Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, February 21, 1922, Page 18

e "By W. C. DURANT President of Durant Motors., Inc: and Former President of General Motors. | EVOLVING THE AUTO- MOBILE 1, Primitive man makes a sledge, and ages later puts rollers under it. 2. Prehistoric man invents wheel and fashions rude cart. 3. In 14th Century B. C, Hittites make war on Egyp- tians with 2,500 armored chariots—precursors of mod- ern tanks. 4. Chariot races of early Christian era_ foreshadow speedway classics. 5. Ornate state coaches provide limousines for early modern period. 6. In 1796 Cugnot makes first steam carriage. 7. In 1887 Levassor is said to have designed first auto- mobile with internal combus- tion engine. HENCE came the automobile? W Search the encyclopaedias and the answer is a date and a dissertation on self-propelled ve- hicles. Search the text books and find only an amplification of the same idea. Nelther go to the source. Nor is it a matter for wonderment, for the source lies back, ages back, beyond the dawn of civilization. In myth- ology, in legend or in the disclosures of the archaeologist can it be found. It begins with prebistoric man, that remote and little known indi- vidual, who, struggling to move ob- | jects far beyond his strength, grap- I pled feebly for the first laws n(%«mo- motion. Milestones of Progress ‘Always the objects have been the same- ~cconomy, 6peed, destruction and comfort. A strange company, but none the less true. | Economy—The gibbering proto- types of mankind pushed and pulled | (e “great rocks before thelr cavern doors, barricading themselves against reat animals that hunted ‘men- for ood. The trucks of the ancients! . The slaves of the Pharaohs, strain- ing beneath the lash of their masters, I tugged great stone-bearing sledges to the building of the pyramids. The trucks of the Egyptians! ‘Wheeled carts, oxen or horse pro- pelled, hauled" the material for con- struction from the Middle Ages to the dawn of the Twentieth Century. ‘I'he trucks of Yesterday! And now great vehicles, potent en- glnes of power, motor-driven, capable of enormous burdens, rake an hour’s work of what would have taken the ancients months, - the Egyptians weeks, the later nations days. The trucks of today! 3 7 Limousiney of Ancient Times The wheels of time and ‘progress moved and the stately chariots, dec- orated, artisti¢, carrled the statesmem, :)lu (rlme, ifie emperor in procession o pplan Way, The lim- ousnl:e of the Komn‘ul & Another circle of the centuries and behold the elaborate state coach of the kings of Europe, great lumbering vehicles wherein progress was slow but the impression upon the peasants great. The limousine of Divine Right and nobility. Into the Orient, a hundred or more years later, an American missionary introduced the ‘rickshaw, that two- wheeled vehicle whose motive power was the barefooted coolic. = His im- romptu invention struck the Eastern ancy, and today in China, India or Japan will be found the same human propelied carts of light bamboo. The white man’s progress has passed them by, but the Oriental still finds® them satisfactory. The limousine of East- ern Asia. — tury. In the fourteenth century, coaches of the most elaborate design | and finish were being made, but their | e was mosily confncd to royalty 5 Into Europe of the early cighteenth :fi thosc of ample means. The Statz } 85 by century came the steam-drawn horse- Cgirlage of Bavarla, for instance, { £, less carriage, antedating the locomo- mgge in the early Eighteenth cenlur{.« tive, & monster which was legislated was probubly the most grotesquely aut of existence before it was miore grpate vehicie scen elther before .or than a score of years old. The velocl- gince that time. It was hand carved pede and early bicycle shortly after- wards took its' place. Limousines, these, of the Nineteenth Century. Finally we reach the present, and “Home, James” sends our upholstered, comfortable vehicle gliding smoothly along paved streets. The limousine par excellence. Inventing the First Wheel The sledge, the first mmeans- of human transportation and one that is still used in many civilized co was developed in prehistoric days. And from that time on, all thiags were dragged on sledges until an- other prehistoric inventor, many years later, evolved the wheel. But for the wheel, we might still be carrying our burdens. piece by plece, walking miles in our labors and making an awful fuss about the whole business. Chariots, the world's first real ve- hicles, were formidable conveyances, both in war and in peace, It not only required abundant skill to manage 1t, since at first the horses were hitched with claborate designs that covered every conceivable part, even _ntendv ing down the spokes. Early Steam Carriages % Tn 1796 Cugnot made & stcam car~) riage.in France. It was a great lum= bering affair that accommodated three ar four persons. But the difficultics which beset the inventor in his efforts to navigate his ci on and the dan- gers atteadant 1? such a task dis- | couraged him. othing much was done with the stcam carrfage until 1802 when Richard Trevethick mude one in England. This remained in the -inventor's shop. being_ improved or repoired, as the case might be, until 1824 when “several other ma- | chines of the same design appeare In fact it was during that year that a regular line of cteamn carriages ran between Cheltenham .and Gloucester, | covering the distance in the i ralsing sped of ten miles an hour. Speed Limit—Four Miles an Hour The opponents to the steam carriage without traces and were free to roam 1 more or less at will to cither side, WEr€ 50 persistent and determined in But the driver had to be most dexter. their opposition that they were able ous to keep his feet while his chariot 0 secure royal legislation which pre- was in motion. scribed that at lcast (hrge-rx}en must “While the Egyptians are given be employed in the carriage’s opera- credit for the development of the tion; that aman must recede it while chariot par excellences the honor is 1B motion with a red lantern or flag; more properly accorded to th - that the maximum speed should - be oo ecame. famous for their yic. four miles an hour, and that they torles. on, the field of battle; -In the Were forbidden ever to blow off Tath century, B.C., they fought Rany. Stenmn. ‘This was such drastic lc§ls- eses 11 and brought no less than 2,500 lation that it discouraged further chariots onto the fleld which proved ¢ffort towurd mechanical transporta- a force so irresistible that Rameses tion for several ye beat an ignominious retreat. of these cha':lots were v;:uipp; H scythe-like knives on the Sides an s & p fagtened to the spokes, 80 that every- TTENC Dirig, the. fanleyoar the thing within the path of the chariot internal combustion engine burning :;‘uflll\lu:lwcd down_as it swept across Sottlelb - Dalniler, and thus e Tt oy heard the infantile cries of an i Magnificence of Medieval Times dustry whichg@vas destined to become The 'earllest. English carriage of one of the &onomic giants of the which there Is any accurate historical clvilized world. It was the beglnning \ record belonged to the.twelfth;cens of the present automobile, Henry Ford in the “Father of all the Flivvers” Risking Life and Limb in 1894 Progress in the . general adoption: of the automobile as an economic utility was slow until 1894. Those who had. the hardihood to venture forth in a moter car werc not only the subjects of much popular derision but-they were also conscious of thy fact that they were jeopardizing their, chances of uninterrupted health to a very marked degree. In 1894, how- * ever, the Petit Journal of Paris; or- %:Inizsd a trial run from Paris to ordeaux and return. The winner covered the distance at the average rate of 15 miles an hour, but the event demonstrated to the world that the automobile would go more or less extended distances without blowing up or_otherwise putting its occupants 1o extreme hazards, and that it had America Rises.to Control Industry, The race for supremacy between the European countries and the Uni- ted States in_automobile building began. The English - invented the (Ornate State C 1ch | of Eighteenth Century multiple’ clutch principle, the detach- able wheel and the ¢ cylinder motor. The Germans produced their Merce- des car which, for several years, was tie recognized leader, and the French * developed several types that were ex- The First Autorhobile One of the most interesting points in. connection” with ‘the “development of ‘the automobile is associated with A: M. Levassor, the first designer. He was a member of the firm of Pan- hard and Levassor, a French house manufacturing « wood... wo! ma- chiiery. ~ During the ParisExhibit in 1887 both Panhard and Levassor became interested. in a motor pro- pelled boat exhibited- by ~Daimler. The_boat made_daily sallings on the Seine* and attracted wide attention. After the exhibit; Panhard and Le- vassor secured the French patents for the motor.in its application to the boat and them it was that Levassor made a desigr, using the motor as the Erqpclllng power for an automo- fle. He worked, of course, with- out precedent, but, curiously en- ough, there has never been any fundamental change made in the designs which he first outlined. R tremely popular, being pioneers in the introduction of cars of the necessary power but of compact design. " Although the United States had t this foreign competition more or successtully ever since 1904 when automobiles becam ieans of transport try, it was not untit the war. that definite’ leadership was taken. Six ‘Billions is U.-S. Investment | This has grown to a point where the United States is a recognized Jeader in’the @utomobile field. ~Last year. the value of exports of motor cars and .erts was $234,252,376 and the capital invested in the industry was over $6,000,000,000. There were approximately. 7,904,271 cars in oper- ation in the United States and they consumed about 2,178,729,000 gallons of gasoline. At the present time there is a car for every 14 persons, a higher proportion than in any other countr W the future holds in store, even the most optimistic dare not venlure to guess.