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December 2005 Volume 2, Issue 6 One of the joys of living and working in a small town is the fact that most days we can leave the car at home and go on foot—though on a frigid morning like today when it’s-1°F we’ve been known to drive!. And we’re ever-grateful for the “flying machines” that let us journey thousands of miles to visit friends and colleagues in London, Rome, and Beijing. Right now, we’re eagerly awaiting the plane that will bring our son Tom home for the holidays from college in Iowa.
Locomotive Travel Comes on the Scene
It Didn’t Start with Ford
Until the first practical internal combustion engine was developed in 1860, constructing a workable steam car was the obsession of scientific geniuses and eccentrics, most of whom received only scorn and laughter for their trouble. Historians can only imagine the scene in Paris in 1769 when Nicholas Cugnot (1725–1824), a French military engineer serving Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, retired from active duty and began working, under royal commission, on his idea for a steam-powered military truck. The truck may have been capable of only 11 kilometers per hour, but it did move. This, the world’s first automotive test drive, sufficiently shook loose royal purse strings to fund a second and larger model. Cugnot’s second truck had front-wheel drive, with the boiler hanging off the nose, a design that resulted in such an unbalanced weight distribution that a driver could barely steer the vehicle. [From the article, “Automobile,” in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History.] Inside the Berkshire Encyclopedia:
For more on transportation, try articles like Caravan, Navigation, Sailing Ships, Silk Roads, Travel Guides, and Transportation—Overview. The Wright Brothers Deserve the CreditWilbur and Orville Wright are credited with inventing the airplane in 1903. What separated the brothers from all those before them who tried to build such a craft was, simply, that the Wright airplane was capable of sustained, powered, and controlled flight. Air passing over a wing generated lift, while surfaces on the craft manipulated some of the air, providing directional control—all of this sustained by an engine that provided thrust. For the next eleven years the airplane was a solution in search of a problem: no one seemed to know what to do with it. Even at the start of World War I, aviation’s potential remained unclear—at least to the generals. But its flexibility soon became apparent, and the airplane found many roles in the war: air-to-air fighter, bomber, and observation platform. [From the article, “Airplane,” in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History.] 
Blessings of the SeasonIf you've been forwarded this newsletter, sign up to recieve new issues of World History to Go twice a month.
There are wonderful blessings in every religious tradition, but at this time of year we're partial to one that comes from the Christian New Testament, words supposedly spoken by angels after the birth of Jesus: "On earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14). Indeed, the angels were praising the Judeo-Christian God when they said this, and we can quibble with the usage of men, but the phrase has broad cultural resonance for many in the English-speaking and Christian-influenced world, whether they are believers or not, because it sums up a longing that is common to almost everyone on earth. From all of us at Berkshire, our warm wishes to you, your family, and your colleagues: on earth peace, good will toward all people. With warm regards, |
Chances are you or your loved ones will be among the millions using trains, planes, or automobiles to come home for the holidays, so this issue of World History to Go explores the origins of those mighty machines that take us where we want to go.
The success of the railroad depended on several key inventions, chief among them the locomotive. Richard Trevithick demonstrated in 1804 that a steam engine could be used to propel railcars, but it was not until the 1820s that George and Robert Stephenson constructed the first modern locomotives, the “Locomotion” and “Rocket,” for use on Britain’s rail lines. Other important breakthroughs include the sleeping car, developed by George Pullman (U.S.) in 1857; pneumatic brakes, invented by George Westinghouse (U.S.) in 1869; the automatic car coupler, patented by Eli Janney (U.S.) in 1873; the electric locomotive, invented by Werner von Siemens (Germany) in 1879; and steel rails and steel cars, which came into widespread use in the early twentieth century. Equally important for a fast, safe, and smooth ride were track lines that followed an even gradient despite changes in the terrain. Two inventions were particularly useful in this regard: the iron bridge, pioneered by Robert Stephenson in Newcastle in 1849, and the railroad tunnel, first used in the Italian Alps in 1871. [From the article, “Railroad,” in the 
Most people think of the automobile as the invention that welcomed the twentieth century with a blast of exhaust smoke. However, the earliest cars, a strange blend of the eccentric and the practical, were built long before people such as Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), Henry Ford (1863–1947), Ransom Olds (1864–1950), Carl Benz (1844–1929), William Durant (1861–1947; founder of General Motors), James Packard (1863–1928), and Clement Studebaker (1831–1901) drove onto the scene. During the fifteenth century the Italian artist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci thought about carriages that could move under their own power and left drawings showing rudimentary transmission and steering systems. In 1510 the German Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer sketched a complex and undoubtedly heavy royal carriage, propelled by muscle power through geared cranks.
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