Who Invented First Car and How Do They Work

8/2/2019 Who Invented First Car and How Do They Work

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Who Invented First Car and How Do They Work Cars today are all the rage, with their sleek designs and state-of-the-art features itwould be difficult to comprehend that once upon a time they started out as quaint,simple contraptions; no steering wheel, no rubber tires, no die cast metal frames, etc.

Back in the old days, when people still relied on carriages and other forms of primitivetransportation, the car was still unheard of. Nobody back then would have believed; letalone seen, a moving vehicle that ran on its own power, but history wasnt made untilthe 17th century when the idea first came to be.

The very first car that was ever built was in the year 1672 by Ferdinand Verbiest. Hewas a Jesuit missionary born on October 9, 1623 in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, whichlater became a part of Belgium. Not only was he an accomplished astronomer andmathematician, but an inventor as well.

In China during the Qing dynasty, Verbiests design was the first working steam-powered toy which he gave as a gift to the Emperor. It was his most notable work andthe earliest known record of a moving vehicle that ran on steam-power.

It wasnt until the 18th century that the steam engine was refined for more elaboratedesigns. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, born on February 26, 1725, was a French inventorwho built the fardier vapeuror steam dray in 1770, which was an experimentalartillery tractor.

Unfortunately, the steam dray proved impractical and all attention soon shifted to Great

Britain where William Murdoch built the first steam carriage in 1784. The design wasvery crude; it only had three wheels, with the engine and the boiler placed in-betweenthe two back wheels, but it had a lot of potential.

The water was heated via a spirit lamp and a tiller was positioned at the front to steer it.The boiler had a safety valve, with which to regulate the emissions and heat of theengine; the addition of such a feature was revolutionary at the time since it was anunforeseen safety measure on Murdochs part.

More experiments followed after, with Murdoch seeking a patent for his second modelshortly after the birth of his twin children. Any more records of what became of thesteam carriage are slightly incoherent at best, since there is a lot of debate concerningwhether the stories surrounding his exploits with his creation are true or not.

In the 19th century, Richard Trevithik was the next person to try his hand at developinga steam-powered vehicle, having derived inspiration from Murdoch himself, who alsohappened to be his next-door neighbor. He began work on his own version and


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developed a full-size working locomotive on the road in Camborne which he named thePuffing Devil.

Three days later, the machine was destroyed because the engine overheated. Trevithikwasnt fazed by this at all however, as he simply deemed it as a miscalculation. His

second model had better luck, which he built at the Coalbrookdale Company's worksin Shropshire in 1802.

In 1803, he built another model, The London Steam Carriage which proved to be a hugehit with the general public. It had significantly more mileage than the Puffing Devil, beingable to travel from Holborn to Paddington and back. The only drawback was that it wasuncomfortable and more expensive than horse-drawn carriages, which led to its fall.

Another huge roadblock came to hinder Trevithiks careerby that same year, and thisone was due to another tragic miscalculation on his part. It involved one of his stationary

pumping engines that were employed at Greenwich exploded, with four men as thecasualties.

Competitors Watt and Boulton would come to see this as a golden opportunity to furtherpromote their low-pressure engine, deeming high-pressure models as too dangerousand unpredictable for practical use, which they further exploited to no end.

Throughout the turn of the century, the evolution of the steam-powered automobilebecame even more profound as many variations kept popping out at every occasion. In1815, an oil-fired steam car was built by Josef Bozek; a professor at PraguePolytechnich.

A steam bus built by Walter Hancock in 1838, which he also operated, and finallyAmde Bolle who built the first real automobile that could accommodate passengers.

On May 8, 1879, George B. Selden filed for a patent on not only an engine, but on a 4-wheeled car as well. Following after was a series of amendments for his application,which further lengthened the legal process behind it for about 16 years.

The first four-stroke petrol internal combustion engine that ran on gasoline wasdeveloped Nikolaus Otto. He was followed by Rudolf Diesel, who invented a similarfour-stroke diesel engine, hence how the name became synonymous with gasoline.

In 1838, a hydrogen fuel cell was developed by Christian Friedrich Schnbein whodiscovered it as an alternative to fossil fuel, followed by nyos Jedlik with his electricmotor, and finally Gaston Plant with his lead acid battery in 1859.


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The electric car, which proved to be far superior to earlier internal combustion drivenmodels, proved to be fairly popular, but soon suffered a decline in use because of over-pricing, lack of speed and limited mileage.

Recently however, interest in the use of electric cars as an alternative fuel source has

been revived due to the overwhelming strain on the environment caused byhydrocarbon fueled vehicles.

Automobiles eventually became a standard form of transportation alongside the horse-driven carriage, and even though they werent as fast as cars today, they could stillreach the destination in no time flat. As the years went by, automobiles grew in numberand were improved through the booming of technology.

However, with change came the consequence of progress as people began to take noteof the automobiles flaws and shortcomings. Fuel was often difficult to come by,

breakdowns were frequent, accessible roads were fairly scarce and the engines weretoo noisy.

During pre-World War I, front engine vehicles soon began to dominate the market, with90% of sales closed by 1929, although internal combustion was still the norm andgasoline continued to be the main source of fuel.

The Classic car didnt make it until pre-World War II where they became a majorsuccess. It was only during the mid to late 20th century did the automobile industry kickoff its success with innovations like vulcanized rubber tires. The idea originated fromCharles Goodyear in 1838 who experimented with rubber.

The technique was later refined by Frank Sieberling, who later found The Goodyear Tire& Rubber Company on 1898. Vulcanized rubber proved to be more superior to theregular kind used for tires back then because they were durable and long lasting.

Countless automobiles have come and gone throughout the final half of the 20 thcentury, with several old models being reinvented for modern consumers. Cars duringthat era were already far ahead of their ancestors. With safety become one of thecenters of attention.

After the war, the Classic car gradually underwent a major revamp. These newermodels were different from their predecessors because they had a more improvedengine system and were noticeably faster. Their appearance differed greatly in that theybarely resemble modern cars today.

Fuel injection became a better, more contemporary method of administering gasoline tothe internal combustion engine, along with a wider application of the individual


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suspension system. These advancements slowly shaped the modern car into how wesee them now. Fuel efficiency and engine output was also given a complete overhaul.

Cars started to run faster and longer, with additional implements that would make theautomobile necessary, but at the same time highly demanded. Automobiles proved to

be exceedingly popular with teenagers, especially during the period of the 1960s, 70s,and even the 80s when they started to become more proactive in life.

They also bestowed upon the owner a sort of social status in which a better car wouldincrease a persons reputation and acceptance within their social circle, and it was great

in picking up dates.

Even after all these years, the automobile continues to drive its way into perfection, withdesigners constantly working to further enhance an already remarkable piece ofmachinery that has taken its place in history as a trailblazer for progress.

It was only through the efforts and ingenuity of people like Ferdinand Verbiest, RichardTrevithik and Amde Bolle that the car has become one of mankinds proudest ofinnovations and will continue to evolve as time goes by.

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Who Invented First Car and How Do They Work