A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
Henry Ford was one of several carmakers who saw an opportunity to build a vehicle that combined the power and ruggedness of a touring car with the low cost of a runabout (i.e., coming in at less than $1,000). His company had launched a successful two-passenger runabout, the Model N, in 1906 for $500, and followed it up with the essentially similar
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Second, steam vehicles were frowned on by city authorities because of the noise and smoke they produced, and because of concerns about boiler explosions.
Tom Standage • A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
In this new model, young men with cars had a distinct advantage. Having transport of their own, they could potentially date a wider circle of girls because they could travel farther and could take them to a wider range of places. Most important, a car was also a destination in its own right: a private space, particularly if parked in a secluded
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In 2019 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino for their work on the development of lithium-ion batteries. “This lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles,” the prize committee declared. “Lithium-ion
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“Staggered” lighting was set up so that lights would always be green for a motorist moving at a particular speed (usually 25 mph). The first such system, installed on Sixteenth Street in Washington, D.C.,…
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Tom Standage • A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
But then Drais made a conceptual leap. He realized that instead of building a human-powered vehicle that imitated a carriage, it made more sense to imitate a horse. He may have been inspired by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815, which spread a vast plume of dust and ash around the world, causing months of crop failures and food
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Tom Standage • A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
The growth of car ownership in America was particularly astonishing. In 1900 around 8,000 motor vehicles were on the road in Europe, with a similar number in the United States; by 1910 those numbers had jumped to about 300,000 in Europe and 458,000 in America; but by 1920 the figures were 1 million and 8 million. The number of automobiles on
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