 The Open Door Web Site |
|||||||
| From Horse to Horseless Carriage Mineral Oil and the Development of the Motor Industry
As we have seen, the second Industrial Revolution was based on the development of new found fuel energy sources, such as gas and electricity. These energy sources were used to generate the power needed to drive industry. Among the emerging new fuel sources, mineral oil was also put to use. In 1859, oilfields had been discovered in Pennsylvania, America. At first, the crude oil had been refined to produce kerosene, also known as paraffin. This was used in oil lamps as a form of lighting fuel. The oil lamp gave more light than a candle and, in its most refined state, remained in use in rural areas of Europe well into the twentieth century. It is still in use today in large parts of the Third World. As well as kerosene, crude oil was also distilled to provide lubricants to grease and oil machines. Petroleum was another of the fractions given off during the distillation process. At first, petroleum was used, in its refined form, in medicine and as a cleaner and solvent.
In the latter part of the 19th century, the search was mounted for a truly independent, economic and reliable method of power generation for use in road transport. As a direct result of the Industrial Revolution, people were, for the first time, in the possession of leisure time and the money to spend on it. By the 1880's, many people were able to spend the leisure time cycling on the newly developed safety bicycle. This had been developed from the crude, wooden bicycle, with solid tyres, invented in Britain in 1839 by K. Macmillan. The "modern" bicycle of 1888 was running on pneumatic tyres, inflated by air, that had been invented by J. Dunlop. Thoughts had already turned to a way of providing the bicycle with power other than human power. |
© Shirley Burchill, Nigel Hughes, Peter Price and Keith Woodall 2007 As far as the Open Door team can ascertain the images shown on this page are in the Public Domain. |
||||||
