A Century of Living

1906 –

Phil Wheeler - August, 2002

Having lived though just short of a century, what have I learned that might be of interest or useful to others?  I keep thinking about this and wondering if I should try to set down some of my thoughts. Especially since this past century has seen more change in our human lives than any other century in history. When I was a child, there were essentially no automobiles.

The Wright brothers had just demonstrated that powered flight was possible. Henry Ford’s model T was still only a dream, but would soon arrive and keep on arriving with few changes through the teens and until 1928, when the Model A was introduced. 

With mostly dirt and dusty roads and no oil or air cleaners, engines did not last long and would soon pour smoke out the exhaust. Tires had clincher rims and were inflated to 60 pounds, not much help on bumpy roads. There were no spare tires and tire life was short, maybe three to five thousand miles.  Tires also had inner tubes that had to be removed and patched in case of a flat. There were no batteries or self-starters. A crank in front of the car and the muscle in one arm was needed to get the engine to run. That is, in the summer.

In the winter, to get the engine started often met hitching a horse to the front of the car and towing it in high gear. Oils in those days got very stiff and thick in cold weather, often making it impossible to crank the engine by hand. The Model T had two gears, low and high. Three foot-pedals provided control. The left pedal, when pushed down provided a low gear, when the pedal was released the car was in high gear. A middle pedal provided reverse. And a third pedal on the right provided brake on the drive shaft.

There were no windshield wipers, rear view mirrors, stoplights, turn signals, heaters, air conditioning, and radios had not even been invented. Cars were mostly open sided, some coming with detachable side curtains. Lights were run off from the magneto that provided electricity for the spark plugs. At slow speeds at night the lights were very dim.

It took years for some of today’s improvements to be added, but the “tin lizzie” filled a need and spread across the nation, causing roads to be improved and new ones to be built. It spawned the age of the automobile, better roads and highways, plus today’s traffic congestion.