The Runabout Car

In the 1920s, the automobile industry was being quickly innovated by companies coming out with new cars, very quickly. In 1901 the new Detroit factory burned down and the only automobile to be rescued from the flames was a gasoline powered runabout, the "curved dash" Oldsmobile. Also in 1901, there was a discovery of a seemingly "inexhaustible" supply of oil near Beaumont, Texas. These rich deposits of petroleum made gasoline readily available and gave added impetus to the internal combustion engine in its competition with steam and electric power. In March, fires destroyed most of the Olds Plant and the only car that was saved was the Curved Dash olds. Olds rebuilt immediately and put all the production resources into the little Curved Dash Olds, the "Merry Oldsmobile". A car was envisioned which weighed 500 pounds and could be sold for $500. Actually, when the famous Curved-Dash Oldsmobile runabout car was finished, it weighed 700 pounds and was sold for $650. Between 1901 and 1904, over 12,000 Oldsmobile cars were built and sold. This was the first volume production car in the world. Speedometers appear first on Oldsmobile. To serve as an advertisement, a Curved Dash Olds was driven from Detroit to New York. This was the longest automobile trip that had been made in the U.S. until that time. Later, in about 1923, standard equipment included four wheel brakes, foot-controlled headlamp dimmer switches, and power operated windshield wipers. On Feb. 2, "Ethyl" gas was first put on the market. The lowest priced T was the runabout, selling at $265. 1908 October 1, Henry Ford put the first of his T's on the road. The 4-cylinder, 20-horsepower T was available in two styles. The runabout sold for $825, the touring for $850. During the last three months of 1908, the Ford Motor Company sold 6,000 cars. William C. Durant sold 9,000 Buick's during 1908. The Ford Motor Company greatly outpaced its competitors in reconciling state-of-the-art design with moderate price. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal called the four-cylinder, fifteen-horsepower, $600 Ford N (1906-1907) "the very first instance of a low-cost motorcar driven by a gas engine having cylinders enough to give the shaft a turning impulse in each shaft turn which was well built and offered in large numbers." Deluged with orders, Ford installed improved production equipment and after 1906 was able to make deliveries of a hundred cars a day. Encouraged by the success of the N, Henry Ford was determined to build an even better "car for the great multitude." The four-cylinder, twenty-horsepower T, first offered in October 1908, sold for $825. Its two-speed planetary transmission made it easy to drive, and features such as its detachable cylinder head made it easy to repair. Its high chassis was designed to clear the bumps in rural roads. Vanadium steel made the T a lighter and tougher car, and new methods

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