The motor car, powered by the internal combustion engine, was born in 1884. Its potential was evident and inventors in many countries, notably in Germany and France (the UK and the USA were late arrivals) took to it with enthusiasm. To make one that worked seemed to be quite easy but to make one that could go off on a trip and come back again in the forseeable future was difficult. Much ingenuity had to be applied to getting the right amount of fuel into the engine, igniting it, and transmitting whatever power there was to the wheels.
By the end of the century they were quite reliable, if ungainly, to the point of not only trundling reliably around the neighbourhood, but actually engaging in long-distance rallies and races, where lessons learned were quickly fed back to the makers. Speeds increased and reliability improved. By 1903 the 525 km Gordon Bennett trophy race, run in Ireland (read After the Race by James Joyce to get an idea of the excitement cars provoked at that time) was won at an average speed of just under 80 kph. Speeds continued to rise steadily by about 10% per year. With higher speeds sadly, came accidents.
Steam and electricity competed strongly to provide motive power during the declining years of the 19th and the early 20th century, especially in cities. They were more reliable, being essentially far simpler and having had more time to evolve. However steam, despite quite remarkable gains in efficency, was hindered by its dependence on quite large quantities of water and the time required to build up steam before being able to move off. Electricity suffered from its lack of autonomy and need for heavy batteries. These problems could have been largely overcome, at least in the case of electricity, as is happening today with its return in the hybrid. However, the concentration of manufacturer and public interest on long distance racing and endurance tests favoured the internal combustion engine, with a higher power to weight ratio and greater autonomy. A vast infrastructure of pumps and garages followed rapidly, consolidating its dominance. Our rendezvous with electricity was postponed for a hundred years.
Motor cars rapidly proliferated on city streets. Gradually they shook off their horse drawn heritage. Engines, now almost always at the front, and passengers were blended within the lines of the car rather than simply placed uncomfortably on top of a platform. Durable tyres, front wheel brakes and so on developed during the twenties. However in Europe they still remained essentially a luxury item until the early twenties when the Bébé Peugeot came out in France and the baby Austin in the UK at prices well within the reach of the middle classes, although it would take almost forty years more before its descendants would be generally accessible. In the US they reached a wider public far earlier, in 1910, with the Ford Model T which continued more or less unchanged until 1927.
Competion intensified on both continents and prices fell steadily until the second world war. By then the motor car differed little from that of today. The past fifty years has produced much better and safer cars with more efficient engines, much better brakes and tyres, and generally much improved passenger protection and vehicle controllability. Unfortunately, they have become so numerous that they threaten, like so many benevolent but misguided aliens, to destroy the planet.
Trucks
The potential flexibility of motor vehicles as a substitute for horse-drawn wagons for local goods transport was quickly seized upon. By the year 1900 there was a wide range available, usually of about one to three tons capacity, powered by either steam or petrol. They were however, slow, clattering noisily on solid rubber tyres at speeds of about 10 kph. Their form, like that of the farm tractor, quickly converged to their function, to take on the form we know today. The driver, however, totally exposed to the elements, was only enclosed only by degrees, and heaters were seen as effete for many years. In the thirties, the engine retreated under the cab for most heavy vehicles in Europe but it remains still out in front in North America.
Early development was stimulated by the first world war which made use of enormous numbers of petrol-engined motor trucks. Those remaining flooded European markets afterwards and powered their use for intercity goods transport at the expense of the railways. Carrying capacity increased steadily as did their numbers to the point that, from the thirties onwards, they were primary causes of road congestion. Anyone who has driven fifty years ago in pre-motorway days in the UK can remember the long lines of frustrated drivers blocked by a loaded four-axle Foden or AEC, the slightest incline forcing the driver to double-declutch his way down to first gear and a grinding and interminable ten kph.
Steam power melted away during the '30's but the Second World War, and petrol scarcity, gave them a new lease of life. They were an impressive and frightening presence on the road, at least for some children (I was one of them), with a clanking chain drive, billowing clouds of black smoke (the coal was of appalling quality), and an impressively and enviably grimy driver.
