Cars - One of the Most Important Inventions of All Time (Research Paper Sample)

Cars - One of the Most Important Inventions of All Time
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Introduction
For the past centuries, there have been lots of inventions by man including the internet, atomic energy, aeroplanes and many more. Out of all this, the car stands out to be one of the most important inventions of all time. Before its invention, life was hectic especially when transportation was involved. One could either get affected by the extreme weather or fall sick of the extreme fatigue of either walking on foot or riding horses. The car made us view the world on a whole new dimension as it affects every aspect of our lives. This paper will closely analyse why the car is said to be one of the most significant inventions of all time.
It is without a doubt that cars are one of the greatest inventions of all time. Some go further to say it is what makes the difference in people’s lives. Some people might disagree but when one sits down and thinks about it, nothing happens without cars. Every aspect of people’s lives revolves around cars, from transportation of people themselves to transportation of all other things. In our current society, it is tough to imagine life without cars.
The concept of cars first appeared in 1769, alongside the invention of the steam engine. The distinctive feature about the steam engine was its metal frame and seats that were able to carry several people. For more than four decades people used these big cars that made very annoying noise. The year 1806 saw the dawn of the combustion engine that operated on liquid fuel. Following this invention car had extraordinary success around the world and soon became the primary form of transportation. It is worth mentioning that the first electric engine was produced in 1900. Following the Second World War the car industry skyrocketed. During the start of the 20th century, the world had an approximate of 500,000 cars. In 2008, the annual production was more than 70 million units.
Before cars were an invented man was more like any other animal walking around from one point to another. He crept and burrowed along the ground. He was subject to the intense heat, rain, cold, sleet and snow. Even the use of the horse did not make the situation even better since those riding them were still exposed to the harsh weather conditions (Radley, 2015). Man was at a risk of getting pneumonia and eventually die if rode outside during the winter season and was also going to get soaked in the rain. The intense heat of the sun during the summer could not also be escaped. Furthermore, the transportation of goods from one point to the other was limited to only small quantities and small distances.
The horses that were used for transportation also needed constant feeding and maintenance otherwise they would fall sick thus preventing transportation of people and goods. These horses at times could misbehave and put one at the risk of falling especially when they were annoyed. Upon falling, the one riding the horse would get badly injured or worse, dead. The elite in the society who used carriages would end up having a bumpy ride, lurching back and forth getting nauseated and miserable. Furthermore, they would still swelter in the heat and freeze in the cold ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "DOI" : "10.1117/12.778406", "ISBN" : "9780819470287", "ISSN" : "0277786X", "abstract" : "An overview is presented of recent trends in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. We briefly discuss the influence of tissue scattering on the CARS signal, methods for controlling the CARS emission and prospects for surface-enhancement of the CARS radiation.", "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Zimmerley", "given" : "Max", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Min", "given" : "Hyun", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Whitmore", "given" : "Desir\u00e9", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Vardhan", "given" : "Vishnu", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Choi", "given" : "Bernard", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Venugopalan", "given" : "Vasan", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Potma", "given" : "Eric Olaf", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Kim", "given" : "Hyun Min", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Krishnamachari", "given" : "Vishnu Vardhan", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" }, { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Hayakawa", "given" : "Carole", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "container-title" : "Proceedings of SPIE", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2008" ] ] }, "page" : "68530S-68530S-8", "title" : "Making CARS better", "type" : "paper-conference", "volume" : "6853" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=80afad16-67aa-4f66-995c-66a69dce799b" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Zimmerley et al., 2008)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Zimmerley et al., 2008)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Zimmerley et al., 2008)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Zimmerley et al., 2008).
Man has been in existence in his current form for about 50,000 years. Before roughly the last 115 years of that time, man was a very vulnerable and pitiful creature. Concerning transportation man was not much different in 1860 than he was in 50, 000 BC (Stein, 2015). There many other inventions that came along the way including vaccination, the internet, the television and so many others but what made all the difference was the invention of the car. A car transformed man from a mere creature to a god, who has some form of superhuman strength. Cars enable one to travel at incredible speeds that otherwise would be unimaginable 300 years ago.
With an automobile, man has immunity from weather extremities. One can drive to a place with very hot weather and yet feel cool while listening to his favourite music inside his or her car. One can travel long distances and reach his destination feeling very relaxed. Some cars are large enough for people to live in comfortably. They have all the necessities that a home would have including a bathroom and bed and a toilet. Cars have enabled man to explore other places that would not have been known to us including the exotic forests where new species are often being identified.
Cars are readily available to almost everyone. One can get an almost perfect car with air conditioning, great stereo, power steering, and a back view camera at a low price. The modern cars are just incredibly great and reliable: they rarely break. They last for a very long time and their service is cheap and always under warranty. It has reached a point where not owning a car can become expensive since one would have to waste a lot of energy and time trying to walk to his destination. They have become almost a necessity to every one as described by PJ O’Rourke (writer) "We loved cars until the '70s or so. Then they became appliances. They turned into motorised cup holders. Most of it has to do with urban sprawl. What began as pleasure ends up in necessity, as so many things do" (Express.co.uk, 2015).
Controllability is also one of those elements of the car that makes it one of the most important inventions. A car cannot work on its own unless one is driving it. This makes it a very safe inventions since one can control the amount of speed and the direction of the car. The presence of safety belts also adds on safety. It is also very easy to drive a car. A person ...