🌊 Ripple · counterfactual
What if the internal combustion engine had gone differently?
1876 · rhineland
A compact engine that burns liquid fuel in its own cylinders, light enough to carry itself.
If it had gone differently: Transport stays horse-drawn or rail-bound; there is no car, no truck, no aircraft engine, no 20th-century sprawl.
What it set up
- 1903Powered flight, Heavier-than-air flight stays a fairground stunt for another generation; the world shrinks more slowly.
- 1908The Ford Model T, The car stays a rich man's toy; there is no mass motoring, no suburb, no roadside America.
- 1913The moving assembly line, Cars, appliances and machines stay hand-built and expensive; there is no mass consumer economy.
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