TIME 100: Builders & Titans - 20th Century Technology





AUTOMOBILE

Undoubtedly, the car is one of the most revolutionary developments of the century. Its origins lie in the combustion engine, a 19th-century invention whose overall impact was not fully exploited until Henry Ford devised a system of mass production for the Model T in 1908. After the introduction of division of labor and the assembly-line system, affordable cars were churned out, leading to dramatic changes in society. Mass transportation has linked people together by joining rural areas to urban centers, and is a primary contributor to the world economy. Ford's assembly line was later made more efficient with the use of robots, machines that could mimic human tasks.

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20th Century Technology

automobile
radio
television
transistor
laser
electric refrigeration
personal computer
wireless technology
manned spaceflight
airplane
radar
magnetic tape
plastics
air conditioning
global networks
atomic bomb
artificial intelligence
fiber optics
xerography
internet
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