The TRUTH ABOUT MOTORS

NZ Truth, Issue 1263, 13 February 1930, Page 18

The TRUTH ABOUT MOTORS

PROGRESS OF THE MOTOR INDUSTRY

Early Carriage Makers In America Became Car Manufacturers

SOMETHING NEW EVERY YEAR

It was just aibout 35 years ago that the first automobile company m America turned out an even dozen complete and fully equipped vehicles within the short period of a single year. We can even imagine the directors of that company feeling very complacent over their feat of a record production.

A YEAR or two later there were various precarious chariots humming over the roads m divers parts of the country, and the farmers, particularly, were annoyed because their horses and cattle looked to be m for a dangerous time of it. But American carriage-makers, not slow to see into the future of such a transportation development, took some time off from the arduous drawing of plans for the latest thing m buggies to cast an envious eye at the pioneers of this radical form of locomotion. Many of them decided that ther« was a new game at which they could play with profit, so they jumped right into the swim and became car manufacturers. Meanwhile the public, even a larger number of the 99 per cent., caught the craze, and multitudes laid down their reins and ti-aded their buckboards for dashboards. Production of motorcars increased at a terrific pace. There were so many cars that the authorities had to get the roads m

good_ shape to satisfy the taxpayers, and then they had to make a whole batch of laws to make them dissatisfied again. Gfovernments started traffic departments; the makers brought out new models. Whenever they found that the demand for the best they could offer was waning they sat to work and brought out a whole lot more. Engineers and designers cleared their brains and brushed up new ideas. When the public came to the conclusion that it was having a bumpy time of it, the tyre experts shod the automotive steeds with big, fat, comfortable balloon tyreß. When people found they couldn't stop the increasingly powei'ful dragons of the road, the brake men brought out th£ four-wheel idea, and things kept right on looking rosy for more snap and speed. The strange thing about the business is the fact that everything, from the speed limits to the production rate, went up. i