The first commercially successful
automobile, with over 200 sold in the first year of production, 1897. In 1906 driver Fred Marriott did the flying mile in 28.2 seconds at Daytona Beach, a
land speed record of 127.66 mph that stood for eighty years.
The manifold effects of the invention of the starter motor by Cadillac, the introduction of the Model T by Henry Ford, and the Second World War combined to kill the steam-powered automobile; if we'd gone in a slightly different direction the world would be a much quieter and cleaner place.
The Stanley brothers also invented the dry-plate photography process, which they later sold to George Eastman, founder of Kodak.