An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 48. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | PART THREE TRANSPORT The year after the Act was repealed Frederick and George Lanchester built the first all-British car with pneumatic tyres Ackermann steering and drive through an epicyclic gearbox to a rear axle with a differential gear. Lanchester was also the first to develop disc brakes in 1901. An important entrant into the field was Henry Royce a Manchester crane-maker who with the Hon. Charles built three 10hp two-cylinder cars in 1905. Two years later the 40 50hp Silver Ghost Rolls Royce appeared shortly to be accepted as the finest car in the world eagerly sought after by potentates princes and premiers of every race colour and creed a coveted position that the marque has held to this day. Across the Atlantic inventors and manufacturers were just as active as those in Europe. In August 1859 Edwin had struck oil in Pennsylvania at a depth of 69 1 2 feet 21m starting an industry which in fifteen years reached a production of 10 million barrels each of 360lb 163kg per day. Initially most of this was used for lamp oil but it was to form a useful source of motor fuel in the future. By 1982 250 000 million 36-gallon US barrels of oil had been extracted by the world s oil industry. Henry Ford ran his first horseless carriage through the streets of Detroit in 1896. The Ford Motor Company built six hundred cars at the first mass production car plant at Dearborn Michigan in 1903 and built the first of his famous Model T series in 1908 producing 19 000 in that year and million by 1920. By 1927 over 15 million had been built a record in production only to be surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle of Ferdinand Porsche forty-five years later. The adoption of Ford s mass production techniques in Europe started with the Citroen Type A in 1919. An important adjunct to the car industry was in the electrical components in which Bosch Delco and Lucas predominated all producing complete electrical systems including headlights by .
