Chapter 85: Automotive Revolution
A new contraption soon made itself known on the streets of Hermes. It rumbled around on the asphalt roads with four wheels and was able to travel at a shocking 50 kilometers per hour, an unheard of speed over twice as fast as a carriage.
The new invention was the car, something that would revolutionize transportation forever. Transportation would be available to go wherever there was road. While trains were indeed faster, they were limited in where they could go. With a car, you can drive anywhere provided there was a road. Of course, at the moment that was still a difficulty as only the big roads in the city had been paved.
There would still be a long way to go before one could drive around the country in a car. Firstly, roads would have to be made connecting all parts of the nation. Then, there would need to be fueling stations constructed along those roads so that people could refuel their cars.
At the moment, all that the cars could do was drive around Hermes.
The car was more of a curiosity at this point rather than a widespread transportation tool for the common people. There were not many cars that had been produced so they were mainly only used by the wealthy and government officials. Cars became an infrequent but familiar sight.
The main purpose of introducing cars was to set the stage for the future where car production could increase and become accessible to the common people. By having some cars on the road now, they would become a familiar sight and people would be used to them and know how to react when a car comes. It would also allow important people to move around faster.
By introducing a few cars early on, it would also serve as a way to test out the technology on a small scale to identify and fix any potential problems. It would be terrible if later on a problem was discovered and all of the cars on the road had to be taken back to be changed.
The creation of the car was only made possible recently with advancements to technology. The tires needed rubber but fortunately a method of producing rubber had been found. The car needed gasoline to run. The oil wells in the south had already been developed enough so that there was enough oil.
The most important part of the car was the engine. Internal combustion engines had already been invented, but the earlier ones were large and bulky, only suitable for larger vehicles. They were also difficult to produce, requiring special workers such as witches to make them.
Such a system would be impractical if they wanted to make cars a common accessible good. As a result, it was necessary to find a way to industrialize production.
Much research had been done on how to improve the engine. The size and weight was able to be reduced and the efficiency was increased. Better manufacturing techniques had been created so that ordinary people would have the tools necessary to make the required parts. With all this in place, it was now possible to build the car.
A single assembly line was set up to test out this process. Production with only one line wouldn't be quick, but it would be suitable enough to demonstrate whether production was feasible. The assembly line worked and a small amount of cars were produced.
The cars were rather simple. There was an engine and gas tank connected to a metal frame. The outsides of the car were made of wood rather than metal to reduce weight. There were no windows because they hadn't figured out how to make safety glass. If there was a crash, ordinary glass would break into shards and horribly main the people inside. So, people inside had to feel the wind. The car wasn't going terribly fast so it wasn't too much of an issue. Still, drivers did have goggles that they could wear.
The cars also had several safety features installed that didn't exist in the early cars back on Earth. Firstly there were seatbelts. Seatbelts were very easy to make and greatly improved the safety of the car. There were also airbags to help cushion the driver during a crash. These tools would help reduce the danger of driving.
Of course, at the moment driving wasn't dangerous at all for the people in the cars. Since there were so few cars on the road, car crashes were unlikely. Furthermore, the cars didn't travel very fast so collisions wouldn't cause that much damage. The people who had something to fear were the people walking on the street. If a car hit a person, the person probably wouldn't die but they would have rather severe injuries.
There were a whole host of driving laws introduced that would punish any driver who hit a person, so the drivers were very careful about pedestrians. In addition, the people quickly learned to avoid the cars on the road. With everyone being careful, accidents were prevented.
As the cars drove along the road, they belched out smoke as the engines consumed gasoline to keep the car moving. Steven was somewhat disappointed by this. The gasoline powered cars were polluting the environment.
However, battery technology simply wasn't there yet. Roland was more familiar with the mechanical part of engineering and less the electrical part. As a result, engineering involving moving parts was far more advanced. Electronics were still at a very primitive stage.
At this point, they were still figuring out how to make a rechargeable battery. Even once they did that, they would need to figure out how to make it efficient and not waste most of the energy used to charge it. Then, they would need to make it be able to store enough electricity. Even once that was done, it had to be small enough to fit on a car.
There was a long way to go before electric cars were possible. And even then they would still need to make electricity production not polluting. Steven thought it unlikely that it would be able to be accomplished in his lifetime.
As he let out a sigh while watching the car below drive past, Zero put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry", she said. "One day it will happen, I'll make sure of it."
Steven smiled. "Just make sure the big oil interests don't end up blocking it." He let out a chuckle.
"Oh I am sure", Zero said. "They will have to take it whether they like it or not."
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