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Thinking in systems But the Stanleys missed the system point—or, more correctly, they never really aimed for it. They set out to build a great car , arguably the best car. They fixated on their automobile. By 1917, the Stanley Steamer line would come in several models and feature, among other amenities, a Klaxon push-button horn. Its upholstered seats, while neither rich nor Corinthian, were made from soft, genuine leather. Stanley Steamer produced about 500 cars in 1917; its four-passenger touring car was priced at $2,550. Ford produced more than 600,000 Model Ts that same year; its five-passenger touring car was priced at $360. And Ford’s seven largest competitors at the time—ICE manufacturers all—combined to produce an additional 600,000 vehicles. Demand for ICE-powered cars had begun to eclipse both steam- and electric-powered-vehicle market share by about 1903, and then left both electric and steam powertrains far behind as demand surged during the First World War (1914–18). After the war, ICE vehicles dominated the automobile market for the rest of the 20th century. Unlike the Stanleys, Henry Ford did think in systems, relentlessly in systems; he cogitated about “the real foundation for an economic system … our whole the system should be one with the car.” Ford thought in systems when developing the assembly line, a systemic change from the piecework method. Ford rapidly bent the cost curve, enabling the company to turn out vastly more vehicles that would meet—and often exceed—consumer expectations on speed, power, range, reliability, and, especially, price. Ford priced his cars so that his workers, in particular, could afford one. Henry Ford built the Model T “for the great multitude.” The multitude kept buying, and Ford and other ICE manufacturers worldwide kept building. By 1924, Ford had produced more than ten million Model Ts. Stanley Steamer shuttered production that same year. ICE-powered vehicles catalyzed an ICE-vehicle ecosystem. If an ICE-vehicle ecosystem wasn’t made precisely by design, it wasn’t made by sheer accident, either. The Stanleys derided gasoline as “explosive liquid fuel,” but hardware stores sold it, and farmers kept it around. As Model Ts and other ICE vehicles poured out of factories, a network of service stations sprung up to keep gasoline pumping.

Electric cars enjoyed something of a miniboom at the turn of the 20th century.

The more people could travel, the more people wanted to ride. ICE-powered buses began to roll on city streets and intercity highways, competing with electric trams. More automobiles drove the demand for more paved roads, a network of them, which increased fivefold from 1905 to 1920: roads that had gas stations but not infrastructure for electric or steam vehicles; cities and towns that had parking lots and parking garages—two cars in every garage, rang the slogan—but not garages with water pumps or charging capabilities.

The 125th anniversary of the little engine that couldn’t

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