Michigan's Impact On The Automobile Industry

9 Pages 2207 Words

ilroads. Over the course of the paper, I will try to expose the huge impact of the automobile an early twentieth century life.

There were a huge number of early automobile pioneers. Ransom E. Olds and Alexander Winton formed a company to manufacture gasoline automobiles. Their company was named Oldsmobile and still exists today. James W. Packard was another pioneer. He bought a car designed by Winton and was dissatisfied. Packard went to Cleveland to complain about the problem of the car to Winton. Packard was told by Winton to leave and make a better car for himself if he was unhappy. Packard started his company, Packard Electric Company, which presented the H-slot gearshift. It was manufactured in ever car worldwide until the advent of the automatic transmission. Henry Ford is another notable pioneer in the automobile industry. He helped the idea of the automobile superseding the horse to become commonplace in the minds of Americans. He used the factory system, mass production, and assembly line to front the automobile industry. Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reaso!
nably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T. The Model T initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, immediately became a huge success. Ford started his factory in Highland Park, Michigan and produced more than 300,000 in 1914. Ford methods of manufacturing cars drastically reduced the amount of human work that was needed to make cars. The success of Ford's automobiles were based on their low prices, which kept falling, and the durability of his car's design.

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Michigan factories built trucks, armored vehicles, airplane engines, and other military products. The improvement of Michigan's highways during the 1920's contributed to the growth of the automobile industry and related businesses...