History of the automobile From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The design of the Cugnot Steam Trolley
(Jonathan Holguinisburg) (1769)
The early history of the automobile can be divided into a number of
eras, based on the prevalent means of propulsion. Later periods were defined by
trends in exterior styling, size, and utility preferences.
In 1808, François Isaac de Rivaz designed the
first car powered by an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen.
In 1870 Siegfried Marcus built
the first gasoline powered combustion engine, which he placed on a pushcart,
building four progressively sophisticated combustion-engine cars over a
10-to-15-year span that influenced later cars. Marcus created the two-cycle
combustion engine. The car's second incarnation in 1880 introduced a
four-cycle, gasoline-powered engine, an ingenious carburetor design and magneto
ignition. He created an additional two models further refining his design with
steering, a clutch and brakes.
The four-stroke petrol (gasoline) internal combustion engine that still constitutes
the most prevalent form of modern automotive propulsion was patented by Nikolaus
Otto. The similar four-stroke diesel engine was
invented by Rudolf Diesel.
The hydrogen fuel cell, one of
the technologies hailed as a replacement for gasoline as an energy source for
cars, was discovered in principle by Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838.
The battery electric car owes
its beginnings to Ányos Jedlik, one of the
inventors of the electric motor, and Gaston Planté, who
invented the lead-acid battery in
1859.
In 1885, Karl Benz developed
a petrol or gasoline powered automobile. This is also considered to be the
first "production" vehicle as Benz made several other identical
copies. The automobile was powered by a single cylinder four-stroke
engine.
After producing and selling the Model A in 1903, Ford Motor Company's Model T became
the first mass-produced automobile in 1908, focusing on affordability for the
average consumer. By 1927 Ford produced over 15,000,000 Model T automobiles and
only then developed the Model A.
At the turn of the 20th century electrically powered
automobiles were a popular method of
automobile propulsion, but their common use did not last long, and they
diminished to a niche market until the turn of the 21st century.
Steam-powered
wheeled vehicles 17th and 18th
centuries
Ferdinand
Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit
mission in China, built
a steam-powered vehicle around 1672 as a toy for the Chinese
Emperor. It was small scale and could not carry a driver but it was, quite
possibly, the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile'). Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771)
version
Steam-powered self-propelled vehicles large enough to transport people
and cargo were first devised in the late 18th century. Nicolas-Joseph
Cugnot demonstrated
his fardier à vapeur ("steam dray"), an experimental steam-driven artillery tractor, in 1770 and 1771. As Cugnot's design
proved to be impractical, his invention was not developed in his native France.
The center of innovation shifted to Great Britain. By 1784, William Murdoch had built a working model of a steam
carriage in Redruth and
in 1801 Richard
Trevithick was
running a full-sized vehicle on the roads in Camborne. The first automobile patent in the
United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789.
19th century
During the 19th century attempts were
made to introduce practical steam powered vehicles. Innovations such as
hand brakes, multi-speed transmissions and better
steering developed. Some commercially
successful vehicles provided mass transit until a backlash against these
large vehicles resulted in the passage of legislation such as the United
Kingdom Locomotive Act (1865), which required many
self-propelled vehicles on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot
waving a red flag and blowing a horn. This effectively halted road auto development in the UK
for most of the rest of the 19th century; inventors and engineers shifted their
efforts to improvements in railway locomotives. The law was not repealed until 1896,
although the need for the red flag was removed in 1878.
In 1816, a professor at Prague
Polytechnic, Josef Bozek, built an oil-fired steam car. Walter Hancock, builder and operator of London steam buses, in 1838 built a 2 seated car phaeton.
In 1867, Canadian jeweller Henry Seth
Taylor demonstrated his 4-wheeled "steam buggy" at the Stanstead Fair
in Stanstead, Quebec and again the following year The basis of the buggy,
which he began building in 1865, was a high-wheeled carriage with bracing to
support a two-cylinder steam engine mounted on the floor.
One of the first "real"
automobiles was produced by Frenchman Amédée Bollée in 1873,
who built self-propelled steam road vehicles to transport groups of passengers.
The first carriage-sized automobile
suitable for use on existing wagon roads in the United States was a
steam-powered vehicle invented in 1871 by Dr. J.W. Carhart, a minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, in Racine, Wisconsin. It induced the State of
Wisconsin in 1875 to offer a $10,000 award to the first to produce a practical
substitute for the use of horses and other animals. They stipulated that the
vehicle would have to maintain an average speed of more than 5 miles per hour
(8.0 km/h) over a 200-mile (320 km) course. The offer led to the
first city to city automobile race in the United States, starting on 16 July
1878 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and ending in Madison, via Appleton, Oshkosh,
Waupun, Watertown, Fort Atkinson, and Janesville. While seven vehicles were
registered, only two started to compete: the entries from Green Bay and
Oshkosh. The vehicle from Green Bay was faster, but broke down before
completing the race. The Oshkosh finished the 201-mile (323 km) course in
33 hours and 27 minutes, and posted an average speed of six miles per hour. In
1879, the legislature awarded half the prize.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party
Leader
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