First Car Invented

From LoveToKnow Cars

Unlike other big inventions with a specific date and model number, it is difficult to pinpoint the very first car invented.

Early day car

Early Cars

No definite dates are found to indicate the first car invented, but drawings of transport vehicles date as far back as the 15th century. Leonardo da Vinci created drawings and designs of transport vehicles, but no prototypes were developed.

Several variations and models of cars came about in the beginning of the life of the automobile. With each new machine outdoing the last, many different patents and inventions were established. Nearly 100,000 patents shape the cars we drive today.

The early machines used engines powered by various power sources. Each of these engines were improved upon several times, but stayed the same for years at a time.

The First Car Invented Timeline
  • The earliest vehicle on record is a self-propelled road vehicle, powered by a steam engine and built for the French army by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769.
  • Robert Anderson in Scotland built the first electric vehicle on record between 1832 and 1839. The car looked like a carriage without a horse in front of it.
  • Karl Friedrich Benz built the first true car, similar to the cars we drive today, around 1885 or 1886. Powered by an internal combustion engine and fueled by gasoline, this German car had three wheels.
  • Four wheels became standard for all cars after Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invented the first four wheeled, four-stroke gasoline powered automobile in Germany.
  • Henry Ford is the most famous early car-maker in the United States, but he is not the first success on record. Charles Edgar and Frank Duryea set up the first car manufacturing company in the United States in 1893. The brothers also developed the first successful gasoline powered car. The car included a two-stroke engine and put out four horsepower.

First Engines

From the building of the first automobile to the invention of the modern day car, several different engines successfully powered the automobile.

Gas Powered Engines – Gas engines, also called internal combustion engines; provide power for most vehicles on the road today. Diesel engines are also powered by the technology of internal combustion. Internal combustion uses an explosive combustion of gasoline or diesel to operate the piston, cylinder, crankshaft and then the driveshaft of a car. Improved on over time, this basic type of power has been used since 1807.

Electric Powered Engines – Electric engines are small electric motors powered by rechargeable batteries. In early designs, these engines did not provide much power to the vehicle and had to be charged frequently. This made them much less desirable than gasoline powered engines. Today, electric engines are used in conjunction with gasoline engines to create hybrid cars. The rechargeable batteries are charged through special braking systems while the vehicle is being stopped. No downtime is needed to plug the batteries into a power source.

Steam Powered Engines – Steam engines successfully power automobiles because of their ability to convert the potential energy in pressure build-up in steam to mechanical force. Steam engines also found use in boats and trains. The main reason steam engines aren’t as popular for automobiles as other power sources is that they take time to build pressure. In a car, the driver would stop every fifteen minutes or so to allow the engine to build pressure for thirty seconds.

  • Written by Traci Benoit
Retrieved from "http://cars.lovetoknow.com/First_Car_Invented"

 


Comment on First Car Invented



(Displayed with your comment)                        (Will not be displayed)
Verification Code:   
    

Cars Categories
LoveToKnow Tools
More Articles