Unarguably, one of the most important inventions in the history of the United States is the development of the automobile. They shape our lives today, and it is difficult to imagine a world in which automobiles were not so ubiquitous. Yet that was the reality not so long ago. As New Jersey’s newspapers show, the adoption of the automobile was a surprisingly rapid, and relatively recent, development in human history.
The idea of a self-propelled cart has long been a fantastical idea held by many people throughout human history, but the first vehicle that turned this idea into reality is generally agreed to be Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot’s steam-powered vehicle. The Frenchman’s tricycle was a humble machine, but it launched the development of steam-powered autos in Europe and the United States. However, even as the vehicles were developed and even given commercial uses at times, they were not yet widely adopted. Still, steam powered cars dominated the scene, and made up a big portion of the cars on the road at the turn of the century. However, they would not be the only ones. With the development of battery power, electric cars were also developed, appearing in the United States in the 1890s. As American cities became electrified, electric autos had a heyday in the early 1900s. However, it was the third mode of power which would grow to become the most prominent.
Gasoline-powered automobiles began making an appearance as early as the 1860s, although they didn’t have make a widespread appearance in the United States until the 1890s. Initially, gasoline-powered cars were not as successful as their competitors. According to Britannica, “At the beginning of the 20th century, 40 percent of American automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline.” While steam fell by the wayside and electric cars rose in popularity, gas cars still had one advantage over them. Electric cars could not fare as well outside of electrified cities, as the infrastructure did not exist to support them. As gasoline became cheaper and gas cars became more accessible, they came to dominate the market.
Much of the automobile’s success is owed to Henry Ford and the Model T. Ford was an automobile manufacturer, and noticing the success of his cheaper models, launched the Model T, aimed at the average consumer, unlike most cars at the time which were targeted at the wealthier. Assembly-line production helped make it cheaper than its competitors, and it was quickly adopted as the standard car in America. With this, the birth of the auto era had truly begun.
Of course, while Ford had brought the car to the masses and many competitors quickly tried to pivot to courting his base, luxury cars for the wealthy persisted. Take, for instance, the ad for Chandler cars below, found in the October 19, 1917 issue of the Perth Amboy Evening News. In 1917, the cheapest models were priced at $1,595. For comparison, when Ford launched the Model T in 1908, it was priced at $850 dollars, and by the end of its production in the 1920s, sold it for less than $300.
An even better comparison is an ad for the 1916 Maxwell in the Five Mile Beach Weekly Journal issue from August 6, 1915. That car, according to the advertisement, only cost $655 dollars, substantially less than its luxury competitors. Another great example is a Chevrolet ad in the October 13, 1916 issue of the Perth Amboy Evening News, advertising a car for $490.
It was the success and rapid adoption of these cheaper cars that really allowed for the boom in automobiles. According to the website Our World in Data, in 1915, 10 percent of United States households owned a car. By 1925, that number had jumped to 49 percent. So quick and significant was this adoption that a headline in the June 26, 1919 issue of The Monmouth Inquirer declared that the “Automobile is Now Necessity.”
![AUTOMOBILE IS NOW NECESSITY
Has Established Itself [as] Quick, Clean Method of Transportation Everywhere.
BENEFIT TO CIVILIZATION
To Treat Motor as a Plaything Is Big Mistake-Is Important Factor in All Spheres of Life-Commands Respect.](https://i0.wp.com/njdnp.libraries.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Automobile-is-now-necessity.png?resize=226%2C275&ssl=1)
They were a little premature in that assessment; the Great Depression and World War II stalled adoption of the automobile (in 1935, only 52 percent of households had a car). With the end of the war, cars once again saw rapid adoption. With that said, automobiles still are not a total necessity. In 2005, for instance, only 91 percent of households had a car, whether due to the inability to afford one or due to living in a location in which public transportation made automobile ownership unnecessary. Still, it is hard to deny that for most Americans, automobiles really are necessary.
It is a testament to the place automobiles hold in American society that life without them is hard to picture. As New Jersey’s newspapers make eminently clear, once these fascinating pieces of technology became accessible to the average American, they quickly became entrenched. But it is also their ubiquity today that makes this early coverage so interesting. Ultimately, the automobile is a piece of American culture, and it is fascinating to look back at its start.
(Contributed by Tristan Smith)
Sources:
DeWeerdt, Sarah. “Q: Why Did Gasoline Cars Come to Dominate the Road? A: Infrastructure.” Anthropocene, October 19, 2021. https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2021/10/q-why-did-gasoline-cars-come-to-dominate-the-road-a-infrastructure/.
“Model T.” Britannica, February 17, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/technology/Model-T.
Our World in Data. “Share of United States Households Using Specific Technologies.” Accessed May 10, 2023. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/technology-adoption-by-households-in-the-united-states?time=1860..latest&facet=none&country=~Automobile.
Purdy, Ken W. and Christopher G. Foster. “History of the Automobile.” Britannica. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/technology/automobile/Ford-and-the-automotive-revolution.