Many men, like myself, like to talk cars and trucks; and there seems always to be much to talk about. I'm fascinated by the evolving of automotive designs over time. Interestingly, as one thinks in terms of the whole of human history, the history of the automobile is very short. Whereas human beings have driven horses for thousands of years, motor driven vehicles such as cars and trucks have only been around since the 1890s, only about 120 years. But in the space of those few years the changes and advancements have been amazing.
The earliest cars that I have been aware of were like topless buggies, powered by one-cylinder internal combustion gas engines of the pop-pop variety, and steered by a tiller-like bar, rolling on tall wood-spoke wheels with solid "tires." Compare that to the quiet, smooth-operating, very dependable V6 and V8 engines of today, which start at the flick of a switch in all kinds of weather, and seem able to cross the country almost trouble-free, often running for more than 200,000 miles before wearing out. One could probably write a book just about the development of tires. As early tires filled with air under pressure appeared on cars, the driver needed to carry with him tools for repairing tires, since punctures and blow-outs were going to happen on almost every trip, and one wanted to be able to fix tires on the road, and not to end up stranded.
Many of us enjoy talking engines. Early car and truck engines were often modeled after steam engines, usually having one or two cylinders, placed in a horizontal position, and stabilized by a large, weighty flywheel. During the first decade of the 1900s, car makers began to use multiple cylinder engines, to gain smoothness of operation and increased power. Four cylinder engines and six-cylinder engines became common, eight-cylinder engines of both the straight-line and V designs were developed, and some makers tried V-type engines having 12 or even 16 cylinders. The early 1900s were amazing in the number of innovations that were introduced for powering vehicles. Electric cars, steam cars and a great variety of gas powered and diesel powered vehicles appeared, including hybrid cars with gasoline engines powering electric generators which in turn powered electric motors turning the drive wheels. So, many of today's new innovations hark back to developments that first appeared a hundred years ago.
But, now we seem to be seeing some things that haven't been done before. Can cars and trucks be made to drive themselves? Several years ago, back when cruise control devices were getting established on cars and trucks and recreational vehicles, I heard a story of a fellow who was traveling across country in his RV. He began feeling hungry, so he put his new RV on auto-pilot (cruise control), slipped out of his driver's seat, and walked to the back to make himself a sandwich. Needless to say, he didn't get far before his RV "auto-piloted" itself right off the road.
Nevertheless, as silly as the idea of an auto-pilot on a car or truck seemed just a few years ago, we are aware that today auto-makers are experimenting with vehicles that basically can drive themselves. I don't know what the latest approach may be. A few years ago, some designers were thinking of embedding a magnetic strip in the highway travel lanes, such that cars with auto-pilot systems could read the strip, steering themselves to reach pre-determined destinations. Those cars would also need to read what traffic is doing ahead of them, and to have a system for slowing down or stopping if something is in the way ahead. Now that global positioning systems (GPS) are becoming common, they open up an even more flexible and more adaptable means for guiding a vehicle to a destination, following established paths. Maybe the idea of magnetic strips down the traffic lanes is old-fashioned now, an outmoded "analog" system, not "digital," like almost everything new seems to be becoming.
Today we are beginning to see ads for cars equipped with anti-collision technology, systems which detect when the car is about to collide with another vehicle, and which apply the brakes and come to a stop on their own. Some cars are supposedly able to ease themselves into a parking space without much human help. With these innovations, with more powerful computers, and with GPS systems and other advances, we may be near having cars that drive themselves.
Just think, we may be able to get in the back seat, and to tell the car, "Home, James," and home we go! Oh yes, I believe people used to be able to do that back in the 1920s, except that, back then, "James" was a chauffeur, and the big, fine V16 Marmon car didn't drive itself.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 01/29/2014