Prices at the Dawn of the Gasoline Age, Dusk of the Equine

[Pat Holscher]

Believe it or not, I once restored a single cylinder, 1905 Cadillac. It was small and light, built to carry as many as four or five people though I can't imagine how well it would have gone with even four skinny people on it. With just the driver it could carry you along at about 10-15 miles per hour all day without any excessive strain. In a pinch it could do 25 or maybe 30. The top speed was limited by the very low gearing, aimed at pulling it out of ruts and muddy roads. Since there aren't many rutted muddy roads left in New England I fiddled with the gearing and the compression and got a car that could probably do 50. That was a real mistake. The chassis and steering weren't up to the speed and the loss of the very low range made it difficult to climb a steep hill with two people on. But, in its original configuration it must have been a revelation to a horse-centered traveling public with a far different notion of "speed" than we share. It was an inexpensive car too, though extremely well made. One cylinder Cadillacs were so successful that they remained in production until around 1908, long after most other one-lung automobiles were considered wildly obsolete.
Interestingly, one-cylinder cars retained their popularity in Europe far longer and sporty versions were being made and raced right up to WWI. Walter Owen Bentley developed the first aluminum piston for a French one-lunger that he and his brother held an English franchise for and had several racing records to their credit.

Joe Puleo

I had no idea there'd ever been one cylinder automobile engines. That's really surprising.

It's also very interesting to note that at one time Cadillac's must have been built for rural road use. Maybe all cars were. It's not how we think of them now, but that must have been a necessity. While out over the lunch hour, I passed by a Model A that someone has parked out on the street, and they certainly exhibit quite a bit of clearance.

[John M Φ]

incidentally..referring to previous comments in this thread..in my younger farming days in uk....the standaerd Fordson and Fordson major TVO tractors i drove in the 1950's always had to be started with the cranking handle at the front. 1 recall that once the handle of the Fordson standard slipped amd I almost split my head open on the front steel wheels. The steel wheels being a legacy of the war...saving rubber; the bigger driving wheels were fitted with steel wheels also with steel lugs bolted on.
I was very aware of the need to keep the thumb out of the way...as one also should with the steering wheel of a 4WD vehicle doing cross country work.
My earlier petrol landrovers all had starting handles which I often found useful. Also useful for moving a vehicle up a slope by cranking in gear with no engine power...or probably out of a river for eg

[JV Puleo]

Almost all American cars, including the biggest and most expensive, were built with poor roads in mind since outside major urban areas there was hardly a paved road in the entire country before 1920. Most of the urban paved roads were high crowned and featured cobblestones, both of which were even more dangerous to drive on than dirt was. The period literature often describes them as "greasy" which was a polite way of saying that a cobbled street wet with horse buns and urine was a dangerous surface to drive on. Tire chains were introduced to deal with this problem, as well as mud. No one intended chains for use in snow because no one drove in the winter.

Pat, one cylinder cars are a blast. There were dozens of makes of which Cadillac is only one of the more successful. The original "curved dash Oldsmobile" is a one-lunger but probably my favorite from my car days was a 1-cyl Pope Hartford. It had a piston like a paint can and every time it fired it felt like you were getting a gentle kick in the rear end. They were simple and reliable, easily understood by the mechanics of the day, most of which were familiar with stationary farm or workshop engines.

Joe P

[Pat Holscher]

incidentally..referring to previous comments in this thread..in my younger farming days in uk....the standaerd Fordson and Fordson major TVO tractors i drove in the 1950's always had to be started with the cranking handle at the front. 1 recall that once the handle of the Fordson standard slipped amd I almost split my head open on the front steel wheels. The steel wheels being a legacy of the war...saving rubber; the bigger driving wheels were fitted with steel wheels also with steel lugs bolted on.
I was very aware of the need to keep the thumb out of the way...as one also should with the steering wheel of a 4WD vehicle doing cross country work.
My earlier petrol landrovers all had starting handles which I often found useful. Also useful for moving a vehicle up a slope by cranking in gear with no engine power...or probably out of a river for eg

I've seen tractors like that in use even relatively recently. They're a scary deal in some ways. Tractors are a really dangerous instrusment anyhow, let alone with one lurking to whack you when you start it.

[Pat Holscher]

Almost all American cars, including the biggest and most expensive, were built with poor roads in mind since outside major urban areas there was hardly a paved road in the entire country before 1920. Most of the urban paved roads were high crowned and featured cobblestones, both of which were even more dangerous to drive on than dirt was. The period literature often describes them as "greasy" which was a polite way of saying that a cobbled street wet with horse buns and urine was a dangerous surface to drive on. Tire chains were introduced to deal with this problem, as well as mud. No one intended chains for use in snow because no one drove in the winter.

Very, very interesting.

The cobblestone streets are something I would never have considered, let alone the horse goo. And very interesting fact about the tire chains. I"ve used chains in mud many times, but the horse flop element of that is something I would not have guessed. It shows how common urban horses were at that time.

And, imagine the smell. Ack.

P

at, one cylinder cars are a blast. There were dozens of makes of which Cadillac is only one of the more successful. The original "curved dash Oldsmobile" is a one-lunger but probably my favorite from my car days was a 1-cyl Pope Hartford. It had a piston like a paint can and every time it fired it felt like you were getting a gentle kick in the rear end. They were simple and reliable, easily understood by the mechanics of the day, most of which were familiar with stationary farm or workshop engines.

Joe P

Up until today, I didn't realize there had ever been one cylinder car engines. It's been an educational day!

[Pat Holscher]

No one intended chains for use in snow because no one drove in the winter.

The lack of winter driving around here is something that is hard to appreciate now, but which I suspect was a major factor in local life until after World War Two.

That late, it wouldn't have been as if a person would have been snowed in all winter long. Far from it. A person could have traveled the highways from town to town in the winter, for the most part. But the traveling on those highways was slower any way you look at it, as the road wasn't as good, or as straight.

But, off the highway travel would have been another matter entirely. People didn't own 4x4s. Cars were useful on most rural roads in the summer, and were used a lot like pickup trucks are today, but the many areas now accessible by 4x4 all year long would not have been until after WWII.

Pat

As an aside, on the utility of cars on rural roads at one time, for quite a few years I had a 1954 Chevrolet Sedan. I used to take it fishing and the like, where I'd never drive a car now. It was only a car, but it was really heavy, and it had pretty good clearance. I had a truck, but it got really good gas mileage so I used it in many areas that a modern car would generally not presently be taken.

[Pat Holscher]

An item from the Viriginia State Troopers history site:

1908:

Counties were required to raise money by whatever means to build and maintain roads because there was no state support. There were no hard surfaced roads anywhere in the state.

Speed limit was 15 mph statewide.

1910:

The General Assembly passed acts to improve highways with money accrued from motor vehicle registration fees. New fees went into effect and ranged from $2 to $20, depending on the horsepower of the vehicle.

Statewide speed limit was raised to 20 mph.

Six thousand five hundred seventy-three (6,573) registered motor vehicles enjoyed an unprecedented 7 miles of hard surface roads throughout the state.

[Pat Holscher]

These are much later than the period we've been discussing, but I thought they sort of illustrated the topic to a degree.

1. Depression era program providing mules to small farmers:



2. Mule Dealers in Georgia in 1939. According to the photo information, the distributer sent out these traveling venders to sell mules in the countryside:



3. A much different farming scene from the end of the Great Depression. Wheat farmer in Washington in 1941. This is a huge mule driven combine:

[Pat Holscher]

2. Mule Dealers in Georgia in 1939. According to the photo information, the distributer sent out these traveling venders to sell mules in the countryside:

As a total aside, and living in the cap and shorts era that we do (or, because it's Fair week here in the county, the far too small tank top/far too short shorts era), the clothing standards of the late Depression are almost shockingly high in comparison to the present.

This has nothing to do with the topic, but here we see traveling mule venders,and their children, with the venders wearing suits, ties and Fedoras. Pretty surprising.

The FSA has quite a few photos of mule venders in the South in this period, with some looking quite prosperous. I wonder how long this business went on in this form? With WWII right around the corner, and the big post war economic boom to follow, it's hard not to look at these as scenes depicting a business that was on the way out rapidly, but didn't know it.

[Joseph Sullivan]

In the 1940s, my wife's grandfather had over 40 mules to farm a bit over 1,000 acres of cotton. He also had 13 other families living on the property to help with the labor. Not all were what you would call "sharecroppers." It really looked like an ancient European system. For example, one family held the "lease" on their home and garden in return for keeping the pantry stocked with vegetables, and helping out during the planting and harvest. Another supplied year-round firewood. The owners covered everyone's medical expenses and the like out of pocket.

In the 1950s, most work was mechanized. My father in law destroyed 40 sets of harness to make room in the barn. His family moved to town. The other families drifted away -- not pushed off -- just drifted. That land is now absentee farmed under lease.

When I was a child in the 1950s, we lived in the Midwest. Horses were still used occasionally. Lots of horse-drawn implements were still in working order. I well recall running next to a sickle-bar drawn by a two-horse hitch. We used to like to go into the draft-horse barn to see the horses in the warm dusty dark. I have no idea what breed or even if they were of a breed. We just called them "workhorses."

My parents now live in a forest preserve in rural Illinois. They of course, enjoy the peace and quiet of the deep woods. However, the whole county is pretty darned peaceful. There are only 6,000 people left, a few in the country, and the rest in a scattering of small mid 19th-century villages. Mechanization of farming, and the closure of the deep coal mines removed the reasons for people to stick around.

[Rick Throckmorton]

I grew up in north central Oklahoma in an area that is still primarily farm and ranch land. I thought having horse drawn implements sitting around the perimeter of the barnyard and having single trees and double trees around was normal.
Rick T.

[Pat Holscher]

In the 1940s, my wife's grandfather had over 40 mules to farm a bit over 1,000 acres of cotton. He also had 13 other families living on the property to help with the labor. Not all were what you would call "sharecroppers." It really looked like an ancient European system. For example, one family held the "lease" on their home and garden in return for keeping the pantry stocked with vegetables, and helping out during the planting and harvest. Another supplied year-round firewood. The owners covered everyone's medical expenses and the like out of pocket.

In the 1950s, most work was mechanized. My father in law destroyed 40 sets of harness to make room in the barn. His family moved to town. The other families drifted away -- not pushed off -- just drifted. That land is now absentee farmed under lease.

When I was a child in the 1950s, we lived in the Midwest. Horses were still used occasionally. Lots of horse-drawn implements were still in working order. I well recall running next to a sickle-bar drawn by a two-horse hitch. We used to like to go into the draft-horse barn to see the horses in the warm dusty dark. I have no idea what breed or even if they were of a breed. We just called them "workhorses."

My parents now live in a forest preserve in rural Illinois. They of course, enjoy the peace and quiet of the deep woods. However, the whole county is pretty darned peaceful. There are only 6,000 people left, a few in the country, and the rest in a scattering of small mid 19th-century villages. Mechanization of farming, and the closure of the deep coal mines removed the reasons for people to stick around.

What you note about the decline in numbers in rural areas is the topic of an essay, and book, by agrarian philosopher Wendell Berry. If I recall it correctly, the books is called The Unsettling of America (I may be recalling it inaccurately). His thesis notes what you note, which is that the mechanization of agriculture had the effect of consolidating agricultural units, and decreasing the farm residing population. You can really see the impact of that in some farming belts, where numerous abandoned homesteads abound.

Horse farming also provides the reason why there are so many small towns in the Mid West. They are close, as they represented the distance that farmers could travel to town and back in a day, to take their product to market, and what not. Now, of course, all this has changed, and the towns are in tough shape in many localities.

It occurs to me that in this region this experience actually occurred a bit earlier, even as horse use has continued. I've often noted here that the improvement in off road vehicles had a major impact on ranching after World War Two. But the introduction of earlier motor vehicles actually had a somewhat similar effect, although more or less temporarily, in the 1920s. In areas close to town, but not further out, the introduction of vehicles encouraged some ranchers to move to town, and drive out to their ranches during the day. Obviously, this couldn't happen every day, but it did occur close to towns. There was a trend to have a nice house in town, if possible, and commute. This ended in the 1930s, as the banks forced those who had done that (and many couldn't, as they were further out) to move back out to their ranches as a condition of not being foreclosed upon. Some attribute this practice, which also occurred in farming areas in some places, to Irish and German farming practices, as the farmers in some of these areas live in town so as to not have a house on valuable agricultural land.

[Pat Holscher]

J.V., take a look at the fancy race photo in the "How Bad" thread. Is that car chain driven?

[Joseph Sullivan]

When I was a small boy, we lived in Chicago for two years. I used to walk three blocks to school (a different age and yet I am only 54). I well recall seeing old chain-drive CIty of Chicago light trucks going around maintaining medians and curb strips.

[Couvi]

And we wondered where the horses went!

M25 Tank Transporter, often called the Dragon Wagon. This is a model, of course, but shows a good photograph of the drip-oiled chain drive.
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/us ... /amtdw.htm

Detail of chain drive:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/us ... dwamt6.jpg

YouTube short. Note the size of the vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpnFcgEAmHU

There was both an armored and soft skinned version of this vehicle. I think the M25 was soft skinned and the M26 was armored: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpnFcgEAmHU

[JV Puleo]

Chain drive stayed in use on trucks for another very good reason. It was simple to change the rear axle drive ratios. The engines they used developed their most effective horsepower in a very narrow range of revolutions so if you wanted a dump truck that could haul tons of earth or rocks on a job site you could travel to the site using the "transport" gears and change them fairly easily at the site to the super low gears. I don't know if it was done very much, but was the theory at least. Most likely it was also a big convenience to the maker who could offer a vast range of capability without having to manufacture a wide range of transmissions. The modern 10, 12 and 16 speed transmissions and dual ratio rear ends were not available in the chain drive era.

[Pat Holscher]

When I was a small boy, we lived in Chicago for two years. I used to walk three blocks to school (a different age and yet I am only 54). I well recall seeing old chain-drive CIty of Chicago light trucks going around maintaining medians and curb strips.

Wow, not only did I not know that there were chain driving vehicles at all, I never would have guessed they were in use that late.

I recall being surprised when some motorcycles went to shaft drives, which seemed odd to me.

[Pat Holscher]

A
YouTube short. Note the size of the vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpnFcgEAmHU

Wow, what a behemoth.

I guess chain drives must have been effective, given the use of this thing.

[Pat Holscher]

Chain drive stayed in use on trucks for another very good reason. It was simple to change the rear axle drive ratios. The engines they used developed their most effective horsepower in a very narrow range of revolutions so if you wanted a dump truck that could haul tons of earth or rocks on a job site you could travel to the site using the "transport" gears and change them fairly easily at the site to the super low gears. I don't know if it was done very much, but was the theory at least. Most likely it was also a big convenience to the maker who could offer a vast range of capability without having to manufacture a wide range of transmissions. The modern 10, 12 and 16 speed transmissions and dual ratio rear ends were not available in the chain drive era.

Thanks Joe! A whole category of vehicles I heretofore knew nothing about.

[Couvi]

A
YouTube short. Note the size of the vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpnFcgEAmHU

Wow, what a behemoth.

I guess chain drives must have been effective, given the use of this thing.

These were still on the books in the 1970's. I’ll bet that the drip oil system would not be EPA Approved today.