Automobiles in Early America Essay examples -- Transportation Technolo

Automobiles in Early America The automobile changed American life, but the process was gradual. Though historians argue the date and inventor of the first automobile, we can say that Henry Ford’s creation of his Ford Motor Company in 1903 marked perhaps the major milestone of the early twentieth century automobile industry in America and around the world. Five years after the company’s inception, Ford’s legendary Model T of 1908 would revolutionize transportation and the world economy. Before the Model T, automobiles in the US were associated with only the wealthier class. Ford sought to make cars available to every American. His cars would assume the general build that continues to characterize automobiles today, and his innovation and system of production would make him a legend.[i] The automobile led to an extremely advanced system of roads and contributed to an American mentality of freedom to move.[ii] Early drivers saw both benefits and difficulties as the automobile became the standard American mode of transportation. Philip Van Doren Stern, American historian and writer, describes the early years of automobiles in the US. Between 1904 and 1907, roads were unpaved and cars were not enclosed, so it was of utmost importance to wear proper attire. Clothes were made to protect against dust and rain, but these high-class riders required this new gear to be made from the best materials, like leather and fur. In the 1920s, when most cars were built completely enclosed, there was no longer a need for these elaborate outfits. During the early years of the century, drivers braved uncharted territory with their automobiles despite the rugged mechanics of the vehicles and the absence of smoot... ...fthompso/MgmtCon/Fordism_&_Postfordism.html [vi] Thompson, Fred. (most of paragraph’s information comes from web site above) [vii] Bellis, Henry Ford and The First Mass Production of Cars – The Assembly Line, About.com [viii] Antique Automobile Club of America, Automotive History – A Chronological History [ix] Weingroff, Richard F. The Federal-State Partnership at Work. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration Public Roads Web site, 1996. [x] Weingroff, The Federal-State Partnership at Work. [xi] Stern, pages 154-173 [xii] University of Houston. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display_printable.cfm?HHID=454 [xiii] Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. [xiv] Stern, page 23 [xv] Antique Automobile Club of America, Automotive History – The Assembly Line

Essay --

The growing relevance of Chemical Engineering in today’s world, from energy & oil industries to pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, and a keen desire for applying this knowledge in interrelated spheres motivates me to pursue a Master’s degree in this field. My interest in science goes back to the time when I was in school. We had a young and enthusiastic teacher who took us on field trips and visits to science fairs and museums. This nascent interest has only burgeoned through my years in school and high school, as I have learnt more about the subject. In the long run, I see myself as a part of a leading research group, either as a faculty member or in the R&D department of an organisation contributing my bit to the field of Chemical Engineering. As a research scientist, I hope to make a difference in this field and learn more through the innovative challenges. My father, being a chemical engineer, inspired in me an innate desire to be a chemical engineer myself. I appeared for the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) and was placed in the top 1% of the 1,100,000 students who had taken the exam. I chose Chemical Engineering as my undergraduate major at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur which provided me the opportunity to explore the breadth of chemical engineering. While the core courses provided the fundamentals of the field, the electives that I chose helped me gain an insight into the various facets of chemical engineering. My main aim during my undergraduate studies was to get an overview of the various fields in chemical engineering and identify a field of interest in which I could pursue my research career. Because of their vast applications, Materials & Polymer Sciences, in general, have attracted m... ...timulating academic environment and interaction with the distinguished faculty at Columbia University will prove immensely fruitful and facilitate my development as an individual researcher in my field. I feel that XXXX has a lot to offer me, and at the same time, I believe that I would be able to make a positive contribution to on-going research work at XXXX. The incentive of working under Professor XXXX is reason enough of my desire to apply here. Not only because he is working on XXXX, my favorite field of study, but also because I think with my experience in the field of XXXX, I would be able to contribute significantly in his research. I am confident that my strong motivation, my undergraduate experiences and my skill set will help me to measure up to the rigors of graduate study. I look forward to joining XXXX as a graduate student at your esteemed department.

Comparing Emersons Self-Reliance and Dunbars We Wear the Mask :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Comparing Emerson's Self-Reliance and Dunbar's We Wear the Mask      In Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson condemns false appearances. Paul Laurence Dunbar's We Wear the Mask also supports this belief. However, there is a difference in the views of these two works. Emerson believes that people can shed their false social appearances and live a life true to themselves and others. Conversely, Dunbar thinks these pretenses are necessary. The authors' word choices and images support this argument. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" expresses his striving for individuality, rebellion against authority, and rejection of false social appearances. This is shown through his non-conformist writing style and ideas. On page 1034, Emerson states "Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." To me, this image is of people giving up what they believe so they can protect themselves. "Securing" is making something safe or free from risk of loss, so "securing of his bread" could symbolize a person protecting their feelings or place in society. The price for this is "to surrender the liberty and culture." So, in order to protect themselves people must surrender or give up their liberty (freedom) and culture (beliefs).    Emerson also states that "virtues are penances...Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world"(p. 1035). Virtue is righteousness while a penance is an act to show sorrow for a wrongdoing. "Works" refer to chores or efforts at righteousness. "Apology" means regret and "extenuate" can mean to cover up. "Living in the world" could be symbolic of the lying and deceit that people do in everyday life. Therefore, people labor to appear righteous in order to make up for, or cover up, the bad things that they do.    On page 1036 Emerson says, "We come to wear one cut of face and figure." This sounds symbolically like putting on a mask or false appearance. Later, on the same page, Emerson talks about "the forced smile which we put on in company." "Forced" means to strain or produce with effort. Consequently, this "smile" we put on in public is not easily shown, as true emotions would be, but produced difficultly as if it was fake or not true.    Emerson does not subscribe to this outward falseness or the desire to appear righteous. Comparing Emerson's Self-Reliance and Dunbar's We Wear the Mask :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays Comparing Emerson's Self-Reliance and Dunbar's We Wear the Mask      In Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson condemns false appearances. Paul Laurence Dunbar's We Wear the Mask also supports this belief. However, there is a difference in the views of these two works. Emerson believes that people can shed their false social appearances and live a life true to themselves and others. Conversely, Dunbar thinks these pretenses are necessary. The authors' word choices and images support this argument. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" expresses his striving for individuality, rebellion against authority, and rejection of false social appearances. This is shown through his non-conformist writing style and ideas. On page 1034, Emerson states "Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." To me, this image is of people giving up what they believe so they can protect themselves. "Securing" is making something safe or free from risk of loss, so "securing of his bread" could symbolize a person protecting their feelings or place in society. The price for this is "to surrender the liberty and culture." So, in order to protect themselves people must surrender or give up their liberty (freedom) and culture (beliefs).    Emerson also states that "virtues are penances...Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world"(p. 1035). Virtue is righteousness while a penance is an act to show sorrow for a wrongdoing. "Works" refer to chores or efforts at righteousness. "Apology" means regret and "extenuate" can mean to cover up. "Living in the world" could be symbolic of the lying and deceit that people do in everyday life. Therefore, people labor to appear righteous in order to make up for, or cover up, the bad things that they do.    On page 1036 Emerson says, "We come to wear one cut of face and figure." This sounds symbolically like putting on a mask or false appearance. Later, on the same page, Emerson talks about "the forced smile which we put on in company." "Forced" means to strain or produce with effort. Consequently, this "smile" we put on in public is not easily shown, as true emotions would be, but produced difficultly as if it was fake or not true.    Emerson does not subscribe to this outward falseness or the desire to appear righteous.

Finding the Exception Essay

â€Å"I remember riding my bike to school every day and seeing those two men working on their bicycles in their garage, little did I know that they would be the founders of the Trek Bicycle Corporation.† My mother told this to me a few months back when we were reminiscing on the good ol’ days. Waterloo, one of the smallest towns I have ever been too, is home to the success of French history. Its Trek bicycles are now the Tour de France winning frames that brought Lance Armstrong his victories and brought the midwest its spotlight on making the first American bike frames to win the world’s most prestigious bicycle race. By 1984, Trek was at its peak and sales were around $20,000 with approximately fifty thousand Treks being sold in the United States (Burke, 2012). However â€Å"Trek had grown arrogant, and the problems were starting to show† (Burke, 2012). Within business success lies problems and for this company the early years presented many because Trek did not like the bicycle retailers that they were dealing with, they had no brand strategy, and they had no money to advertise It seems that the most successful businesses start with the passion of at least one person. For Trek it was the vision of Richard Burke and Bevel Hogg. Burke was a former accountant that took interest in investments. Hogg was the owner of a Midwestern chain of bicycle stores. While Burke spent 15 years perfecting his business skills with Roth Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Hogg was growing tired of the retail business while keeping his heart with bicycles. Burke had a passion for outdoor recreation which drove him toward the bicycle market. During a meeting between the two men in 1975 when they sought to solve the issue of foreign made product. Their main competitor at the time was Schwinn bu this company dominated the specialty retail market but their bikes were Japanese made. Burke and Hogg wanted to sell American-made product for the same specialty. The company began as a five-person operation in a barn and is now a globally oriented company with distribution in 65 countries and over 1500 employees worldwide. What made the Trek bicycle so unique? Their mission was and still is simple, build the best bikes in the world. The frame sets were handmade from steel. The style was adopted from a European brazing style with its own American flavor. Tim Issac, an early frame engineer, said that a Trek bicycle could be identified without any paint on it. The company was blessed with the right designers and tolling infrastructure to use exactly the right materials to create such unique frame sets. The company had successfully found a way to distinguish itself. â€Å"In order to succeed, you cannot just sell any brand; you need to produce something special† (Burke, 2012, p. 4). Once this is established it’s time to settle on a distribution channel to ensure customers are being reached. At the time, Penn Cycle, outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota was Trek’s dealer. What attracted this dealer to Trek was that not only did this bicycle manufacturer provide lightweight, advanced bicycle s, but they were also made in the United States. Market shares were quickly gaining from the Japanese and European competitors and the company was gaining dealers from Madison to San Francisco and sales had grown to over $1,000,000. After expanding the facility to allow for assembly lines and paint factories, reshaping the entire business, the company was able to hire its first true sales representatives and there in lies its customer service foundation. In 1981, sales doubles and again in 1982. In 1983, the company was already building additions to the factory. The business growth inspired a movements on the West Coast in corporations like Gary Fisher. Then in 1985, sales were over $20,000,000 But, as with any fast lane growth, Trek was facing a net loss for the second year straight. The totals sales in 1984 did not meet expectations and quality control was lacking which angered retailers. The assembly line was built but   it seemed as thought the company didn’t know how to keep it moving forward. On top of that the turn over rate was lacking. John Burke, the son of Richard Burke, who worked for his fathers business remembers writing orders and them showing up at the customer two weeks later but yet having other orders written on prior sales call that still were not arriving to the customers (Burke, 2012, p. 10). The quality in the company was deteriorating. There were paint problems, frames were out of alignment, credits that were promised were not going through, etc. â€Å"I worked hard and sold a lot of product but the problems from the home office kept mounting† (Burke, 2012). Retailers were becoming more and more upset which pushed Trek even harder and the company was falling apart. Customer services makes or brakes a company in the retail world and Treks mission was to make every customer happy. It was up to their customer service department to bring this company back up and that is exactly what John Burke did. He knew that they needed to regain their focus, and that he needed to take a more active role in the companies day-to-day operations. A lot of options were being faced which included closing the operation and liquidating the business, sell the company, or turn it around. â€Å"We decided to roll up our sleeves and get it done (Burke, 2012). There is one method in business that seems to always prevail and that is the back-to-basics approach. Build a quality product, at a competitive value, that can be delivered on time while maintaining a positive work environment for customers and employees. Most importantly, deliver profit. The company first needed to start shipping orders on the same day. Cross training is always an excellent tool and this was a perfect opportunity for the business-suited employees to start putting their hand in on the factory work. The factory would get backed up and so the office workers would go into the warehouse and make sure that orders were fulfilled. Saturdays may seem like a day of rest for some but for Trek to succeed it had to require work on the weekends. Not only were deadlines met but lousy product needed to stop making it out the door. This truly shows the customer that their needs are  being met no matter what it takes. Organizational buying process is such an important business practice. With the many years of developed partnerships Trek has established, the company now has suppliers around the world that allow the fulfillment of demands of the product line. In the 1980’s, when Trek was struggling, they were overlooking one very important aspect of their customer relationships-what is the actual value of their product? They were not going to their buyers and simply asking if they could help them find a vendor based on the value they were proposing. One a vendor is found there is some research that is to be done as well. Does this vendor have good history? Who has worked with them in the past? Is there opportunity to save some money in the mean time? Reliable quality product is what businesses thrive on. Any product that is overpriced needs to be discontinued and new products need to be developed that hit the right price points. â€Å"When potential suppliers are identified, they’re evaluated on four criteria: quality, delivery, capability, price, and environmental impact of their production process† (Kerin, 2005). In an industry such as bicycle production, the operational approach to management is essential. This approach is dedicated to improving efficiency, cutting waste, and improving quality (Kreitner & Cassidy, 2011). By staying in line with business ethics, the manager of Trek would have put more energy into building better product so that it would support the challenges faced today such as limited mobility, issues with the environment, and now more than ever, issues with health. Essentially the bike must work well. If the name Trek is one it then there is quality behind it and this quality needs to be adhered to in the warehouse during production. At the time, Trek probably could not have seen that the bicycle would become the simple solution to all of these things but just as we embrace the availability of such innovation, managers of any business should be at least two steps ahead as to almost predict the future, therefore focusing on sustaining the reputable quality product that the company originated from. In 1988, Trek introduced the Model 1200 aluminum road bike. This was the turning point for the company. This was true quality at a very competitive price. The original dollar amount was $500. Originally the company planned to sell 3,000 of these models but at the end of the year 12,000 were sold. This is when a business needs to reevaluate its retail margin. What goals are being made to improve the amount of retailers and what is the target date? Buyer centers then need to help the company find vendors to find the right place to sell new product. New strategic visions for new models and components builds a better business. Trek was learning, slowly but surely, that they needed to look at their own processes, understand how they make their product, how they source their product, and how they will continue to bring their product to the market and maybe at the end of the day, saving a dollar or two. How could Trek build bicycles that last longer, maybe even use recycles tires. Every business has room for improvement. Business owners should always be looking for ways to bring new technology and solutions into the marketplace. By 1996 Trek was now over $300 million in sales. At this point in the time the company was expanded in Europe to include Japan. However, when there is sunshine expect rain and when there is rain expect for sun. After Trek ramped up their budgets by 20 percent in 1996, 20% more product was to be produced. Sales forecasts were starting to get missed which left inventory levels shooting through the roof. The company was yet again out of balance. There were more bikes in inventory than sales. Every year bicycle products are expected to change, therefore this high inventory of product needed to be discounted heavily in order for sales to continue. This only hurts profit margins. Basically what happened was that Trek grew too big too fast. Just about an hour away form Waterloo is the Whitewater Trek manufacturing plant. When this plant was first opened in 1995, the goal seemed to still be manufacturing low-price point bikes. â€Å"We got out of 1996 making a profit, but the future was no longer bright, and storm clouds were on the horizon† (Burke, 2012). Then numbers continued to look worse and worse as the years went on. Finally in 1998, Tim Callahan was hired on to Trek to take over manufacturing. He turned over Trek manufacturing that essentially saved the business, yet another time. The concept of Kaizen, Japanese for â€Å"continuous improvement† was used first to turn the Trek factories around. â€Å"In the gift-that-keeps-on-giving department, we took Kaizen to our dealer network and it has continued to make an amazing difference to this day† (Burke, 2012). Businesses to do not There was one other thing that added to Treks new found momentum in success. Trek signed a sponsorship deal with the US Postal Service to sponsor a bike team. Thanks to Lance Armstrong, who had a good group of riders, Trek appeared in the 1999 Tour de France. Lance’s winnings gave Trek the opportunity to show up on the front of Sports Illustrated and The New York Times, as well as on the Letterman show (Burke, 2012). Business was great until the year 2006. Production needed a facelift. How do you keep a product backed for years by consumers by maintaining its quality and reputation? For consumers of Trek bicycles, there is customer loyalty. Just like with Apple computer or Smart phones. Why such dedication from the customer? Trek figure out that to continue this relationship they would not only have to continue to build quality bicycles-the best in the world but they would provide their customers with quality products at competitive value that would be delivered on time. Just as with Apple computers, the product continues to prove itself in quality, never leaving the customer unsatisfied. IF there is a problem for whatever reason, dedication to customer sanctification shines the most by fixing whatever issue there may be in a timely fashion. When Senior Burke fired the management team and asked John to move back to Wisconsin to run Trek’s customer service department, he learned the value of maintaining relationships with retailers and customers.

Summary of the Lawnmower Man

Summary The lawnmower man The lawnmower man is a short story by Stephen King. The lawnmower man is about Harold Parkette, who after an accident with his lawnmower and the neighbors dog, decides to sell his lawnmower. After a while the lawn starts to get higher. He decides to hire a lawnmower to do the lawn for him. He calls the firm Pastoral greenery and outdoor service. Not long after a lawnmower shows up at his house. He is the usual type, he knows all to well. While the lawnmower takes care of his lawn, he sits down whit the paper and a beer.A loud racketing roar awakens him from his thoughts. He rushes to the front lawn. He is greeted by a strange sight. The lawnmower is driving itself, and the lawnmower is completely naked and is crawling on all four behind the mower eating the grass. Harold gets terrified by the experience. The lawnmower tells Harold that he isn’t actually working for Pastoral greenery and outdoor service, but his boss is Pan, who is a apart of the greek mythology, he is the god of animals and wild.He is half goat halt human. The lawnmower man tells Harold that his boss is always looking for new recruits. Harold is frightened and goes to the phone to call the police, and tell what is going on. While on the phone with the police, the front door gets smashed and in comes the lawnmower with the lawnmower man behind him. The lawnmower man tells him that Harold made a mistake by calling the police.He gets closer to Harold, and Harold retreats to the kitchen while holding a chair in front of him. The lawnmower decides that it’s Harold turn to get lawned. Harold runs out of the door and onto the lawn. He trips over his own feet, and the last thing he sees is mower sharp blades which are green from cutting the lawn. The police arrives after the neighbors calls them, and all thats left of him is in birdbath, and the smell of newly cut grass is still in the air.

Ethical Decision Making by Individuals Essay

Existing theoretical models of individual ethical decision making in organizations place little or no emphasis on characteristics of the ethical issue itself. This article (a) proposes an issue-contingent model containing a new set of variables called moral intensity: (b) using concepts, theory, and evidence derived largely from social psychology, argues that moral intensity influences every component of moral decision making and behavior: (c) offers four research propositions, and (d) discusses implications of the theory. Conclusions and Implications Existing theoretical models have ignored the effect of characteristics of the moral issue itself on ethical decision making and behavior in organizations. Taken at face value, these models suggest that individuals will decide and behave in the same manner regardless of the nature of the moral issue involved. An employee of a drug manufacturer would view the release of a dangerous drug by his or her firm with the same alarm (or lack of alarm) that he or she viewed the theft of a few diskettes from the company supply cabinet by a fellow employee. The issue-contingent model proposed here explicitly rejects this view and suggests that the moral intensity of the issue itself has a significant effect on moral decision making and behavior at all stages of the process. If this model is found to have empirical support, the testing of other models would be significantly affected. Controlling for issue traits would become an integral part of a meaningful test of Trevino’s (1986) person-situation interactionist model, for example; the relative importance of personal factors and situational factors might vary considerably, from issue to issue. Similarly, issue charucteristics could alter the balance of teleological and deontological considerations in the moral evaluation stage of Hunt and Vitell’s (1986) general theory model of marketing ethics. Perhaps the most important potential impact of an empirical finding that ethical decision making and behavior are issue contingent involves the applicability of the models themselves. Moral intensity is expected to play a major role in the recognition of moral issues and, hence, in the actual engagement of moral decision-making processes instead of, or in addition to, other decision-making schemata. Simply stated, the details of moral decision-making and behavior processes become irrelevant if the person does not recognize that he or she is dealing with a moral issue. Future models of ethical decision making should include some consideration of the effect of the moral agent’s failure to recognize the moral issue. Moral intensity is also relevant to the general applicability of Kohlberg’s (1976) theory of cognitive moral development. If moral development is issue contingent, as this article and some emerging empirical evidence suggest, then Kohlberg’s theory would have to be substantially revised, and much of the research based on it would have to be reappraised. Future research based on his developmental theory would have to control for traits of the moral issues involved. From a practical point of view, issue contingency is important to normative judgments of moral decisions and of the people who make them. Many of the elements of moral intensity (magnitude of consequences, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, and concentration of effect) are directly related to judgments of the importance of moral issues. If these elements of moral intensity are found to be positively linked to moral behavior, it can be concluded that people generally behave better when the moral issue is important than they do when it is unimportant. Regardless of a person’s views regarding the overall moral tenor of society or its alleged decline in recent years, he or she could easily be encouraged by the finding that people’s best moral behavior is inspired by issues of substantial importance.

My View of the World Essay

As I stand here looking over the lush green foliage of thousands of trees, I glanced down toward the base of the mountain to see curvy, windy roads, weaving in and out between tiny little box houses, plotted around here and there. I can see for miles and miles, the views are breath taking. That’s mostly why people come to see me, to look out with me, to see the fantastic views. My arms are sore from standing here for about 75 years, just doing nothing but wondering. For many months I have started to think what is beyond the horizon of the sea. There could be a whole new world over the edge. Is there even an edge? Who knows? Years ago those little things climbed on my feet, just to get a better view or to pose in front of a compact box, with a blinding flash for a couple of seconds, but now there are large metallic fences at my feet. This is predominantly because I am old, weary and wearing out so I need protecting. People get here in many different ways, clear boxes which travel up and down continuously, moving stairs, or climbing 222 steps reaching the summit, exhausted. Oh yeah! I forgot to say about the odd people that walk all the way up the ridge of mount Corcovado who wear small shorts, long pulled up socks, big chunky boots, weird hats and really, really big bags on their backs. They come in there hordes, they come in all shapes and sizes; big ones; small ones; fat ones; thin ones; some are noisy; some are quiet; some just scream and laugh; some are in awe of me and gaze up at me, as I gaze out at the horizon. These people see me as a god, but if only it were true because all I want to do is just fly to the moon, to the white wonderful wide space, where I could rest my sore painful arms and legs. No one knows the pain I’m in or even know I have any feelings. I remember the journey of how I came to be here. I was created by a local engineer called Heitor da Silva Costa. He made me out of reinforced concrete and layers of soap stone. Firstly I was going to be made out of steel but that wouldn’t of had much of a chance against extreme weather conditions. I was built in small chunks and slowly brought to the top by a struggling train on the Corcovado Rack Railway. Then I was pieced together bit by bit, slowly rising above the ridge to embrace the people of the world. Through my amazingly large nostrils I can smell the wondrous cuisine from the land below swirling and rising up the mountain side. Just after dark the surroundings black out and all attention is drawn towards the bright lights of the city. Although no one else sees it, it’s not all happiness up here. I have seen many things in my life like robbery’s, suicides, murders, but what always happens almost every night is groups of people sell drugs and sit there injecting liquids into their arms, snorting dust and sniffing corrosive fumes of acids. The fumes are so strong even I get a headache and my heads made out of concrete! It is disgusting what they do, but it is what they want to do, and what could I do any way. As dawn emerges it makes up for the previous night. The sun rises and a new day begins. In the early morning, the mountain air is fresh and crisp; the sun rises leisurely, bringing a slow warmth to the city. The most beautiful part of the day is now, when it is peaceful and you can hear the chirping of the birds below. The heat from the sun breaks through my layers of soap stone reaching into the hard cold concrete inside.