History of Technology: Standardization and the Evolution of the Automobile

Standardization:

I find it rather interesting how America has accomplished so much in regards to the standardization of the AC current well over 100 years ago. I believe that without the standardization of technology back then, the increase in use of and need for that technology may also have not progresses as rapid as it did. I am reminded of a time not long ago when we as a society were arguing the standardization of Blu-Ray discs when they were in direct competition with the HD disc. I believe that standardization results in production, thus resulting in evolution. I feel NELA and NEMA made the right choice in 1910 when embracing the notion of standardization as today’s world could have easily been that of a much more chaotic one. Without order, there is only Chaos... #Standardization.

The Evolution of the Automobile:

It’s a phenomenal feat to see how far we have come since the 1800’s by means of transportation. The evolution of technology has advanced and changed the way we use and incorporate travel into our daily lives time and time again. To think, at the beginning of the 20th century many North Americans had never travelled more than 50 miles from their home. Often ships and boats were once the fastest way to travel though trucks and cars increasingly carried people and products into the early 21st century.

The early production of the automobile was alike any other available product, it could be made cheap, or it could be made expensive. Skilled mechanics and carpenters one highly-priced touring vehicle made for a successful business man, or, a similar car could be developed at a lower price for mass production. By 1914, manufacturers like Henry Ford began to build cars off assembly lines which slowly but surely began to result in cost savings (for everyone). This is when and how the term ‘Fordism’ (the production of inexpensive goods by means of assembly-line methods) was coined.

Automobiles became very popular by the 1920’s in fact so popular that traffic congestion and noise were already prominent problems. These problems are ones we as a society still face today and though some of us may be blind to them, they have worsened 10x fold. As a citizen of Toronto, one of the busiest cities in the world it is only common to see traffic and the noise that comes with it as a daily, and normal part of one’s life. What about the consequences this has on our environment though? The burning of fossil fuels primarily gasoline over the last one hundred years has destroyed our planet and decimated our atmosphere.

Today, through the eyes of technological visionary’s like Elon Musk (who has advanced and evolved the automobile into the electric world) do we see how far automobile evolution has really come. I am hopeful within my lifetime the fossil fuelled car will be entirely opted out by the electric and/or solar car. Then and only then will I consider myself to actually be living in a time that we still look to as ‘the future.’ Also, there will be a green flying ‘Tesla’ car in my space-driveway...