The auto and freedom: a belated July 4 post taken from the Detroit News

Freedom. A little more than a century ago, most consumers could only dream of routes that weren�t dictated by streetcar and railway schedules, or constrained by the physical limitations of horse-and-buggy speeds � or their own two feet.

They�d often live and die without knowing what was around the bend of an enticing side road, or beyond the horizon from the hometown depot. If they did travel, it was cheek-by-jowl with other passengers, stopping at preordained times and places.

Flash forward and most American households sport an auto in the garage or driveway; there are roughly 250 million passenger vehicles registered in the United States, according to various federal government reports. Cars have gone from wondrous curiosities to household staples.

Somehow between stop-and-go commuting congestion, monthly fill-up costs that rival a small house payment, the drudge work of loading sacks and boxes and totes in and out of the trunk and the repair bills that rear up just when you need them the least, the automobile�s role in modern life has lost a lot of glamor.

On many days, the car seems a necessary evil � a mobile annex of the cluttered family room, a money gobbler, grocery-getter, spewer of greenhouse gases and cruel masher of neighborhood fauna and roadside wildlife. Other than �It beats walking,� what�s to like? Vehicles in everyday use provide about as much thrill as a toilet plunger or microwave oven.

Then along comes a pristine summer morning. The dew on the windshield shimmers in the rising sun, the car is clean inside and out, and you slide behind the wheel with a sense of anticipation. Maybe it�s a regular work day, but miraculously your commute route isn�t clogged, and you sail through the morning drive and hit the radio jackpot with some favorite driving tunes along the way. Maybe it�s the launch of a vacation road trip, or just a local adventure excursion to farm markets, yard sales and big-box stores. Either way, it feels good, and you start to remember why those last few weeks before your 16th birthday seemed to go by with excruciating slowness.

I recall my first solo road trip, a month or so after my 18th birthday, from Metro Detroit to Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula, to visit some college roommates. A late 1970s red Ford Fairmont wagon, a map from AAA and some change for the phone booths if need be. No GPS, no OnStar, no cellphone. I spent the night in a St. Ignace motel, toured Mackinac Island in the morning and wheeled into my friends� parents� driveway late that afternoon. Even in a somewhat dorky junior station wagon, it was exhilarating being on the road, mistress of my own route, devouring the new scenery and burning through the unfamiliar miles. Freedom and independence beckoned around every bend; every squiggly red line on the map seemed to promise adventure, and my love of road trips was ignited.

And it continues. A few weeks ago, those wiggly red lines inspired me to take the back roads home from a Memorial Day weekend trip. Everyone should see Wabash, Ind. at least once in their lives, I figured. Thanks to my trusty little car, I relaxed amid the cornfields, with a windshield�s eye view of farm villages and Kokomo and Peru � a little more of Peru than I wanted to, actually, while a police officer ran my vital statistics through his computer. He kindly accepted my apologies for zooming through a 40 mph zone and pointed me toward Wabash ... where I snatched up an antique hutch that just barely squeezed into the hatchback�s rear seat. You can�t do all of that with a plane ticket or a bus pass.

So despite the daily dreariness that auto ownership often is, and a fair amount of guilt over planetary problems the motor car exacerbates, I�m still grateful for the freedom a car-oriented society affords us. And today being Independence Day, I�ll light an extra sparkler or raise a toast to all the little vehicles that have made my adventures possible.

Melissa Preddy is a Michigan-based freelance writer. Reach her via mpreddy@aol.comThe 

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130704/AUTO03/307040010#ixzz2YIhqBuQ3

The Truth Concerning the Invention of the Automobile Air Conditioner

Thanks to Terry Ryno for this post!

Did You Know??? The Goldberg Brothers - The Inventors of the Automobile Air Conditioner. Here's a little factoid for automotive buffs or just to dazzle your friends... The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.. On July 17,1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees. The four brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter. Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car. They persuaded him to get into the car, which was about 130 degrees, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the car off immediately. The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them $3 million for the patent. The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label, 'The Goldberg Air-Conditioner,' on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed. Now old man Ford was more than just a little anti - Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on two million Fords. They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown. And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show -- Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max -- on the controls. I can hear your groans from here. Control yourself!!! I was sucked in, too! Just forward it.

Song, Music, and the Early Brass-Era Automobile in America

Music Galore

            Culturally, the automobile was featured prominently in popular music as early as 1899, when the first promotional song, The Studebaker March, was released.�⁴³ A number of these early songs about automobiles had no words, but rather were composed in a manner that imitated automobile noises � fast, slow, jerky, and droning. �The Motor Car,� released in 1903, and �The Auto Race,� published in 1904, were of this variety. As automobiles became a fixture in American life, so were songs about them, for in 1905 some 29 songs appeared, 40 in 1906, and 53 in 1908. Romance was at the heart of this early genre of song (see material in chapter 5 for more on this topic), but so then was the Ford, in lyrics either about Henry or his car. Indeed, more than 60 songs about Ford were written between 1908 and 1940:

�Love in an Automobile.� 1899. By Alfred Dixon.

�My Automobile Girl.� 1900. Lyrics and music by R. J. Morris.

�My Auto Lady.� 1901. By George S. Atkins.

�Jes Come ARoun� Wid an Automoible.� 1902. Lyrics by R. Melville Baker, music by Josephine Sherwood.

�When Isabella Green Went Automobiling.� 1902. By Harry Marshall.

�The Girl on the Automobile.� 1905. Lyrics by Sam Lewis, music by Joe Nathan.

�In My Merry Oldsmobile.� 1905. Lyrics by Vincent Bryan, music by Gus Edwards.

�On an Automobile Honeymoon.� 1905. Lyrics by William Jerome, music by Jean Schwartz.

�Take a Little Ride with Me.� 1906. Lyrics by Jack Drislane, music by Theodore Morse.

�The Gay Chauffeur.� 1907. By F. L. Valentine.

�The Ford.� 1908. By Jarry H. Zickel.

�I�d Rather have a Girlie Than an Automobile.� 1908. By William A. Dillon.

�The Motor Girl.� 1909. Lyrics by Charles J. Campbell, music by Julian Edwards.

�Motor King.� 1910. Lyrics by Jack Drislane, music by Henry Frantzen.

�Keep Away from the Fellow Who Owns an Automobile. 1912.� By Irving Berlin.

�He�d Have to Get Under � Get Out and Get Under.� 1913. Lyrics by Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie, Music by Maurice Abrahams.

�The Packard and the Ford.� 1915. Lyrics by Harold R. Atteridge, music by Harry Carroll.

�On the Old Back Seat of the Henry Ford.� 1916. Lyrics by Will Dillon, music by Lawrence Dillon.

�Don�t Take Advantage.�  1919. Lyrics by Howard Rodgers, music by James V. Monaco.⁴⁴

Early Automobile History -- Choices Made: Competition from Steam Engines and Electric Motors

Choices Made:  Competition from Steam Engines and Electric Motors

            The early designs of the internal combustion engine were primitive to say the least, and thus these power plants were anything but reliable and smooth running. At the turn of the century steam cars dominated the automotive field. An alternative was the electric car; but they were expensive and limited in range and speed. As it turned out, there was a short window of time in which these three technological rivals were engaged in a contest that revolved around which would be the chief power source for this new form of flexible and personal transportation, the automobile. The end result would have enormous consequences for the remainder of the twentieth century, economically and environmentally. As Tom McCarthy has pointed out, during the first decade of the twentieth century, a number of experts warned of the environmental consequences of ICE-powered vehicles, including the issues of oil depletion and toxic exhausts. However, McCarthy contends that the widespread adoption of the automobile by a consuming public allayed concerns at a time when adjustments could have been far more easily made than those that we, in the early twenty-first century, are now making.²¹

            Steam had a long history going back to the eighteenth century as the chief power source for factories, railroad locomotives, and electrical generation. For automobiles, steam engines were quieter than internal combustion. With fewer moving parts, steam engines had been manufactured for generations, and with less exacting tolerances. In addition, a steam engine had remarkable torque, especially from a dead stop. Steam pressure could be built up and stored, to be released at full force on demand. An internal combustion engine must turn within a narrow range of revolutions per minute to operate efficiently. Additionally, as anyone who has looked at a schematic of a transmission or differential knows, gears and small parts result in a power transmission system that can only be deemed ingenious to the mechanically uninitiated. Moreover, in the cylinder of a gas engine, the greatest force is exerted at the explosive instant of ignition, with the power dissipating as the piston completes its stroke. But in the cylinder of a steam engine, the steam enters, expands and continues to push for as much as 90 percent of the stroke.

            Steam engines had both limitations and advantages.²² With its extensive piping and metalwork, a steam car was heavier than an ICE car of comparable horsepower. Steam engines ran at lower thermal efficiencies than gas engines, losing much of their heat to the atmosphere. And while the working parts of a steam engine were quite simple and durable, the ancillary equipment � boiler, burner, and all manner of pumps, valves, and gauges � were dauntingly complex, demanding constant attention and maintenance. Most critically, the popular steam cars of the early 1900s � Stanley, White, and Locomobile � took 10 to 30 minutes to work up adequate steam pressure from a cold start and then had to stop for water every 30 to 100 miles. ICE-powered cars started faster and had greater range, an advantage in rural areas where service stations were sparse.

 1902 White Steam Car

1904 White Steam Car

            After the turn of the century, steam car technology remained essentially stagnant for years until Abner Doble introduced advanced designs, while ICE-powered cars quickly improved. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, steam cars were technologically obsolete and economically unviable. Given these winds of change, White and Locomobile both converted to internal combustion by 1910, leaving only Stanley to fill a market with a curiosity that in recent times has been resurrected in as an interest in �buff� circles by car collector and comedian Jay Leno.

            In addition to the ICE- and steam-driven automobiles, there were also electric models at the turn of the century, partly the consequence of work by Thomas Edison and others related to improved battery designs.²³ Electrics had several distinct advantages. They were especially attractive to those in the taxi business and women who wished to avoid the crank starting, noise, vibration, and pollution of ICE-powered vehicles. Low-end torque characteristics of electric motors ensured quick starts. However, in the early twentieth century any advantages were greatly outweighed by the many serious liabilities. Electrics were far more expensive than the gasoline automobile to manufacture and about three times more expensive to operate. Batteries could weigh a ton or more. There was the ever-present wire or cord that had to connect to a discharged electric car. As late as 1910, their range was only 50 to 80 miles on a battery charge, charging facilities were virtually nonexistent outside large cities, the storage batteries of the day deteriorated rapidly, and its hill climbing ability was poor due to excessive weight of the batteries for the horsepower generated.²⁴ These relative liabilities have persisted to the present, despite recent improvement in storage batteries.

For Tom Cruise's Birthday: On "Rain Man" and a Special Buick

Dustin Hoffman is now pushing 80 years old and Tom Cruise has officially passed 50, but one member of the cast of 1988 Oscar-winning film Rain Man hasn't aged a day: the 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible which was featured hugely in the movie just sold at auction for over $170,000.

In Rain Man, Charlie Babbitt (played by Cruise) learns after the death of his father, that he has a half-brother, Raymond (played by Hoffman). At the same time he learned that Raymond has inherited all of their father's wealth other than the Roadmaster, which he bequeaths to Charlie. The car would be memorable enough if this is all it had to do with the plot of the film, but the Buick plays an unforgettable role as well.

To understand the significance of the '49 Roadmaster to Charlie in the movie is to know that the character is a slick yuppie, one embarrassed by Raymond, who is an "idiot savant" capable of making lightning-fast mathematical calculations like prime numbers (and later, crucially, keeping the complex system of Blackjack card counting straight in his head) but unable to form social bonds or do other normal adult activities.

The car, then, isn't just the way that Charlie hauls Raymond around while they have their adventures and are forced to get to know each other -- no, the beautiful beige convertible with red leather interior is the only legacy from their father that callow Charlie has ... other than Raymond. The car and the "new" half-brother are both, and equally, his connection to their father.

It's fitting, then, that the car is how Charlie conveys them to Las Vegas, where Raymond's skills are a perfect match for the challenges of high-stakes Blackjack, where Raymond is able to help Charlie out of some very deep trouble.

That's what the car gives to the younger brother, but then Charlie is able to use their father's classic automobile to teach Raymond how to drive. In this way, using the car literally and metaphorically as a vehicle for change, Raymond is taught in tandem by the father who abandoned him and the brother who would have shunned him if he had gotten the chance early on in the story. And importantly, the lesson taught by Charlie (and, indirectly, their father) to Raymond is one that is a rite of passage in a boy's growth into a man -- learning to drive a car -- and something that Raymond's cognitive disability has, until this scene in which the brothers also bond, always kept him from experiencing.

That's a lot for an antique car to do in a movie! But the 1949 Roadmaster was a lot of car: the fifth in Buick's line featuring the name and the first of the Buicks with four "ventiports" on the side, which gave it a futuristic feel at the same time as it reminded some admirers of the portholes on a ship. The car's more modern curves were a change from the 1948 model and are one reason why the style has aged so gracefully in a world in love with Mad Men retro styles and the sleek lines of everything from iPads to running shoes. The '49 Roadmaster felt like a trendsetter when it was released, and it continues to inspire design-conscious collectors to this day.

That might have been behind Buick's decision to include an ad for their 1989 line on that year's video release of Rain Man. Creating a link in consumers' minds between the company's latest Buick with the classic 1949 Roadmaster -- not to mention with the emotionally satisfying story of two brothers bonding over that very car -- was an idea that paid off for Buick.

Author Bio: Alex Smith is a television and movie blogger for Direct2TV.com. He enjoys writing about everything from new releases to classic noir from the 1940s to sci-fi and horror flicks from the �70s and �80s. He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Compact Power: The Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the Early History of the Automobile

            Along with the development of the bicycle, the internal combustion engine was most critical to developments in early automobile history. Credit for the ICE is normally given to Belgian inventor Etienne Lenoir (1822-1900). Living in France, Lenoir patented a two-stroke engine in 1860 that used illuminating gas (gas derived from heating coal in large retorts) that was ignited by a spark generated by a battery and coil. Lenoir�s engine was noisy and inefficient, and it tended to overheat. Used in stationary applications to power pumps and machines, some 250 were sold by 1865. And while the editor of Scientific American proclaimed in 1860 that with the coming of the Lenoir engine the Age of Steam was coming to an end, it took more than four decades before the ICE would eclipse the steam engine.¹⁶

^{Lenoir  engine}

            In 1876, Nicholas Otto (1832-1891) developed a four-cycle engine (intake, compression, power, and exhaust), and Lenoir came up with a similar design during 1883 and 1884. Two engineers who had once worked for Otto, Gottleib Daimler (1834-1900) and Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), designed a 1.5 horsepower, 110 pound, 600 rpm �high speed engine� in 1885, and built several experimental vehicles between 1885 and 1889. Maybach, one of the most important engineer-inventors of this early period, designed the modern carburetor for mixing air and gasoline in 1893.¹⁷

^{Form of 1876 Otto Engine}

^{Maybach High Speed Engine}

            In the meantime, Karl Benz (1844-1929) built a tricycle in 1885 to 1886 and exhibited a design at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. By 1893 he had constructed an improved four-wheel car with a three-horsepower engine that sold well and was fairly reliable. More than 100 Benz vehicles were sold by 1898. An early leader, Benz was soon passed technologically, especially by French manufacturers.

            James Laux, in his book First Gear, characterizes in detail the French automobile industry before 1914.¹⁸ The key French inventor-engineer of the late nineteenth century was Emile Constant Levassor, who took Gottleib Daimler�s engine and placed it in the front of the vehicle. Before Levassor�s untimely death, he proved the merits of his design � that a vehicle of his design could be practical � in the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race. At first, and for only a relatively short time, Paris was the center of the nascent global automobile industry. Perhaps this was due to excellent French roads or social, economic, or political factors that remain to be explicated and are currently discounted. James Flink has argued that the importance of Paris was accidental rather than a crystallization of a complex network of relationships that included German, French, and Belgian inventors and businessmen.

            The importance of the early French auto industry is reflected in the following chart²⁰:

Year	Total Vehicles in Use
1899	1,672
1900	2,897
1901	5,386
1902	9,207
1903	12,984
1904	17,107
1905	21,543
1906	26,262
1907	31,286
1908	37,586
1908	46,000

            While a number of entrepreneurs in England, America, and Germany were only beginning to catch up to the French by the end of the nineteenth century, there was a concurrent Darwinian-like competition among three rival technologies in terms of power�the ICE already mentioned, steam, and electricity. In the end the most economically efficient technology would prevail, but that was by no means clear to those living in 1900.

Understanding the Millennial Generation and their Relationship with the Automobile

According to the press and the some analysts within the Detroit Three, the Millennial generation is not totally sold on loving automobiles. There are all kinds of rationalizations as to why this group of folks has avoided getting drivers' licenses and purchased motor vehicles.  And among the explanations is one connecting Millennials to electronic technology, especially cell phones, computers, Ipads, etc., etc.  Here are my notes from a recent article written for the New York Times and picked up by the Dayton Daily News:

Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Study: Americans buying fewer cars," Dayton Daily News, June 30, 2013, p. A10.

Recent studies suggest that Americans are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting fewer licenses as each year goes by.

That has left researchers pondering a fundamental question: Has America passed peak driving?

But America's love affair with it s vehicles seems to be cooling. When adjusted for population growth, the number of miles driven in the United States peaked in 2005 and dropped steadily thereafter, according to an analysis by Doug Short of Advisor Perspectives, an investment research company.  As of April 2013, the number of miles driven per person was nearly 9 percent below the peak and equal to where the country was in January 1995. Part of the explanation certainly lies in the recession, because cash strapped Americans could not afford new cars, and the unemployed weren't going to work anyway. But by many measures, the decrease in driving preceded the downturn and appears to be persisting now that recovery is under way.  The next few years will be telling.

"What most intrigues me is that rates of car ownership per household and per person started to come down two or there years before the downturn," said Michael Sivak, who studies the trend and is a research professor at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. "I think something more fundamental is going on."

Companies like Ford and Mercedes are already rebranding themselves "mobility" companies with a broader product range beyond the personal vehicle.

"Different things ae converging which suggest that we are witnessing a long-tem cultural shift," said Mimi Sheller, a sociology professor at Drexel University�. She cites various factors: The Internet makes telecommuting possible and allows people to feel more connected without driving to meet friends. The renewal of center cities has made suburbs less appealing and has drawn empty nesters back in. Likewise, the rise in cell phones and car-pooling apps has facilitated more flexible commuting arrangements, including the evolution of shared van services for getting to work.

On top of that, city, state and federal policies that for more than half a  century encouraged suburbanization and car use-- from mortgage lending to road building -- are gradually being diluted or reversed. "They created what I call a culture of automobility and arguably in the last 5 to 10 years that is dying out., Sheeler said.

Demographic shifts in the driving population suggest the trend may accelerate. There has been a large drop in the percentage of 16-to39 year olds getting a license, while older people are likely to retain their licenses as they age.

A study last year found that driving by young people decreased 23 percent between 2001 and 2009. The Millennials don't value cars and car ownership, they value technology -- they care about the devices you own. The percentage of young drivers is inversely related to the availability of the internet, Sivaks research found. Why spend an hour driving to work when you could take the bus or train and be online?

Also from 2007 to 2011, the age group most likely to buy a car shifted from the 35-44 age group to the 55-to-64 group.

So I am currently teaching a class of Meillennials, and asked them today if they prefer to communicate electronically or in person. The more I thought about it the more I began to think that if it is true that the Millennials do not prefer face-to-face interaction and instead want to text and email, the more I thought that can't be right.  Except for very long distance issues.  And indeed that is what my class told me.  So this thesis about the internet and the inverse proportion to young drivers doesn't make sense, except maybe on the West Coast or where there are very high population densities and superb mass transit options.

More on this later!