Cars are an inevitable part of today’s planet, with umpteen models adorning every nook and corner of the globe. The birth of the automobile and its periodic evolution through the ages is indeed an interesting subject to many and is worth a thorough study. It is actually believed that the contemporary cars that we see on the roads today are the result of over 100,000 patents!
Initial Automobiles
It is actually said that the very first true motor car came into existence only in 1885. Till then, steam powered automobiles were in use. Even though it was believed that steam powered cars came to be invented as early as 1672 by Ferdinand Verbiest, little facts is accessible today of his creation. The main credit for the same goes to a French engineer and mechanic, Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot, whose steam driven military tractor which was built at the Paris Arsenal, was employed by the French army to haul up arms and ammunitions.
Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot’s Automobile – 1st Automobile In the Planet
Cugnot’s car consisted of a standard wooden chassis, with a boiler and steam engine mounted at the front. The seat, the steering tiller and the brake pedal was positioned behind, and the whole car ran on 3 wheels, which normally resulted in loss of balance. It also needed to stop every 15 minutes or so to enable steam to build up again. The power obtained out of burning fuel was employed to heat water that made the steam. This resulted in the expansion of pistons, which turned the crankshaft that turned the wheels of the vehicle. On the other hand Cugnot’s invention had an extremely short existence on account of difficulties like instability as well as failure to meet the Army’s stipulated overall performance level.
Worlds First Motor Automobile Accident
Incidentally, Cugnot created an additional model of the steam powered vehicle in 1771, which he accidentally rammed into a stone wall due to over speeding, resulting in the worlds very first motor automobile accident, soon after which he had to unceremoniously shelve his experiments.
Very first Internal Combustion Engine
It was in 1807 that a Swiss inventor, Francois Issac de Rivaz came out with the first internal combustion engine. A mixture of oxygen and hydrogen was utilised to produce the energy needed to power this engine, and de Rivaz created use of this engine to create a motor car too which resulted in a vehicle measuring one ton in weight and six meters in length! The impracticability of this model created it highly unsuccessful. Later on, many other creators like Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir also tried their hand unsuccessfully in generating internal combustion engines capable of powering vehicles.
Nevertheless it is indisputably agreed by historians that Nicolas Cugnot was indeed the creator of the world’s very first automobile. That being the fact, it’s also undeniable that the world’s early steam powered automobiles had been indeed automobiles.
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