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