Answers to Questions About Automotive History from an 8th Grader

1)    How would you define “automobile”? 

 Automobile – “the combination of a light, sprung, wheeled vehicle (usually 4 wheels); a compact, efficient power unit (ICE, Electric, or Steam); and hard surfaced roads.” The commonly-used term automobile word was French, but key to its adoption in America was its acceptance by New York City’s high society. A French term first used in America in 1895 and fully adopted in the U.S. by 1899, other words were proposed and debated during this time – horseless carriage, motocycle, motor vehicle, automation, mocle, autom, polycycle. Members of high society in New York City owned the first cars, including William Rockefeller, George Gould, Edwin Gould, John Jacob Astor, Jacob Ruppert, C. P. Huntington, and Claus Spreckels. This Gilded Age aristocracy paraded their vehicles at Newport, Rhode Island in the summer of 1899, and influenced the newly-published editorial writers of the magazines The Automobile and The Automobile Magazine to endorse automobile as a universally accepted term.

 

2)  How would you define “Invent”?  

(For someone to invent something do they have to think it up, design it, create it?). To invent is to create something – a thing or possibly an idea – that is not obvious. I believe that is the measure that the U.S.. Patent office uses.

3)  Who do most people think invented the first automobile?

 It all depends where you are from. In the United States the typical person that is given credit is Henry Ford. Then there are the Duryea brothers from Springfield, MA. In Germany – and I think this is the best single answer – there is Carl Benz. In Austria, Siegfried Marcus is often given credit for his “wagen” of 1875. There are others one can find in the literature as well, from Britain and France. 

4)  Who would you say invented the first automobile?

 Carl Benz, because it was commercialized (socially by the French!).

5)  What do you think would be different today if automobiles were never invented?

 I cannot envision a world without the automobile. We would undoubtedly be living in more rural areas, much poorer, and much more provincial. But there could be possibly social and personal benefits of living in a slower world.

 

6)  What are some positive things automobiles do/cause?

They are foremost freedom machines. They give us freedom to go where we want to go, they make it difficult for governments to control us, they have enabled us to become far more prosperous, they save lives as well as take lives due to accidents. They open up a far vaster space for us to experience, and enable us to interact with people different than ourselves.

 

7)  What are some negative things automobiles do/cause? 

They depend (currently to a large extent) on fossil fuels and thus are non-sustainable, their exhaust contributes to a less than desirable air quality (and increased CO2 levels), and they have contributed to a materialistic society where things are more important than people. They fit right in traditional patterns of American individualism at the expense of community.