American Automobile Industry

The automobile in America evolved from the horse-powered buggy and initial efforts consisted of attaching an engine to an existing buggy. The first American automobiles were developed in the 1890s. The American automobile market began its early years with hundreds of auto makers and a variety of technologies. Internal combustion engines, battery-powered electric engines, and steam engines were used. Electric cars were popular in cities, where the short range of their batteries were less of a concern, and charging stations were available. Steam cars were also initially popular, despite the long starting time in cold weather. Gasoline powered internal combustion engines were initially deemed too unreliable, noisy, dirty, hard to start, and difficult to shift. The popularity of steam and electric cars lasted for about the first decade of the 1900s, after which the gasoline powered cars predominated due to the invention of the electric starter in 1911 and the lower production costs of gasoline powered cars.
John William Lambert's Buckeye gasoline buggy, made in 1891, is considered the first practical gasoline-powered automobile made in the United States. Charles Duryea and J. Frank Duryea are generally acknowledged as the first U.S. car makers to build more than one automobile. In 1893, they produced a one-cylinder two-stroke gasoline-powered car. They were followed soon after by Elwood Haynes and Alexander Winton. By the end of the 1800s, the biggest auto manufacturer was Albert Augustus Pope, who through a series of companies sold mostly steam and electric automobiles. The first mass production automobile was made by Ransom E. Olds with the Oldsmobile Curved Dash in 1901. Sales climbed and in 1903 he sold 3,750 of the vehicles.
• Development of the American road system
The practicality of the automobile was initially limited because of the lack of suitable roads. Travel between cities was mostly done by railroad or waterways. Roads were mostly dirt and hard to travel, especially in bad weather. The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 allocated $75 million for building roads, and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 provided additional funding for road construction. By 1924 there were 31,000 miles of paved road in the U.S.