Story of the automobile: Its history and development from 1760 to 1917: With an analysis of the standing and prospects of the automobile industryBarber, H. L. (Herbert Lee)
History
Story of the automobile: Its history and development from 1760 to 1917: With an analysis of the standing and prospects of the automobile industry
Barber, H. L. (Herbert Lee)
Automobiles -- History
The manufacture of motor trucks almost doubled in one year. The number
produced in 1915 was 50,366. In 1916 the number made was 92,130.
The above table, showing the rate of increase in passenger cars made in
seven years, makes it clear that the greatest growth in the passenger
car business has been since and including the year 1911.
That was the year in which the largest number of medium and low priced
standardized cars with refinement of detail and added equipments,
selling from $1,500 down to $500, was first put on the market. Ford
almost doubled his output in that year. The next years, 1912 and 1913,
also he more than doubled each year his output of the previous year.
And in 1916 he made nearly one-third of all the passenger cars produced
in the entire United States in that year.
Could anything demonstrate more conclusively than these facts, that
if you have an article within the price of the mass of the people, it
will sell, if the people want it? The one idea of Henry Ford—quantity
sales—saved to the United States the premiership in automobile making.
For other manufacturers adopted it, some radically, others in a
modified form. Its influence was unquestioned in putting the price of
motor cars at a figure at which a person happening to have less than
the income of a millionaire could afford to buy one, so that when every
one of the many values and benefits of the existence of the modern
automobile is scheduled, let us, in giving credit for them, place the
name of Ford at the head of the list.
When we have arrived at our destination, or have attained an object
much desired, our satisfaction is such that we are in a forgiving mind
and prone to forget the sacrifices we had to make, the difficulties we
had to overcome, the strenuous work we had to do. The end justified the
means, and we don’t think long about the hardships in the means.
Preëminence of the United States in the motor field has not been gained
without hardships, sacrifices and disappointments by those engaged in
it, nor was it reached by the immediate and uninterrupted success of
all companies organized to commercialize the invention.
While, as we have stated before, the number of final failures of
companies was small compared with those in some other avenues of
enterprise in the development stage, the number of individuals and
corporations in the automobile business that started on the wrong
road and found it impassable, was not small. But here again it was
fortunate for humanity, reckoning the automobile as one of the greatest
boons vouchsafed the human race, that the mechanical perfection of
the automobile was reached at a date coincident with more enlightened
thought, a liberalism of view and a clearer vision of the possibilities
of the future by our men of business.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account