Motor Vehicles Change the World, 1915

Better reliability made cars, trucks and other vehicles more useful and ubiquitous

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The science and technology of motor vehicles made small advances during the year, but the landscape, especially in America, was changing in response. As the internal combustion engine became more reliable and easier to operate, the vehicles built around these engines became more useful. The desire for reliability, compact power, and ease and quality of manufacturing pushed the technology forward relentlessly. Along with the expanding sales of motor vehicles came an explosive growth in facilities for manufacturing and selling them, and supplying them with spare parts, fuel and oil. As the expanding World War engulfed more people and resources, efficient motor vehicles supplanted horse-drawn vehicles for the task of supplying the increasingly vast quantities of food, ammunition and other needs of nations in arms. But motor vehicles were certainly more than utilitarian: there were also motorbikes for fun rides and race cars for fans.

For more articles on the history of the motor vehicle, take a drive through the Scientific American Archive at https://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/

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