Car Craze

The development of the “horseless carriage” or automobiles, now more commonly called cars, began in earnest sometime in 1885 in Germany and France. For several years after its introduction, there were at least 3 kinds of power sources that were commonly used: steam engines, electric motors and gasoline engines. Steam automobiles were successful but very heavy. Electric automobiles did not meet the same violent public opposition as the steamers and gasoline cars had but its speed and mileage are very limited due to the constant need to recharge its batteries.

Gasoline-powered automobiles became practicable due to the development of a way to ignite gasoline within the engine through the use of electricity and the discovery of abundant supplies of petroleum. These are also the reasons why gasoline engine has outlasted and outperformed steam and electric engines, although the early gasoline automobiles were noisy, smelly and rough to ride in.