Rhetoric 3371 Spring 2007

The prefix “auto” in latin comes from aut which means self. Cowan introduced the automobile by opening with a story from Disney’s Fantasia about the sorcer’s apprentice. The apprentice gave up his control over the mop so he would not have to do the work himself. The plan backfired when the mops multiplied and attacked him. The car was invented to increase the public’s sense of self. I don’t think that the author was ever trying to say that cars were a bad thing. Cars, like the mop, were invented to make life easier for people, and the new technology had a snowball effect as companies were rushing into it to make money and the public was enjoying its benefit. And forty years later people found that the technology outgrew its environment when all the problems started to present themselves.
It was very interesting to me moving from trains to cars when talking about transportation technology. Trains are never really something I think about. They feel like a thing of the past. And with cars, I feel like our generation has always taken them for granted because we grew up with them. The models and designs have changed but it is nothing compared to the changes the US went through during the 1920’s-1940’s. Now with the threat of Global Warming upon us, it will be interesting to see what new changes may come in the next twenty years.

Cowan writes “the automobile has come to represent both the blessings and the curses of technology” which immediately brings to mind my experience with having my own car. On a small scale of just my personal use, my car is blessing because I can anywhere I want, whenever I want. It is a comfortable and convenient way to travel. On the other hand, my car is a great inconvenience and very costly when it breaks down and needs repairs. And not to mention all the maintenance required.

On a larger scale the automobile is a double edged sword, as Cowan describes. It provides an excellent way for people to get places, yet it creates environmental pollution, noise pollution, and also traffic jams which are probably one of the top five sources of stress today. However, I don’t agree with the analogy of the magic mop. It’s not like the automobile was a foolish creation, and we are not trying to stop it. We just need to find a way to control it.

Once again i'm at the point of wondering what the US alone would be like if the automobile hadn't been invented? I love automobiles, i think they were a great invention personally. Think of all the economic things that branch off of the automobile, dealerships, repair shops, gas stations, all the like! The automobile could very easily be blamed for a large part of the pollution issues we are trying to fight today. Back in the 60's-70's manufactors didn't care about the environment or it wasn't high on their lists and there were hardly any pollution control actions taken, unlike todays cars. We are doing a better job at controling the emissions today than we did before i beleive! The automobile has been a great thing for america and has revolutionized the economy and made the US what it is today!

The automobile, to me and the majority of everybody else, has become the most used form of transportation in our daily lives. For example, even though I could bike, skate, or walk a couple blocks to my neighbors house, instead I use my car. Today, it’s hard to imagine a family without a car because it is so convenient and reliable. I always wondered when and how many people had automobiles when they were first invented. Cowan’s article said that “by 1920...there was already one registered automobile for every thirteen Americans- and by 1930, the figure had risen precipitously to one for every five.” I think that the increase was incredible.
After reading the blogs, I thought both Heather and Kyle brought up a great point on the negative aspects of automobiles today. For example, they described the air pollution and annoying maintenance that the cars need, but I also thought of how expensive they have become. It is not that the cars themselves are too expensive, but the gas and maintenance of them are. I remember in class, someone said that even changing your own oil today has become extremely hard to do because of technological advances in automobiles, therefore, it costs you to bring your car into a service place and get the oil changed. I wonder when and if cars change in the future how expensive they will be and what they will be like.

I believe that the invention of the automobile has been one of the most influential aspects of society to date. As with the railroad system, cars have many negative affects. However, now that cars and railroads have been around for many years, there have been many improvements. Now we have vehicles that do not need oil and other vehicles that are solar powered. However, none of these options are mass produced. I wonder when cars like we have today will be looked at as fossils of society. Will we all eventually have our own hovercrafts or small airplanes to travel in someday? It will be interesting to see what changes in the next fifty years.

I admit I fell into the category of people who thought Henry Ford was the inventor of cars. According to Cowan, Ford didn’t actually create the automobile; rather, he created new methods of making the “pre-existing” automobile with production lines. That explains a lot in terms of why Ford cars in general (no offense) are of very poor quality, even today. Creating cars was no easy task, as Cowan explains, yet eventually people like Daimler, Maybach, and Benz mastered the skill and this is evident when you see these cars today compared with Ford and GM. I don’t know if most people notice this trend of shifting car prices, but reading through Cowan’s article, he states that the first model T was around $850 (give or take a few hundred during the war). Since then, the price of cars has never come down and even today’s [new] cars are much more than they were just 10-15 years ago. No obstacle has come in the way of consumers and their automobiles so the demand has always been strong. However, there is ONE obstacle which may in fact change the automobile era somewhat and that is oil (which is quite clear today). Oil seems to be the only obstacle which can lower the cost of cars or widen the gap between the consumer and the automobile (cause a decrease in demand).

Mass production made cars available for many people. With it came more independence. At some point or other, what became a convenience became what is now nearly a dependence. I don't mind independence too much, but is it really necessary to be selfish enough to need to go everywhere by your own means and your means alone? The landscape has changed due to and for cars, but that doesn't mean everyone needs to splurge all the time; a desert eaten all the time loses its sweetness.
As integrated as cars are in society now, their usage probably won't change much in the future... Unless there a faster, more convenient, and probably also cheaper method of transportation is introduced.

I think that the automobile might have had more of an impact on American society than the train did. Cars allow us to have individual control of where we go, our departure time, and what stops we want to make on the way. Trains were uncomfortable and noisy, but cars went through a dramatic period of improvement in a very short time. It is interesting to think of how in a span of one hundred years we now have superhighways crisscrossing the country.

Cowan wrote about how cars came with their own set of disadvantages, but I think that every technology does. No matter how much we try to diminish those problems, most remain. Boats sink, trains derail and they have been utilized for many, many more years than the automobile has. We will always seek to make cars more safe, but I am certain that we will invent another mode of transportation which comes with its own set of dangers.

Living in the era of the automobile it seems we have taken for granted all that it brings good and bad. I mean take for instance smog and global warming. I dont think about either of these things when I get into my car. I just drive and do go where I have to go. I take it for granted everyday not caring what else is happening other than getting me from point A to B. I also take for granted all the great things it does for me. When I want to go to a movie I just get in the car and drive. I can only imagine how hard that would have been to do 100 yrs ago but I don't think about that, I just go where I have to go. It is just astonishing thinking about what life would be like today without the invention of the automobile. I really can't fathom it or how the world would look. I mean how much extra space would we have from not having to make roads wider than a horse and buggy? And how much closer would our communities be? I think it would be drastically different.

When I think of old old time cars I think like 20 to 30 miles per hour vehicles that just puttered along, low horsepower commuter vehicles. To me it doesn’t seem like much could go wrong as far as accidents and such. I would think that at 20 mph you could get out of the way of pretty much anything. This was not the case in the early stages of the automobile and I am glad that Cowan pointed this out. Steering capabilities were not perfected. Obviously no power steering. So accidents did happen often. Especially with inexperienced drivers. It is interesting to think about how the government dealt with this “problem” of the automobile and what kind of new laws needed to be enforced that were not needed prior to its invention.

I find that the automobile was the most significant invention of all time. It played a huge role in social, technological, and economic factors to change the environment in which we currently live in. It’s crazy to think that the problems of pollution and the environment just keep increasing.

I find the most unpleasant consequence of the automobile is the issue of safety. Deaths caused by automobiles are very high and even with the use of seatbelts, mortality rates are still souring. I think people take advantage of the automobile and act carelessly as a result. I feel like people have done everything in their power to “perfect” automobile, but why is there still so many problems?

The automobile changed American culture, transportation especially, in such a phenomenal way that its rival is almost non-existent. The train brought mass-transit to a developing nation, but the automobile brought transportation to the people. I have a difficult time imagining what life would be like without the automobile. There are a lot of people who don’t have cars, and who don’t need them. But, it is till hard to imagine a life without traffic hour, stoplights, and car accidents. However, for a technology that has been established for quite sometime there have been limited advancements in terms of its fuel efficiency. Cars are much safer than they used to be, but I still the major problem still roots itself in fuel efficiency. That is another thing that the car introduced to the world’s culture that wasn’t an issue before their introduction: fuel and how it’s limited. With the introduction of new technology there are always drawbacks, and I think the automobiles pros outweigh its cons.

Who could not be fascinated by such a complex system. A complex system with such a beautiful function. Personal transport systems will never leave our society because they are so useful. If I need to travel from point a to b, a car is the best way to get there. If a car is incapable, maybe I could use a truck, or motorcycle.
Their rise to power was pretty rapid. Once the pieces started to come together it seems more and more people became interested which assisted in its gaining momentum. Eventually, everybody wanted one. Still, everybody wants one.

I think that the car really brought about a sense of independent travel. Having read about the car and obviously seeing it used today, I think that the car had a bigger impact on society than the train did. I think the train opened many transportation opportunities and paved the way for long distance travel but the car is what made the bigger impact.

I liked the quote in the article where it said, "the automobile has come to represent both the blessings and the curses of technology." I think this is very true of the car but I also think it is very true of any technology. The car is a blessing and a curse. Without automobiles, our lives would be much slower and more dependent. We wouldn't be so dependent on ourselves to get place we would have to be dependent on others and other various ways to get places.

I also was one that thought that Ford was the creator of the automobile. I really enjoyed reading about his assembly line and how he employed disabled and immigrant workers. I especially liked how he paid them a price that allowed them to purchase what they are producing. I think that was a very smart move on Ford's part. I think it is sad today how many people we have working in plants or factories that are being paid as minimally as possible and are not remotely able to afford what they are producing.

When it comes to the invention of the automobile it has been the most over used invention in the world, but is it necessary? I really think that the car is the king of the crop when it comes to transportation in the USA. You have a little car or tuck like a Geo or a big car or tuck like Suburban. Car has made transportation very easier to get to point a to point b then if you was riding on a train. If you’re not using car as your main source of transportation then your life as it comes to work and social time you’re no body important that just how I feel. Me without my 1985 Cutlass is like life with television. I would be nobody with my Car what about you? I believe in the next year or two cars are going to be to high tech for a normal Americana to drive lit alone fix!

I liked the story of the sorcerer’s apprentice. It made sense to me when I think of automobiles or technology. This comes back to the idea that human beings have forgotten or are too lazy to use their own bodies so they would make a mop or an elevator do the job for them (unless of course they are in a wheelchair than that is an exception).

It is quite interesting to learn how the automotive industry was created. Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan were two interesting fellows. Although I do not think that the industry would have come to be without either one. Ford thought of the assembly line but it was too bad he was so stubborn that he only created one kind of car. Until Sloan came into the picture and he started to make different kinds of cars. Sloan also gave the consumers choices and I believe that human beings do like to make their own decisions and do not like to be in control, hence the cars allows them to have control of where they want to go.

It is sad to hear that the traffic today hasn’t changed much from the traffic then (although there are no more horses in the road or are dead on the curbs). I think cars are one of the reasons why we are so impatient. Cowan said that traffic jams caused ill temper (road rage) and I believe as the car was able to go faster and faster people’s patience started to get shorter and shorter. When you are driving on the road or highway, you will notice that people just speed on the road passing you by. They are always in a rush or hurry. This reminds of the quote from the old man from Shawshank Redemption (“I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile when I was a kid, but now... they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a BIG DAMN HURRY”). It also reminds of Thoreau because sometimes I wish we all can take a break and just sits there on our front porch doing nothing but enjoying the day and relaxing.

I've already spoken briefly about the impact of cars and their adoption into the American Dream™ in a previous post. I'd like to focus on another impact of the motor vehicle, one that Henry Ford was responsible for: the assembly line and the jobs that came with them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, cities were the place to be. The suburbs didn't exist yet, and people were still moving in from rural areas to find work Trains were still the primary way to do that. Outside of the cities, their weren't roads for the cars to drive on, so cars were mostly for the rich city-folk. Post WWII-America saw cars become affordable to the masses, and more dependable. The creation of the automobile was good for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the boost it gave our economy after the war. After years of rationing and saving every bit of metal and supporting the war effort, Americans could relax and enjoy some of the economic freedom after the fall of Hitler and his Nazi regime. And what better way, than to buy a brand new car?

We went from 8,000 cars in America in 1900, to 8 million in 1920. By the 1950s, there were 50 million cars on the road. Not to mention the jobs that the automobile industry created! Detroit was the center of the auto manufacturing world!

Yes, there are a lot of drawbacks to personal automobiles. I'm not making any effort to disregard them. I just thought I'd skip my usual cynicism and focus on the the up-side for once. Don't worry; it won't last. Oh, and I got some information from the website below:

http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/themes/story_48_1.html

While the general focus of this article is transportation, and more specifically the automobile, I feel this has a strong concentration on commence in the US as well. Henry Ford has mistakenly been given most of the credit for inventing the car when he instead was able to make it cheaply and reachable to consumers. With his introduction of the assembly line and interchangeable parts, he was able to maximize productivity which reduced costs to levels that competitors simply couldn't compete with.

Continuing with the marketing/business idea, William Durant and General Motors came along and offered competition and introduced the "decentralized organization" scheme that rivaled the dictatorial way that Henry Ford ran his assembly lines. This competing business plan proved more efficient and within 3 years of the plans introduction, GM was selling more cars than Ford.

I thought it was an interesting dialogue of not only new technologies and how they interact but more specifically how these technologies are used and marketed.

"The automobile has come to represent both the blessings and curses of technology" (225). I think that that particular statement embodies what technology really is: it is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, people have gained much more independence and mobility than ever before; on the other hand, automobiles have also caused a lot of environmental destruction. We currently face global warming and animal extinction at record breaking numbers. Unless we learn to either rely on public transit or come up with some magical machine that reverses the destruction of the ozone layer, we're going to be in great trouble.

I bought a new used car this weekend, and it was probably one of the most intense and exciting moments of my life. it's an interesting experience, both exciting and horrifying. in many ways I feel like a hypocrite because i promised myself i would not buy a car until i could get a hybrid, but more than that i'm happy that i don't drive my moms old mini-van anymore. reading this chapter made me realize what a product of society i really am, this whole history of cars brought me to the point that i was at this weekend. i think it's surprising that many of the same worries i have about my car is the same that people have had for a long time; safety, gas efficeincy, reliability. the experience of getting a car is something that people have been experiencing for a long time, and it's exciting. it's hard to imagine society without cars, and yet it's terrible to think about the horrible things they've done to us.

I have to agree with most others that automobile has had the greatest impact on the American society. Cars have given us personal freedom rather than being attached to the times offered by the trains, boats or ships. We saw till now, that the steamboats and trains were slow, noisy and caused much delay several times in reaching the final destination. We had to be relaiable on the timings that were offered by the train and arrange them with our schedule. Where as, after the coming of automobiles, one has got freedom; we can leave and arrive to the destination at the desired time. It happens in several cases that driving a car becomes less expensive than the train or bus ride. Along with this, it gives us personal luxiries like music, air-conditioning/heater and ample amount of space. I believe today, car has become a necessatiy in most states of the US. It enhances the mobility and it is surprizing to see how fast the models of automobiles have changed in past few years, whereas trains and boats and buses are developing at a slow pace. I don't think Cowan was trying to convey that the coming of automobiles is a bad thing, but it's just that like any other thechnology, automobiles too come with certain drawback, which I am sure we will find a way to overcome.

After reading the first couple of pages of chapter 10, “Automobiles and Automobility”, I was surprised to find out that the actual internal combustion engine was made and perfected in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. We as Americans equate everything about cars to Henry ford, but actually in reality he was the one who laid out the system so that cars could be mass produced efficiently.

I was surprised to find out the cars, in its early days were no more faster than steamboats, which traveled at 5MPH whereas cars went 8MPH. Today, we go 8MPH in rush hour traffic, with thousands of other cars going in the direction.

I agree with a lot of people, who mentioned that even though, car gives you the freedom to go anywhere you want, when ever you want. But when it comes time for repairs, it seems that whatever money I have been savings gets used in fixing the car. I agree with the author when he says that technologies like the car have amazing staying power and its hard to get rid of them because we have become so used to them. Just like the sorcerer who invented the mop to reduce his workload, but eventually ended up doing a lot more work to undo his previous actions.

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