The
birth of the car as we know
it today occurred over a period
of years. It was only in 1885
that the first real car rolled
down on to the streets. The
earlier attempts, though successful,
were steam powered road-vehicles.
The first self-propelled
car was built by Nicolas
Cugnot in 1769 which could
attain speeds of upto
6 kms/hour. In 1771 he
again designed another
steam-driven engine which
ran so fast that it rammed
into a wall, recording
the world’s first
accident.
In
1807 Francois Isaac de
Rivaz designed the first
internal combustion engine.
This was subsequently
used by him to develop
the world’s first
vehicle to run on such
an engine, one that used
a mixture of hydrogen
and oxygen to generate
energy. |
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This
spawned the birth of a number
of designs based on the internal
combustion engine in the early
nineteenth century with little
or no degree of commercial success.
In 1860 thereafter, Jean Joseph
Etienne Lenoir built the first
successful two-stroke gas driven
engine. In 1862 he again built
an experimental vehicle driven
by his gas-engine, which ran
at a speed of 3 kms/hour. These
cars became popular and by 1865
could be frequently espied on
the roads.
The
next major leap forward occurred
in 1885 when the four stroke
engine was devised. Gottileb
Damlier and Nicolas Otto worked
together on the mission till
they fell apart. Daimler created
his own engines which he used
both for cars and for the first
four wheel horseless carriage.
In the meanwhile, unknown to
them, Karl Benz, was in the
process of creating his own
advanced tri-cycle which proved
to be the first true car. This
car first saw the light of the
day in 1886.
The
season of experiments continued
across the seas in the United
States where Henry Ford began
work on a horseless carriage
in 1890. He went several steps
forward and in 1896, completed
his first car, the Quadricycle
in 1896. This was an automobile
powered by a two cylinder gasoline
engine. The Ford Motor Company
was launched in 1903 and in
1908 he catapulted his vehicle,
Model T Ford to the pinnacle
of fame. Continuing with his
innovations, he produced this
model on a moving assembly line,
thus introducing the modern
mass production techniques of
the automobile industry.
The
modern car, therefore comes
from a long list of venerated
ancestors, and its lineage will,
hopefully grow longer as we
progress!
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