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40 Build Your Own Electric Vehiclethe former allied parts, it also paved the way for the oil industry as we know it today,dominated by multiple, large, fiercely competitive, multinational corporations.Other events of the period also contributed to oil’s rise and dominance: theintroduction of “thermal cracking” by Standard Oil of Indiana in 1913 (a process thatmore than doubled the amount of gasoline recoverable from a barrel of crude oil, up to45 percent); discovery of oil near Tampico, Mexico in 1910; discovery of oil in Persia(Iran) that led to construction of an Abadan refinery in 1912 by Anglo-Persian (a pre–World War I “strategic” decision by Winston Churchill gave the British government,through British Petroleum, 51 percent ownership of Anglo-Persian after it ran intofinancial difficulties); and World War I itself.Meanwhile, other internal combustion engine vehicle innovators were busy too:Walter Chrysler, John and Horace Dodge (the brothers who began as captive suppliersto Ford), and numerous others provided innovations that survive to the present day.William Durant incorporated General Motors in September 1908, and by the 1920s itsmajor divisions (Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland, Chevrolet, GM Truck) and itssupporting divisions (Fisher Body, Harrison Radiator, Champion Spark Plug, DELCO,Hyatt Roller Bearing, and others) were household names in the United States. WhileDurant acquired valuable assets in assembling GM’s acquisitions under one holdingcompanyumbrella, it was the talent he obtained (such as Alfred Sloan from Hyatt andCharles Kettering from Cadillac) that paved the way for GM’s later rise to dominance.GM innovations such as color, streamlining, smoother, more-powerful six-cylinderengines, and annual model styling changes made Ford’s Model T obsolete, despite its$290 price in 1924. The internal combustion vehicles were now on their way.In 1900, half of the 80 million people in the United States lived in a few large(mostly Eastern) cities with paved roads, and the other half in towns linked by dirtroads or in countryside with no roads at all. Less than 10 percent of the 2 million milesof roads were paved. More than 25 million horses and mules provided mobility forthe masses. Electric lighting in the larger cities was dwarfed by the use of kerosenelamps, popularized by the discovery of plentiful amounts of oil, in the countryside.Coal- or wood-burning steam engine locomotives were high tech. Only 200,000 milesof railroad track existed, but some of it provided fast, efficient transportation betweenmajor locations—New York to Chicago on the “Twentieth Century Limited” took 20hours. While a New York-to-California railroad ticket cost $50, vehicles of any kindcost around $5,000 to $50,000 in today’s dollars, putting them out of the hands of allbut the well-to-do.Three types of vehicles came into this turn-of-the-century United States environment.Almost 3,000 manufacturers experimented with various combinations of propulsion(steam, electric, or internal combustion engine); fuel (water/kerosene, battery, gasoline/oil); cooling (air or liquid); mounting (front, rear, or middle); drive (front or rear wheelsvia shaft, gear, chain, or belt); chassis (three- or four-wheel, independent suspension, orleaf/coil springs); and tires (pneumatic or solid). By the time World War I was over, theinternal combustion vehicle had emerged as the clear victor.The Golden Age of Internal CombustionInternal combustion engine vehicle growth in the United States exploded with WorldWar I. After World War II, world internal combustion engine automotive growth waseven more dramatic. What made all this possible was the unprecedented oil availability,and the relative price stability shown in Figure 3-5, which allowed United States gasoline