Cadet Hamilton Shaheen Major Youna Jung
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Shaheen Cadet Hamilton Shaheen Major Youna Jung CIS 270WX-01 March 8, 2015 Automobiles in America The one piece of technology in terms of communication that is taken for granted the most in our society is the one used the most. Everyday people all around the world use this piece of technology to get from place to place and it is a crucial part of many peoples life. Two different men in two different parts of Germany first patented the automobile in 1885 on the same day. Karl Freidrich Benz created a three-wheeled vehicle while Gottlieb Damlier Wilhelm Maybach and his associate created a motorized carriage (8). These men could not have guessed how significant automobiles would become to society, specifically the United States, and how communication between people would be allowed to become constant when they patented their first driving machines in 1885. The first decade of the twentieth century was very important for the automobile. The first automobiles made their way onto American streets and cost a whopping $850, which was unaffordable by the average American (5). During this time the average American was making about 22 cents per hour, which roughly translates to between $200 and $400 a year (4). By these numbers it is obvious that the average American could not afford to buy a car. This all changed when Henry Ford invented the Model T. Henry Ford was able to drop the cost of an automobile down to less than $300 by 1925 (5). Ford was able to do this by using and assembly line, which reduced the time it took to make a car down to two hours and thirty minutes (3). He did this by training each worker to do just one job and by creating machines to stamp out the parts rather than having people do it. Ford was able to break down the creation of a Model T into 84 steps, which allowed him to be more efficient and thus to sell it at lower prices (3). Ford was able to dominate the automobile market producing over 15 million Model Ts, which accounted for up to 40 percent of vehicles sold in the United States. The Model T was offered in multiple body styles, a five-seat touring car, a two-seat runabout, and a seven-seat town car and every car came in the same color, black (5). The automobile had many social effects on the United States. Cars created a freedom that encouraged many families to vacation at places previously impossible to reach. People who lived in the city now had the opportunity to rediscover the countryside; just those living in the country were able to shop in towns and cities. This also allowed people to visit others more easily thus making face-to-face communication easier. Teenagers gained more and more independence with driving freedom and dating couples found a portable place to be alone as the automobile helped to facilitate relaxed sexual attitudes, which could be argued, led to the baby boom (1). While the automobile had many cultural effects on the United States it also had many economic effects. Henry Ford was paying all of his workers 5 dollars a day, which was way above what most people, were making. He paid them this with the hope that it would increase their productivity and hopefully encourage them to purchase the product that they were making, Model Ts (1). The car industry also caused economic booms in other industries that were associated with the automobile. Materials such as volcanized rubber, tires, where in high demand. Also driving surfaces were highly sought after. Road construction allowed for the creation of thousands of new jobs while state, local, and eventually the federal governments funded the United States highway system. While oil was already an established industry the automobiles gave it a huge boost causing gas stations to spring up all over the place. Those who chose to travel by car now needed places to stay, which led to the creation of highway motels (1). All these industries that where created or boosted by the automobile created in increase in the American standard of living allowing Americans to purchase other technology such as telephones and radios. The automobile allowed the United States to be more connected in terms of communication. As telephone wires sprung up all over the United States cars allowed maintenance to be performed on them more easily. Automobiles also revolutionized how the mail was delivered. Before cars mail men had to use horse and buggy. Horses tire out and have to be fed and are not very fast. Automobiles started being used in mail delivery by the United States Postal Service as early as 1906 and have been in use ever since (6). Automobiles were able to cover the same area the horse drawn carriage did but in half the time, making them and obvious choice in mail delivery. The first contract for mail collection by automobile was in Baltimore in 1906. In 1911, "motor wagons" were used in seven cities, including Baltimore and by 1933 only two percent of postal vehicles in cities were horse-drawn (6). Another form of communication that the automobile industry had an effect of was the radio industry. In 1930 Galvin Manufacturing Company introduced the Motorola radio, the first mass-produced commercial car radio (2). This was the more cost efficient radio compared to the precursor, “travel radios”, which cost about $250 a piece or $2800 by modern standards. Galvin was able to mass-produce car radios and thus keep American connected while they traveled (2). A third was the automobile kept the United States connected through communication was the car phone. Advancements in Technology in the 1940s and 1950s led the development of cell towers that could receive signals in three hexagonal directions, which led to the first car phones being installed in Limousines and other commercial vehicles (7). Car phones became widely popular in the 1970s with the advancement of the Car Radiophone service Network. This technology connected with the car's battery with the phone and used signals that were attached to telephone networks (7). These car phones allowed Americans to be connected 100 percent of the time while driving. In conclusion, the automobile revolutionized the United States. It caused the economy to boom and created thousands of jobs. It allowed people to make more money and changed the culture of a whole country. It allowed face-to-face interactions between people who lived further away to be able to be made more easily. It revolutionized mail delivery, allowed people to have radios with them when traveling and when just running errands, and gave Americans access to phones no matter where they where. The automobile is an underappreciated piece of technology when it comes to communication even though it has done so much to connect people all over the world. Works Cited [1]"The Age of the Automobile." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. [2]"First Day of Work at the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. [3]"Ford's Assembly Line Starts Rolling." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. [4]"History Lesson -- 1908." History Lesson -- 1908. Barefoot's World, Nov. 2008. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. [5]"Model T." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. [6]Potter, John E. United States Postal Service: U.S. Mail. Washington, D.C.?: Service, 1986. The United States Postal Service An American History 1775 – 2006. United States Postal Service, Nov. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. [7]Rashnitsov, Dmitry. "The History of Car Phones." EHow. Demand Media, 16 Sept. 2009. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. [8]"Who Built the First Automobile?" History.com. A&E Television Networks, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. Directory: shaheenhs17 -> files -> 2015 2015 -> Cadet Hamilton Shaheen Major Youna Jung 2015 -> Cadet Hamilton Shaheen Major Youna Jung Download 34.7 Kb. Share with your friends:
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