Reference
- AutomobilesRoad vehicle that first appeared in the 19th century. The first cars were propelled by steam, but were not a success. The age of the motor car really dates from the introduction (1885-86) of the petrol-driven carriages of Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. The internal combustion engine for these cars had been developed earlier by several engineers (most notably Nikolaus Otto in 1876). The main components of a motor car remain unchanged. A body (chassis) to which are attached all other parts including: an engine or power plant; a transmission system for transferring the drive to the wheels, and steering, braking and suspension for guiding, stopping and supporting the car. Early cars were assembled by a few experts, but modern mass-production began in the early 1900s with Henry Ford and R.E. Olds in the USA. In most modern motor factories, component parts are put together on assembly lines. Each worker has a specific task (such as fitting doors or crankshafts). Bodies and engines are made on separate assembly lines which converge when the engine is installed. Overhead rail conveyors move heavy components along the assembly lines, lowering them into position. The final stages of assembly include the fitting of items such as lamps and paint spraying. Electrical, braking and control systems are checked. The assembled car is tested before sale. Recent technology has seen the introduction of robots (properly, robotic arms secured to the workshop floor) on the assembly line. They are usually used for welding and painting.
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Perspectives
The Life of the Automobile
The Life of the Automobile is the first comprehensive world history of the car. The automobile has arguably shaped the modern era more profoundly than any other human invention, and author Steven Parissien examines the impact, development, and significance of the automobile over its turbulent and colorful 130-year history. Readers learn the grand and turbulent history of the motor car, from its earliest appearance in the 1880s--as little more than a powered quadricycle--and the innovations of the early pioneer carmakers. The author examines the advances of the interwarera, the Golden Age of the 1950s, and the iconic years of the 1960s to the decades of doubt and uncertainty following the oil crisis of 1973, the global mergers of the 1990s, the bailouts of the early twenty-first century, and the emergence of the electric car. This is not just a story of horsepower and performance but a tale of extraordinary people: of intuitive carmakers such as Karl Benz, Sir Henry Royce, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), André Citroën, and Louis Renault; of exceptionally gifted designers such as the eccentric, Ohio-born Chris Bangle (BMW); and of visionary industrialists such as Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche (the Volkswagen Beetle), and Gene Bordinat (the Ford Mustang), among numerous other game changers. Above all, this comprehensive history demonstrates how the epic story of the car mirrors the history of the modern era, from the brave hopes and soaring ambitions of the early twentieth century to the cynicism and ecological concerns of a century later. Bringing to life the flamboyant entrepreneurs, shrewd businessmen, and gifted engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring us horsepower and performance,The Life of the Automobile is a globe-spanning account of the auto industry that is sure to rev the engines of entrepreneurs and gearheads alike.
Carjacked: the Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives
Carjackedis an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile's contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year. Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars.
Strange but True Tales of Car Collecting
Drowned Bugattis, Buried Belvederes, Felonious Ferraris and other Wild Stories of Automotive Misadventure
Henry's wonderful Model T, 1908-1927.
America's all-time favorite car was Henry Ford's Model T, made and sold between 1908 and 1927 and known variously and affectionately as the fliver, the jalopy, and the Tin Lizzie. No other automobile in history inspired so many stories, jokes, songs, and cartoons, so much love, laughter, and irritation. The T owner swore both at and by his car.
Henry's Wonderful Model T is a fond album of memories of the car that put America on wheels -- a colorful record of its life and times in more than 500 photographs, diagrams, advertisements, jokes, cartoons, and 20,000 words of informative text. It will bring back the wonderful past to 1,000's of former T owners who, once upon a time, thawed out their engines with boiling water in sub-zero weather, backed up steep hills in the T's powerful reverse, removed the front seat to fill the gas tank, crawled under the car to test the oil supply, and spun the crank and leaped for the driver's seat before the jalopy took off -- driverless.
Henry Ford and the Model T
Tells the story of Henry Ford, along with his invention, the popular Model T automobile.
Online Resources
- Henry Ford vs. assembly line balancingFord's Assembly Line at Highland Park is one of the most influential conceptualisations of a production system. New data reveal Ford's operations were adaptable to strongly increasing and highly variable demand. These analyses show Ford's assembly line was used differently than modern ones and their production systems were more flexible than previously recognised. Assembly line balancing theory largely ignores earlier practice. It will be shown that Ford used multiple lines flexibly to cope with large monthly variations in sales. Although a line may be optimised to yield the lowest cost production, systems composed of several parallel lines may yield low cost production along with output and product flexibility. Recent research on multiple parallel lines has focused on cost effectiveness without appreciating the flexibility such systems may allow. Given the current strategic importance of flexibility, it should be included in such analyses as an explicit objective.
- Service Competition and Product Quality in the U.S. Automobile IndustryWe study the impact of service attributes (warranty length, after-sales service quality) on consumer demand in the U.S. automobile industry, examining the presence of complementarities/substitution between service attributes and product quality. Our results estimate a median willingness to pay for one year of a warranty of approximately $850, which is equivalent to 3.1% of the median vehicle price in our sample. We find that, for a car with median characteristics, the effect on consumer utility of a 1% price decrease is equivalent, all else being equal, to increasing product quality by 2.2%, and is in turn equivalent to increasing the warranty length by 8%. Our results also indicate that service attributes play a compensatory role with respect to product quality; i.e., the impact of warranty length and service quality on demand increases when product quality decreases. Conversely, both service metrics are complementary with respect to demand; i.e., the better the service quality, the higher the marginal effect of longer warranties. Our results thus imply that, in our period of analysis, warranties played a more important role for American firms than for foreign firms, consistent with the fact that American manufacturers exhibited lower product quality and higher service quality than non-American firms. This paper was accepted by Martin Lariviere, operations management .
Streaming Media
- The Model TOther than the personal computer, the Model T may be the single most important technology artifact of the 20th century. After surveying the history of automobiles, this lecture introduces you to Henry Ford and tells the story of the Model T - the car that changed the way Americans thought about travel and launched a consumer revolution.
- Mass ProductionManufacturers began to mass-produce products they could sell cheaply and in large numbers through nationwide advertising campaigns. Henry Ford perfected the automobile assembly line in 1914, reduced the price of cars, and raised his workers' wages, which increased their loyalty and made them potential buyers.
- Henry FordAn American success story unfolds with newsreels and Ford family home movies, capturing the man who changed the world with the invention of the gas-driven buggy.
- Henry FordAn absorbing life story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management, and a thought-provoking reminder of how Ford's automobile forever changed the way we work, where we live, and our ideas about individuality, freedom, and possibility.