Car Craze

Early gasoline automobiles were modified buggies that had open bodies and an engine located under the floor of the back seat. Most had one or two-cylinder engines which needed to be cranked by hand to be started. Their weakest feature was the tires which were made of rubber-coated fabric.

Initial improvements came in the form of an invention of a one-cylinder engines that used illuminating gas for fuel which facilitated an automobile’s speed of 4 miles an hour. A carriage propelled by a two-cylinder gasoline engine soon followed but met so much public opposition, the project had to be abandoned. Several more attempts to make the gasoline automobiles usable and acceptable were done before major breakthroughs were attained that officially started the flourishing automobile industry.