The birth of the automobile

1. In 1769, Frenchman NJ Guignaud built the world's first steam-driven three-wheeled automobile. In 1804, David Dick designed and manufactured the first steam automobile.

2. In 1879, German engineer Carl Benz first successfully tested a two-stroke experimental engine.

3. In 1986, the international automobile industry recommended Germany's Daimler-Benz Motor Company to host the International Automobile Centenary Christmas Ceremony, and recognized that the inventor of the automobile in the international automobile industry was Karl, who founded the Mercedes-Benz Motor Company. ?Mr. Benz. Therefore, people generally call 1886 the first year of the automobile.

The entrepreneurial history of Ford Motors

Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, bought the land of the Rouge factory in 1914 and bought 2,000 acres along the Rouge River. (about 1,200 acres) of land. The land was not far from his childhood home in Dearborn, Michigan. It was a swampland where Ford had gone to watch the birds as a child. When he bought the land, Ford had already achieved extremely high results. achievements. He had founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and launched the world-famous century car - Model T in 319 years. In 1910, he created the world's earliest production assembly line. At that time, there was no definite idea about the use of the land on the Rouge River. Ford even considered turning it into a large bird sanctuary. But one contract changed all that. During World War I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Secretary of State for Naval Affairs, signed a contract with Henry Ford to use his creative genius to produce submarine hunting and torpedo boats, among other vessels.

In 1917, a three-story factory building, called Building B, was built at the Rouge site to produce ships. Building B was Rouge's first large building and today is part of the Dearborn Assembly Plant. By the end of the war, the Ford submarine hunter had not been produced, but the project greatly widened the channel of the Rouge River to allow ore transport ships to travel upstream. The war also exposed Ford Motor Company's lack of adequate response to supplier supply disruptions. Due to the inability to supply spare parts, Ford has stopped production many times while waiting for materials. This prompted Ford to become self-sufficient. The Rouge dock soon became the arrival port for giant transport ships carrying ore, coal, and timber to supply the Rouge factory. This was followed by the construction of a coking kiln and cupola in 1919. The foundry produces iron, steel, brass and bronze castings. The foundry itself covers an area of ??30 acres. When it was first put into operation, it was the largest foundry in the world at that time.

In 1920, the Rouge plant began mass production of the world's first mass-produced tractor, the Fordson tractor. In 1920, Ford built a huge power plant, which from the first day supplied power to both the Rouge and Highland plants (Ford Motor Company's first assembly plant in Detroit). Due to the huge power supply, it also supplies 1 million kilowatts of surplus power to the city of Detroit every day. A glass factory was built in 1923. Ford first used laminated safety glass as the windshield on its Model A car, and a factory was needed to produce it accordingly. The new factory will produce 13.4 miles of glass every day. When the long-awaited Model A was launched in 1927, the Rouge plant achieved its goal of "from ore to finished product," and Building B became the home of the assembly plant thereafter. These buildings, along with hundreds of other buildings in Ford's empire, were designed by the most famous architect of the day, Albert Kahn. The focus of Kahn's design was naturally on the building's productive functions, but he also sought to maximize the building's lighting and ventilation conditions. For example, when the Rouse Glass Factory was completed, it was described as "a factory that was far ahead of its time in terms of industrial architectural art due to the large area of ??glass curtain walls and ceilings."

At this point, the entire joint venture The company has completed the construction, but the partial transformation has never stopped. As long as more efficient machines and processes are found, the old equipment will be removed and replaced with new equipment.

As an engineer at the Rouge plant said: "It doesn't matter how much the equipment costs or how long it has been used. Sometimes it is necessary to dismantle the entire department just to make one or two modifications."

Anyone who has visited the Rouge factory is always impressed by the surprisingly cleanliness of the entire factory. The floors are polished, every wall is newly painted, every window is shining, and the trains and locomotives shine like exhibits. Hui. Henry Ford demanded absolute cleanliness, and whenever notified that someone was coming to visit, the factory managers would order a day's shutdown for cleaning.

In Ford's eyes, one of the great evils in the world is the creation of waste. All scrap Fords are recycled. Coking waste gas is used to produce tar, lighting gas and other chemical by-products. The 30 tons of ore dust generated every day are reprocessed and used. Blast furnace waste is used as an ingredient in concrete and is used at Ford's construction site. superior. Charcoal for home barbecues is generally acknowledged to have been invented by Ford, who wanted to find a use for the growing pile of waste wood. During World War II, this giant factory continuously produced jeeps, tanks, trucks, command vehicles, tractors, etc. Another major product was aircraft engines.

In 1947, just as Rouge's success was at its peak, Henry Ford passed away. Since then, Ford Motor Company has entered a new stage of development, abandoning the over-centralization approach and limiting the size of the Rouse plant. In the late 1960s, the world was a very different place than it had been when Henry Ford was alive. One of them is the increasing environmental awareness. In the early days of American industrialization, smoke from chimneys was regarded as a symbol of full employment. As the industry matures, the government and manufacturers have realized another meaning of black smoke. Government authorities have set air and water quality standards. The closer a factory is to a community, the more accumulated emissions there are and the stricter the management is, leading to the closure of some old factories. As the largest single conglomerate in the world, the Rouge factory will probably be the only one in the future. Ford began to focus on what it did best: its core business of producing cars and trucks, relying increasingly on its growing team of suppliers and cadres, and methodically exiting non-core areas such as mining, lumber and glass manufacturing.

In 1981, the steel production operations of the Rouge plant became part of a new independent company. When the operations were sold to Rouge Steel in 1989, Ford had relinquished all ownership of the Rouge River and boat docks on the site, as well as 45% of the original 1,100 acres of land. But Rouge has evolved into more than just a collection of steel and cement, it has become a community with a strong sense of itself. Generations of people have worked here. Regardless of whether they are permanent or temporary workers, no one wants to leave the place where they have lived for generations.

In 1992, when the Ford Mustang, the only sedan model produced at the Rouge plant, was to be discontinued, the union worked with Alex Joadman, then president of Ford's North American operations, to try to maintain the production of the Mustang while maintaining production at Ford's Rouge plant. Saving the Mustang became synonymous with saving the Rouge. The company and the union worked together to develop a modern operating agreement and introduced many new measures to improve efficiency and quality. The company will redesign and launch the Mustang and increase investment in modern equipment. The Rouge factory was revived in 1997. Ford's board of directors agreed to modernize the company's oldest and largest manufacturer. The first phase of work focuses on extensive renovations at the Dearborn engine and tank plant and other Rouge facilities, as well as an environmentally friendly advanced paint project at the Dearborn Assembly Plant. There are also plans to ask CMS Energy to build a brand new power plant by the year 2000.

The Rouge plant is now called the Ford Rouge Center, and the 600-acre plant remains Ford Motor Company's largest conglomerate. "It is of great significance to us to carve out a bright future for the Ford Rouge Center," said Jim Padilla, Ford Group Vice President.

"We plan to carry out the largest-ever renovation of this industrial center in the United States, so that it can stride forward into the 21st century."

"Daimler", the originator of automobiles and motorcycles

At the same time that Karl Benz developed and invented the world's first car, another engineer Gottlip Daimler (1846-1900) and his assistant Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929) in the same country ), was also engaged in the research of gasoline-powered vehicles, and also manufactured an air-cooled vertical single-cylinder two-stroke, gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine in 1885 with a volume of 264ml and a maximum power of 3 at 600 rpm. ．7 horsepower. The two mounted this internal combustion engine on a bicycle with an oak frame and became the world's first motorcycle. Daimler obtained the patent on August 29 of the same year, becoming the originator of the world's motorcycle industry; and his assistant Maybach was the world's first motorcycle "rider".

The name of the world’s first motorcycle is also named after its inventor. The car has 26-inch rear wheels and 34-inch front wheels. It has a saddle-style leather seat, oak frame, wooden wheels, belt drive, and one-stage gear transmission. The structure of the clutch is controlled by the pressure pulley driven by the belt. When the pressure pulley is pressed, the power is transferred to the rear wheels, driving the car forward; when the pressure pulley is relaxed, the belt slips, which cuts off the power transmission and the car stops moving forward. The maximum speed of the motorcycle is 11.2 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, this unique treasure of the world's first motorcycle was destroyed during World War II.

For Daimler and Maybach, manufacturing and driving motorcycles is not the purpose. The most important thing is to test the performance of internal combustion engines and improve them for use in cars. In 1886, the two worked together to develop a four-wheeled car equipped with a 1.1-horsepower gasoline internal combustion engine. Although Daimler and Benz were engaged in automobile development in the same country, they had never met, so the research results of Daimler and Benz were both recognized, and they were both recognized as the inventors of the world's first car. , calling them the "originators of automobiles and motorcycles." Daimler also has the "Daimler No. 1" car named after himself like Benz, and also formed the "Daimler Automobile Company" named after himself like Benz, and successively produced the "Phoenix" brand passenger cars, and the famous "Mercedes" passenger car named after the daughter of Emil Jelinek, the company's chief importer in France. In 1898, Daimler manufactured the world's first truck and exhibited it to the public in Paris, France, which caused a sensation and set a precedent for the professionalization of automobiles. On June 29, 1926, Daimler and Mercedes-Benz formally merged to form Daimler-Benz, becoming the initiator of the "powerful alliance". It has now developed into a multinational group company with 180,000 employees. Not only in Germany, but also in the world's automotive industry, it has become a decisive enterprise.

Three changes in the history of the automobile industry

1. The automobile assembly line installed by Ford Motor Company in the United States in 1914 brought about the first change in the history of the automobile industry.

2． The second change occurred in the 1950s. At that time, the internal tariff barriers in Europe were gradually dismantled, which made the European market unprecedentedly prosperous and effectively promoted the development of the automobile manufacturing industry.

3． In the late 1960s, the Japanese automobile industry performed a miracle and produced high-quality and low-priced automobiles, bringing about the third revolution in the world's automobile industry

Four Major Automobile Cities

1. Detroit: Motor City USA. There are 157 million cars in China, one for every 1.5 people. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler Motors, which monopolize the U.S. automobile industry, are all headquartered in Detroit, where one-quarter of the country's cars are produced. The city has a population of 4.42 million, 91% of which are mainly engaged in the automobile industry.

2． Toyota: Japan's Motor City. Toyota City has a population of 280,000, of which 62% are employees and family members of Toyota Motor Corporation and its subsidiaries. Toyota has 10 automobile plants, producing dozens of series of light and heavy-duty vehicles. In addition, it has 1,240 collaborative factories. The company's average annual output value per employee is US$130,000, ranking first in the world.

3． Turin: Automobile City of Italy.

The city has a population of 1.2 million, of which more than 350,000 are engaged in the automobile industry. The annual automobile production accounts for 75% of Italy's total. When Fiat founded its automobile factory here in 1899, it had only 41 employees. It has now grown into the seventh largest automobile company in the world and the second largest in Europe.

4． Stuttgart: Germany's Automobile City. The city has a population of 600,000 and is home to Daimler-Benz, the company that produced the world's first car. The company has 1,800 repair points in China and 4,250 in 17 countries and regions abroad

Jeep Home

The American Willys (Willys) that galloped on the battlefields of World War II )MB military vehicle is the originator of modern "Jeep". Its development has gone through important stages such as Willys, Kaiser and AMC. "Jeep" has always been influenced by Willys MB in its development process.

As soon as the Second World War came to an end, the European automobile industry and automobile market recovered rapidly. Off-road vehicles, used on battlefields in wars, are very popular due to their simple structure and low price.

Since American military Jeeps have become a hot commodity in the British car market, the British are certainly not willing to lag behind. In 1947, the surviving Land Rover Motor Company gathered a group of technical elites in central England to begin designing its own off-road vehicles.

After a year of hard work, the first Land Rover finally appeared. The British military also appreciates this vehicle that can easily climb 45% slopes and cross muddy roads. In 1956, the British military began to officially order Land vehicles. Subsequently, orders came in from all over the world, and Land Rover finally won people's favor. Land Rover's production is expanding day by day, with more and more models, and it has won the reputation of "King of Off-Road". The success of Land Rover made many car manufacturers around the world find it profitable to produce off-road vehicles. So in the late 1960s, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz all developed off-road vehicles. After the 1970s, they all launched their own masterpieces. Among them, the world-famous ones include the American Hummer, the Toyota Landcruiser, and the Chrysler Cherokee that was popular in the Chinese market in the 1980s.

The off-road vehicle war is about to begin. In order to meet the challenge, Land Rover invested a lot of money to improve technical equipment and develop new engines. It has launched a variety of off-road vehicles such as Range Rover, Discovery, Freelander and Defender. After more than 40 years of development, today Land Rover's products have become models of modern off-road vehicles.

Future cars will have eight major characteristics

According to the statistics of the current annual production of 50 million cars, the American "Automotive News" magazine predicts that the international market automobile structure will have the following eight major characteristics.

1. Diesel engines are used in more cars, and more and more cars in Europe are equipped with diesel engines.

2． One of the signs of the development of gasoline engine technology is that electronically controlled fuel injection engines will replace carburetor engines. The European Union has clearly stipulated that gasoline engine cars produced in the future must be equipped with electronically controlled fuel injection systems.

3． Electric vehicles will enter the practical stage. With the research and development of new low-price, high-energy and long-life batteries, as well as people's strong call for environmental protection, electric vehicles will gradually become a means of transportation in major cities.

4． Car safety standards will be stricter. In order to ensure the reliability and stability of the car, ABS will gradually become a standard device on some models; the number of airbag devices installed to protect passengers will gradually increase, and some models are even equipped with side airbags; three-point automatic shoulder-type safety belts, side protection Ram bars and steel chains will be equipped on various types of cars.

5. Use more lightweight materials instead of steel to reduce vehicle weight. The application of lightweight materials such as aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys and carbon fibers in automobile manufacturing will increase.

6． Various electronic devices will be used more in cars, such as electronic engine locks, which make it impossible for car thieves to steal; global satellite positioning systems allow drivers to not get lost no matter where they are.

7. The cargo truck will improve the existing power plant. Current trucks could pull more and go faster with a more efficient power plant.

8. There will be an increase in front-wheel drive cars, and the further development of transverse engine technology will make cars more fuel-efficient and economical; some large cars will also use front-wheel drive, such as the new Audi AB.