| This dissertation explores the path dependent process by which internal combustion emerged at the turn of the century as the automotive technological standard. Could an alternative to internal combustion--i.e., the electric vehicle--have become the technological standard for the Automobile Age?;Drawing upon methods and theoretical insights from history of technology, economics of technology and environmental studies, the dissertation suggests that alternative technological pathways existed, but only for a brief period of time before 1903. During this window of opportunity, fledgling electric and, to a lesser extent, steam vehicles might have played an important enough role in the automotive system to have precluded the total dominance of the gasoline automobile. But this did not happen, and as the gasoline-based system expanded in scope and scale, alternatives to internal combustion were increasingly destined to fail. Using records from an early electric car manufacturer (the Electric Vehicle Company), minutes of an industrial association that promoted electric vehicles (the Electric Vehicle Association of America), and studies of the relative operating cost of gasoline and electric vehicles, the dissertation explores how the separate sphere of the electric vehicle contracted while that of internal combustion grew. The history of early electric taxicab fleets suggests that car service, for which electric vehicles were well suited, as opposed to car ownership, might have provided an alternative basis for motorized transport. Similarly, the failure of the electric utility industry to take timely action to secure an enormous potential market for electric power provides another possible explanation for the success of internal combustion.;The concluding chapters examine the legacy of automotive systems rivalry for current debates about the future of the automobile. The dissertation concludes that environmental transformation was endemic to the process of technological stabilization. An electric or steam-based motor vehicle system would have led to different, but perhaps equally undesirable, environmental consequences. The essential public policy issues--in the case of the automobile and in coping with the unintended consequences of emerging technological systems generally--involve fundamental trade-offs between competing social goals of efficiency and robustness of technological systems. |
