History of Cars Part 2

So last time, we saw how the earlier cars worked and how one of the most famous Car brands in the world- Mercedes Benz came into being. In this part, we will continue our journey through the history of cars, focusing on the American side and the advent of cars as we know today. Ready? Let’s go –

Emergence of Car markets

Though a lot of development regarding automobiles and specifically cars was done in European nations like France and Germany, USA was in the race of biggest automobile markets too. The first design for an American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine came forward as early as 1877 and was made by George Selden. But he wasn’t able to bring his design into production.

Henry Ford

Rudolf Diesel

Though he was granted the patent for a two-stroke car engine in 1895, he still wasn’t able to make much of the opportunity and in 1911, his patent was challenged and overturned by Henry Ford (yes, that Ford). Gasoline powered cars in America had been on the road since early 1890s and many companies were already releasing their own models.
As we earlier said, the European markets were still leading and in 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a new combustion engine and consequently in 1897, he built the first diesel engine, which after years of modifications is still one of the most popular types we use in our vehicles.

The advent of cars as we know today

Hundreds of years’ worth work, research, innovation, trial and errors alongside thousands of patents went in the making of the automobiles and cars we know today. The markets in our sight today took years to develop. Companies that started with producing a few units at a time went to mass-produce their designs with times because of new technologies and increasing supply and demand.

Cars were no longer only for the rich and in 1913 Henry Ford came up with the world’s first moving assembly line for cars at the Highland Park Ford Plant. Increased production at a good speed with less manpower- cars were ready to rule the roads and will soon become a part of most households in major economies of the time.

As expected, after the success of Ford, hundreds of manufacturers joined the race and in the past 100 years, almost all cars have been mass-manufactured to suit the needs of the market.