The largescale productionline manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory inThis concept was then greatly expanded by Henry Ford beginning in As a result Fords cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals much faster than previous methods increasing production by seven to one requiringmanhours beforehourminutes after while using less manpower. It was so successful paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available beforeuntil fastdrying Duco lacquer was developed inInan assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months pay. Fords complex safety proceduresespecially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam aboutdramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called Fordism and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the take off of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods.
Automotive industry In the automotive industry its success was dominating and quickly spread worldwide. Ford France and Ford Britain inFord DenmarkFord GermanyinCitroen was the first native European manufactuer to adopt it. Soon companies had to have assembly lines or risk going broke by companies which did not had disappeared. Development of automotive technology was rapid due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the worlds attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric selfstarter both by Charles Kettering for the Cadillac Motor Company inindependent suspension and fourwheel brakes. Cars Since the s nearly all cars have been massproduced to meet market needs so marketing plans have often heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company so buyers could move up as their fortunes improved. Reflecting the rapid pace of change makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. Forin the s LaSalles sold by Cadillac used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile in the s Chevrolet shared hood doors roof and windows with Pontiac by the s corporate drivetrains and shared platforms with interchangeable brakes suspension and other parts were common. Even so only major makers could afford high costs and even companies with decades of production such as Apperson Cole Dorris Haynes or Premier could not manage of some two hundred carmakers in existence inonlysurvived inand with the Great Depression byonlyof those were left.
Morris set up In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley inand soon outsold Ford while beginning into follow Fords practise of vertical integration buying Hotchkiss engines Wrigley gearboxes and Osberton radiators for instance as well as competitors such as Wolseley inMorris hadof total British car production. Most British smallcar assemblers from Autocrat to Meteorite to Seabrook to name only three had gone under. Citroen did the same in France coming to cars inbetween them and the cheap cars in reply Renaults CV and Peugeots CV they producedcars inand Mors Hurtu and others could not compete. Germanys first massmanufactured car the Opel PS Laubfrosch Tree Frog came off the line at Russelsheim insoon making Opel the top car builder in Germany withof the market.
Most automobiles Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline also known as petrol or diesel internal combustion engines which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming. Increasing costs of oilbased fuels and tightening environmental law and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace these technologies include hybrid vehicles electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles.
Diesel Diesel engined cars have long been popular in Europe with the first models being introduced in the s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. The main benefit of Diesels are afuel burn efficiency compared with in the best gasoline engines. A down side of the diesel is the presence in the exhaust gases of fine soot particulates and manufacturers are now starting to fit filters to remove these. Many diesel powered cars can also run with little or no modifications onbiodiesel.
Gasoline Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high performance sports cars. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution. The carburetor was used on nearly all road car engines until the s but it was long realised better control of the fuelair mixture could be achieved with fuel injection. Indirect fuel injection was first used in aircraft engines fromin racing car engines from the s and road cars from the late s. Gasoline Direct Injection GDI is now starting to appear in production vehicles such as theBMW MINI. Exhaust gases are also cleaned up by fitting a catalytic converter into the exhaust system. Clean air legislation in many of the car industries most important markets has made both catalysts and fuel injection virtually universal fittings. Most modern gasoline engines are also capable of running with up toethanol mixed into the gasolineolder vehicles may have seals and hoses that can be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of redesign gasolinepowered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as ethanol is used in some parts of the world such as Brazil but vehicles must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline engined cars can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburetion modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to operate inside buildings.
