motoring
T
he first petrol-engined
cars, built in two towns in
Germany’s Neckar valley
by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl
Benz, appeared in public in 1885.
In the early years, there were
no assembly lines or showrooms;
cars were entirely hand-built
by craftsmen and as a result
were extremely expensive.
If you wanted to buy a car,
you would visit a car factory
to discuss your needs, and the
car would be custom-built for
you. If you lived in France, you
would most likely have gone to
Panhard et Levassor, the famous
Parisian machine-tool company
that was then the world’s
leading motor manufacturer.
It produced several hundred
cars a year to a layout called the
Système Panhard, which was
eventually copied by virtually
every motor manufacturer.
The engine was mounted
longitudinally in front with the
passengers behind in two rows,
and the power was transmitted
by a shaft to the rear wheels.HAND-BUILT
The company employed the
decentralised craft-production
system then in vogue. Most
of the parts were made by
skilled craftsmen, employed
as independent contractors,
working either in the plant or
at their own machine shops
scattered throughout Paris.
Each craftsman specialised
in particular components
and was responsible for his
own design and production.
Very few specialised machine
tools existed; general-purpose
machines performed the
necessary drilling, grinding
and shaping. Forging was in
its infancy, which meant thatparts such as crankshafts were
machined from solid steel billets.
Because the contractors seldom
used standardised measuring
systems, the parts that arrived
in the assembly hall had to
be filed or ground by skilled
assemblers to make them fit.
This meant that although most
of the Panhard-Lavassors looked
similar, each car was unique.
Parts were not interchangeable.
Paradoxically, the narrow gaps
that are a feature of hand-
fitting gave the appearance of
quality without guaranteeing
the wished-for result.While waiting for your car,
you would have engaged the
services of a chauffeur, and on
the appointed day several months
later, the two of you would set off
to inspect your car. The chauffeur
would drive the car and you
would make notes to inform the
company how the car performed
and what changes were needed.
You were essentially buying a
prototype, and there was every
chance that your journeys would
be filled with adventure.INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS
By the turn of the century, most
cars were still being made using
craft production. The first signs
of change came with the concept
of interchangeable parts, first
demonstrated by Henry Leland,
a precision-manufacturing expert
who was largely responsible
for the Cadillac. The newThe earliest motor cars were built by hand and cost a
small fortune, yet were liable to frequent breakdowns.
The introduction of interchangeable parts made
production easier, and reliability also improved.
The dawn of motoring
Jake Venter
approach was made possible by
Leland’s passion for accuracy
as well as the invention of
dedicated machine tools.
In 1908 the British Royal
Automobile Club devised a test
to prove that interchangeability
could work. Three Cadillacs
were selected at random from
their London agents, driven
80km to the Brooklands race
track, disassembled, and their
components placed in a large pile.
Several parts requiring extreme
accuracy were withdrawn and
replaced by new components. The
cars were then reassembled, and
driven for 800km. All the cars
passed the test. One was locked
away for several months, and
then entered for the 2 000- mile
RAC reliability trials. It won
the event and was given the
RAC Trophy, and Cadillac was
awarded the Dewar Trophy for
the industry’s most noteworthy
achievement of the year.
The production pressures
of the First World War
sounded the death knell of
craft production but Henry
Ford had an answer that we’ll
explore in the next article.- Jake Venter is a journalist and a
retired engineer and mathematician.
Email him at [email protected].
Subject line: Motoring.
▪
FWthe SyStème
Panhard car
l ayo u t b e c a m e
the induStry
Standard
aBOVe:
Cadillac was
the first motor
manufacturer
that made
interchangeable
car parts. This was
the first step toward
mass production.
Flickr49 farmer’sweekly 2 August 2019