| Before cars were around, people usually traveled | | | | improvements not only made automobiles more |
| distances using horse-drawn carriages. But as early as | | | | stylish, but also safer and more comfortable for both |
| 1335 several bright minds have been trying to come | | | | passengers and drivers. Driving was slowly becoming |
| up with a "horseless carriage". In Italy | | | | more pleasurable. |
| there were quite a number of designs for wind-driven | | | | Apart from increased comfort and security, another |
| vehicles, none of which were ever built. Leonardo da | | | | important characteristic of cars that became |
| Vinci designed a clockwork vehicle, but that too | | | | emergent during this period was the increase in |
| remained just a concept. In America there were two | | | | durability and affordability. Automobile manufacturers |
| prominent figures who would be remembered as | | | | like Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Buick, Plymouth, |
| forefathers of the modern automobile--Ransom E. | | | | and Oldsmobile were mass-producing durable cars on |
| Olds and Henry Ford. Olds was the first mass | | | | assembly lines, which made it possible for more |
| producer of gasoline-powered automobiles in America, | | | | people to travel around at an affordable price. In |
| while Ford built several prototypes and began selling | | | | addition, smaller companies began producing specific |
| cars in 1903. | | | | car components, adding to the ease of production |
| However, these cars were really nothing more than | | | | and sustainability, and further lowering prices, which in |
| crude horseless carriages, and they looked a lot like | | | | turn increased the popularity of the automobile as |
| them too--the open body, the large, wooden wheels | | | | the preferred mode of travel for everyone. |
| all screamed "carriage without a horse". | | | | As the automobile's popularity rose, so did the |
| But by 1916 certain developments enabled these | | | | number of manufacturing companies. Some |
| carriages to become viable means of transportation, | | | | experimented with electricity and steam--and |
| with better mechanics, increased power and | | | | electricity is still being experimented with to this |
| efficiency, and most of all, safety and comfort. | | | | day--but internal combustion engines were clearly |
| During the 1916-1924 period, most automobile designs | | | | preferred with Packard's development of the V-12. |
| have improved drastically. The dangerous hand crank | | | | Other manufactureres produced V-8s and V-16s, and |
| was replaceed with electric starters, and kerosene | | | | by the end of this period the market had hundreds |
| lanterns were replaced by electric lighting. Enclosed | | | | of manufacturers each producing several hundred |
| bodies were also becoming more popular, and the | | | | different models, with a variety of engine |
| windows can be raised or lowered at will. These | | | | configurations. |