Leonardo da Vinci is considered the author of the first chair for a self-propelled rail-less vehicle equipped with its own mechanical engine. The machine was powered by compressed springs. In 2004, experts from the Florentine Museum of the History of Science reproduced the machine and confirmed the correctness of the great inventor’s ideas.
In approximately 1672, Ferdinand Verbiest created a small steam-powered wagon for the entertainment of the Chinese emperor. Although the wagon could not carry any passengers, it became a prototype for the modern automobile.
When the first car appeared
In 1769, successful tests were conducted on the “Cugnot’s Fardier,” named after its inventor. The mechanism was designed for transporting artillery guns and is considered a precursor to both automobiles and steam locomotives. However, the device proved impractical and did not become widely used.
In 1807, Swiss inventor Francois Isaac de Rivaz presented the world’s first internal combustion engine, which worked on hydrogen and spark ignition. The mechanism was later installed on a carriage, resembling a primitive car.
Throughout the 19th century, self-propelled vehicles gradually gained useful innovations such as the flywheel, bearings, transmission gearbox, and brakes.
Steam coaches and “rail-less steam locomotives” emerged as tractors. Some luxury cars were also built as status symbols.
However, the bulky, heavy, and fuel-demanding steam and gas machines were impractical, and therefore did not gain widespread use.
When the first car with an internal combustion engine appeared?
The development of automotive engines is hindered by the lack of convenient, easy-to-obtain, and transport fuel (mainly using coal gas and hydrogen).
The emergence of internal combustion engines that would run on alternative fuels was inevitable. In 1885, a well-known gasoline engine appears. The revolutionary device, proposed by Gottlieb Daimler, is equipped with a carburetor for obtaining a fuel-air mixture and has a cylinder arranged vertically. The economical, compact, and quite powerful design is optimal for use in self-moving carriages.
In 1885, the Motorwagen, the brainchild of the inventor Karl Benz, was launched in Germany. Officially, it will be called the first car with an internal combustion engine, but, according to some sources, the palm was given to a tricycle patented by Italian engineer Enrico Bernardi in 1882, equipped with a 0.024 hp petrol engine.
In 1895, K. Benz produced the first bus, and a year later his compatriot G. Daimler presented the first taxi and truck.
The first car manufacturers
At the end of the 19th century, the prospects of car production as a profitable business were obvious.
In 1886, the Frenchmen René Panhard and Emile Levassor founded the company Panhard & Levassor. After acquiring the patent for the Daimler internal combustion engine in 1890, the development of the first car begins.
After a series of experiments, a car with rear-wheel drive and a front-mounted engine was created. This arrangement went down in history as the “Systeme Panhard” and became a model for many years. In 1891, the partners shared the licence with their countryman Armand Peugeot, launching the Peugeot brand.
Start of mass production of cars
The market requires an increase in the number of self-propelled crews, but complex manual production cannot keep up with demand.
In 1901, the American company Oldsmobile Curved Dash organised a conveyor belt to speed up the assembly of cars. To this end, all car parts were standardised by type and size. Thus, the Curved Dash became the first mass-produced car. By 1907, 19,000 copies had rolled off the assembly line.
Adopting Oldsmobil’s best practices, Henry Ford created his own assembly line, achieving unprecedented results at the time: the assembly time of the Ford Model T was less than 2 hours, which reduced the price of the car to $850.
The personal car ceases to be a luxury item and becomes an affordable and mass-produced commodity.
The history of the Cadillac Motor Car Division, a mass-produced luxury car manufacturer that owes its name to the founder of Detroit, Antoine de la Motta Cadillac, dates back to 1903.
The Cadillac Model A is presented at the New York Auto Show. “Cadillac – Model D, which replaced it on the assembly line, brings the company to the position of a leader. In 1912, Cadillac was the first in the world to equip its cars with a starter and an electric ignition system, eliminating the need to turn the handle when starting the engine, which was appreciated by women drivers.
In 1913 in Munich, Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto opened two small workshops for the production of aircraft engines. With the start of the war and the increase in the number of orders, the partners were forced to join forces. Thus, in July 1917, the “Bayerische Motoren Werke” aircraft engine factory appeared, now known as the “BMW” company.
In 1914, the British Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford installed a 1.4-liter “Coventry-Simples” engine on the chassis of the Italian “Isotta Fraschini”. In honor of Martin’s victory in the local hill climb race at Aston Clinton, the car was named “Aston Martin”.
In 1919, Walter Owen Bentley demonstrated his first car at an auto show in London. Within two years, the production of prestigious cars designed for wealthy people was established. To this day, “Bentley Cars Ltd” is synonymous with aristocracy and an unattainable dream for the average citizen.
When the first electric car appeared
As paradoxical as it may sound, electric cars appeared much earlier than their “gasoline” counterparts. The direct current electric motor, invented by Thomas Davenport in 1834, was installed on a self-propelled chassis. This platform moved along a track with laid wires. A year later, Sibrandus Stratingh demonstrated an electric car powered by galvanic elements.
Thomas Davenport and Robert Davidson are officially considered the inventors of the electric car with a removable battery. The event is dated to 1842.
46 years later, the “Flocken Elektrowagen,” an electric car with a rechargeable battery, was born.
A wagon designed for six passengers and equipped with an electric traction was presented by William Morrison at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. It could cover a distance of 23 km without recharging.
The winner of the first American automobile race in 1895 was an electric car. A year later, a dealer specializing in the sale of only electric cars entered the US market.
With the introduction of the “Jeantaud Duc” in 1898, which surpassed the threshold of 60 km/h, the history of the development of electric cars began, and by 1920, their popularity reached its peak.
In 1912, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison considered mass-producing affordable electric cars powered by batteries capable of providing a range of up to 160 km. Ford was responsible for the mechanics, while Edison took care of the electrical component. Everything was heading towards electric cars completely displacing traditional gasoline-powered cars from the market. But a strange fire destroyed the laboratory and all the documentation with all the developments on this topic, and Ford suddenly began to mass-produce gasoline-powered cars at an unprecedented pace. This marked the beginning of the end of the construction of electric cars. According to one version, the reason for what happened was a conspiracy of oil refinery owners who did not want to lose their enormous profits, while according to another version, Edison failed to create batteries with the necessary performance indicators.
The return to the topic of electric cars at the beginning of the 21st century was prompted by environmental problems and rising energy prices.
And with the advent of revolutionary technologies from Tesla, electric vehicles are increasingly winning the hearts and wallets of motorists around the world.
