CATALOG OF THE AUTOMOBILE COLLECTION 7 



for a time appeared likely to become the ultimate type of power 

 plant for the automobile. 



In 1903 the first transcontinental automobile trip was completed 

 when H. Nelson Jackson drove his 2-cylinder Winton from San Fran- 

 cisco, Calif., to New York City in 63 days. This car (pi. 8, &) is now 

 in the National Museum. One month after the successful Winton trip 

 a 1-cylinder Packard driven by Tom Fetch completed the transcon- 

 tinental journey between the same two cities in a few days less time. 

 Shortly afterward. Whitman and Hammond made the trip in a 1- 

 cylinder Oldsmobile, about 10 weeks being required. It had become 

 evident that long trips could be made with an automobile. 



As time passed, and manufacturing methods were improved, the 

 automobile proved to be more and more reliable. Service facilities 

 were more frequently found, and the brawny hand of the blacksmith 

 was laid less often on the machine in need of repairs. Garages with 

 mechanics and replacement parts appeared, and women took up the 

 art of driving as the risk of breakdowns became less. 



Interchangeability of parts, upon which ease of replacement and 

 assembly-line manufacture both depend, was dramatically demon- 

 strated when the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1908 

 presented the Sir Thomas Dewar trophy to Cadillac for the most 

 meritorious performance in any trial held by the Club during the 

 year. The trial consisted of completely disassembling three new 1- 

 cylinder Cadillac automobiles, mixing all the parts, and reassembling 

 the vehicles from parts picked at random. After the assembly the 

 engines were started easily, and test runs of 500 miles were made. 

 This trial showed that the manufacture of parts to tolerances permit- 

 ting assembling without slow, skilled hand fitting was a workable 

 American practice. Assembly-line manufacture based on this practice 

 has made possible the high production records of the automobile 

 industry in peace and war since 1908. 



Since November 28, 1895, the date of America's first automobile 

 race, many speed contests and reliability trials have been held in this 

 country, and both types of events have had a telling effect on the 

 automobile. These contests, in which machines vied with one an- 

 other, led the manufacturers and engineers to develop increasingly 

 better tires, alloys, lubricants, and other components of the automobile, 

 resulting in the long-lived and serviceable vehicle we know today. 



SELDEN GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE, 1879 



Tj . S. N. M. No. 252678 ; original Patent Office model ; transferred from the United 

 States Patent Office ; photograph No. 30399 ; plate 4, a. 



George B. Selden, patent attorney and inventor of Eochester, N. Y., 

 filed a patent application on May 8, 1879, for a road vehicle powered 



