Fachartikel
From Europe, to the US, Japan, and onto China

From Europe, to the US, Japan, and onto China

The evolution of the automobile

The pre-automobile era

Even though the railways existed in Britain, Europe, and America by the late 1880s, most road transport was still undertaken by house and carriage. There were over three million horses in Britain and ten times that many in America which had to be breed, fed, cared for, and housed. A large amount of farmland was devoted to producing hay and oats for horse feed and it was becoming an expensive exercise to maintain a house and carriage. The industry was reaching the limits to its potential growth by 1900.