Yes. A guy went over to Europe to take a look at why German and Italian cars were doing so much better at racing, and discovered that the secret was alloy steels, a big improvement over carbon steel.
American cars were still barely more than horseless carriages of course, and the SAE hadn't yet narrowed down the 800 lock washers, 1600 sizes of steel tubing, etc etc
While anyone could make a motorcycle, or automobile, in their garage from spare parts, some blacksmithing, and ingenuity, there was no universal sizing, no industry standards, and no quality processes. So, a lot of parts just broke apart because there was no engineering developed yet to improve the materials and production processes.
But when Edward Gallaher returned from his tour of European car makers, with the discovery that allow steels were the secret to improving axles, hubs, transmission gears, differentials and driveshafts... to the degree that the steel was 3 times stronger, and the parts could be smaller and lighter.
Gallaher met with Charles Schwab, owner of Bethlehem Steel, and convinced him to explore high grades of alloy steels, and then supply those better steels to the major manufacturers of parts and cars. And that fast, American cars went from heavy and low durability parts, to lighter and longer lasting parts! And racing became far more competitive between the CONUS car makers, and the European makers.
Schwab then set Bethehem Steel apart by pioneering the H beam, with the new stronger alloy steels, and revolutionized building construction into the age of the skyscraper. This grew Bethlehem Steel into the worlds 2nd largest steel company
Schwab also was brilliant at business, and had quickly worked his way into, through, and promoted from engineer, to manager, to general superintendent of a steel company, to president of Carnegie Steel, which he secretly sold to investors including JP Morgan, and then became president of US Steel, and then left to found Bethlehem Steel.
He also landed the contract to supply the rails to the Trans Siberian, by providing a $200,000 "gift" to the mistress of the Grand Duke Alexis Aleksandrovich
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/lost-1906-charles-m-schwab-mansion.html
American cars were still barely more than horseless carriages of course, and the SAE hadn't yet narrowed down the 800 lock washers, 1600 sizes of steel tubing, etc etc
While anyone could make a motorcycle, or automobile, in their garage from spare parts, some blacksmithing, and ingenuity, there was no universal sizing, no industry standards, and no quality processes. So, a lot of parts just broke apart because there was no engineering developed yet to improve the materials and production processes.
But when Edward Gallaher returned from his tour of European car makers, with the discovery that allow steels were the secret to improving axles, hubs, transmission gears, differentials and driveshafts... to the degree that the steel was 3 times stronger, and the parts could be smaller and lighter.
Gallaher met with Charles Schwab, owner of Bethlehem Steel, and convinced him to explore high grades of alloy steels, and then supply those better steels to the major manufacturers of parts and cars. And that fast, American cars went from heavy and low durability parts, to lighter and longer lasting parts! And racing became far more competitive between the CONUS car makers, and the European makers.
Schwab then set Bethehem Steel apart by pioneering the H beam, with the new stronger alloy steels, and revolutionized building construction into the age of the skyscraper. This grew Bethlehem Steel into the worlds 2nd largest steel company
Schwab also was brilliant at business, and had quickly worked his way into, through, and promoted from engineer, to manager, to general superintendent of a steel company, to president of Carnegie Steel, which he secretly sold to investors including JP Morgan, and then became president of US Steel, and then left to found Bethlehem Steel.
He also landed the contract to supply the rails to the Trans Siberian, by providing a $200,000 "gift" to the mistress of the Grand Duke Alexis Aleksandrovich
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/lost-1906-charles-m-schwab-mansion.html
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