The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-12-23

Of the nation in our fight with the Ger
mans.
To show you what this industry
amounts to as a war asset. / will give
some of the latest figures concerning
it, 1t grows so fast that it is almost
impossible to overestimate it. 1t amount
ed to nothing % years ago. and 10 years
since it was a bagatelle, in comparison
with others of our great industrial
forces. Today the government officials
admit that it stands next to steel and
ships in Importance and they are rapidly
modifying it's machine shops and men.
The automobile and motor car estab-
hshments Of the United States are now
scattered over 30 states of the union.
There are 45o of them. There are over
so in Michigan, 50 in Illinois, GA in Ohio
and IS in New York. Pennsylvania has
&c. Minnesota, 20; Massachusetts, IS, and
California, 49, with less numbers scat
tered throughout other parts of The
country In addition there are perhaps
three times as many plants making au-
tomobile bodies, accessories and parts.
These establishments have in their en-
ploy the most skilled army of machinists
ever gotten together. There are $4,000
of them, and added to this number are
subordinate industries, which make
parts, tires and other things dependent
upon the automobile trade. There are a
vast number making gas engines which
can be used on airplanes, boats and We
hicles of other kinds and the whole force
is almost as important to our army as
the men in the field.
Our motor cars now number more
than 100000. This means one car T.
every five families in the United
States. and it is estimated by Logan
Waller Page, the head of the bureau
of public roads, that we have a mo-
tor vehicle of one kind or another to
almost every mile of public and coun-
try road in the union The statisticial4s
of the World Almanac say that our
automobiles ran lost year the enor-
nous distance of 15.000,0 900 miles,
which is equal to 100000 times around
| the earth, or 166 times the distance
| between the earth and the sun. The
] figures seem Incredible, but I take
| them from the almanac which lies
| before me. During that year we
| burned more than 100000, 900 gallons
| out more than s12,000,000 worth OF
tires. This is truly something of a
| business to have grown UP in 20 years.
And now just a word about the his
| tory Of the motor car. The attempt
! at it's invention is by no means new.
| The idea was conceived long before the
| invention of the bicycle and as early
as 1850 when Boston was but a few
| scattering houses with COW paths as
| streets, Sir Isaac Newton proposed a
| steam carriage to be moved by the re-
| dictionary discharge of a jet Of steam
| directed from the rear. About 100
/ years later Watts took out patents
| adapting his steam engine to carriages
running on land, and it was after the
| close of the revolutionary war that
| oliver Evans obtained patent in
| Maryland for the exclusive right to
| make steam road wagons. 1t was {,
! little before the Declaration OF indie
| pendence was signed that a French
man, Capt. Nicholas Joseph Cuenot, In
| vented the first motor propelled road
vehicle, that actually ran and a model
| of his steam carriage is still to be
| seen in one of the museum of Paris.
| This man was the father of the auto
mobile. He was rewarded for his in
vention with a pension of less than
| 5000 year and he died Aoor His in
vention never became practicable.
The next advance was by English
| man named Trevithick, who built a
| steam automobile which did better than
| the car of Cugnot, and this was fol-
lowed by the machine patented by
Oliver Evans, who mounted an en-