History of the Automobile
Brief History of European and American Auto
Transportation
Part I : Early Automobile Transportation Development
The history of American auto
transportation begins somewhat like early American history. For many year
inventors focused using the power of steam. Somewhere around the year 1678’s,
about the time when the early American colonies where taking hold in the New
World, Ferdinand Verbiest, a Jesuit Priest, working for Chinese Emperor K’ang
His, is credited for making the first self propelled steam powered vehicle. Not
much is know about this early transportation device, but the French inventor
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated a full-scale vehicle in 1769. For the next
hundred years, the emphasis was on harnessing the power of steam.
The first American patent for
an automobile transportation vehicle in was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789. In
1804, Evans demonstrated the first American transportation device powered by
steam. Hence the birth of transportation in America is somewhat linked with
early American ingenuity. The automobile historian mention that Evan traveled
to Britain in the late 1700’s and passed on his ideas on the invention of steam
powered transportation device to Richard Trevithick. The automobile history
buffs credit Richard Trevithick with running a steam power carriage in
1801. However, London was not ready for
these early methods of transportation. Early auto transportation vehicles were
doomed in Britain because the London public could not tolerate these speedy
transportation vehicles. Steam powered automobiles were never well received and
automobile transportation was not considered practical. The transporting of
people in motorized vehicles would take a lot more thought and persistence.
In Europe, the famous Belgian born
inventor Etienne Lenoir made the first model of car with an internal combustion
engine sometime around the beginning of American Civil War, in 1860. This was a
coal-gas fired auto transportation device that was extremely slow in motion.
The modern automobile really did get motorized with Nicolaus Otto, in
1876. Otto built the first practical
four-stroke engine piston cycle engine. Can we say that the “automobile” is
named after Mr. Otto? Well, the similarity of spelling between the “automobile”
and the “ottomobile” would suggest such a coincidence. The modern car and motorized transportation devices did get its a major
start from the incredible Mr. Otto. It would be a fine tribute to Mr. Otto’s ingenuity and
persistence to name a new series of European, German or American cars to
celebrate his passion for the early development of the gasoline transport
devices. The invention of the automobile was passed on from Mr. Otto to two
employees by the name of Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach. Mr. Otto used his first
engine to design a motorcycle. It seemed very appropriate at the time to put a
motor on a bicycle. Otto and Daimler disagreed while working on the early
automobile transportation vehicles. Daimler was trained as a mechanical
engineer and Otto became jealous of his ideas on improving the development of
these new transport vehicles. Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach had to start their
own company. During the same time period
around the year 1880, Carl Benz was also working on a two stroke gasoline
powered combustion engine. Lots of new mechanical devices had to be invented to
make the early “car” transporter possible. They had to consider many parts in
the design of the car. But Daimler and Benz saw the need for the use of a
gasoline powered motorized device that looked like the European carriages of
the time period. This early-motorized
cars looked like a carriage with three wheel. Some of the early cars used large
steel wheels and frame fabrication, something like a three wheel bicycle with a
motor on the back. Fortunately, the four wheel motorized cars came about
because were less likely to tip over than the three wheeled car transportation
frame.
Yes, you may have heard of
the Mercedes Benz automobile. The ingenuity of design in automobile
transportation was greatly helped by the Mrs. Benz. One day, Ms. Benz decided
to do what a modern woman is often known to do. Take your husband most prized
possession and show it off to your friends. Yes, Ms. Benz traveled over 50
miles with the recently patented automobile that her husband had invented. Of
course, she had to make a lot of stops at nearest pharmacy so that she could
buy gasoline. The automobile engine, require fuel that was in very short supply
in the late 1800’s and this fuel was commonly available at the pharmacy. Yes,
automobile transportation has always been at the mercy of gasoline. It was
around this same time period that a young man in Pennsylvania noticed that some
black oil was rising to the ground. This black looking oil seemed to be
combustible and he took it for analysis a chemist at the Massachussetts
Institute of Technology. Within a short time, it was discovered that this black
oil, Pennsylvania Crude Oil was volatile enough to be used in the popular gas
lamps of the time period. Was the automobile the centerpiece of discovery in
finding crude oil. Well, probably not. The discovery of crude oil in
Pennsylvania was one of the greatest environmental benefits to our ecosystem at
the time. Most of the oil used in oil lamps came from whale fishing, and the
rate of whale fishing at the time could have destroyed the entire whale
population. If mankind became greedy with the need for fuel in gas lamps and
the approaching development of the transportation device such as the
automobile, the Worlds Whale could have become extinct a century ago. Yes, the
invention of the automobile came at a time when a source of fuel became readily
available, and this is a Whale of a Tale. The invention of the first practical
automobile and the discovery of petroleum products in Pennsylvania made it
possible for the European and American automobile transportation industry
possible. We are grateful that early
transportation discovery in engine design of Otto, Daimler and Benz centered on
the use of volatile compounds like gasoline.
Let go back to Otto, Daimler
and Benz who pioneered the early automobile. Because Mrs. Benz took her famous
drive, this prompted Mr. Benz to develop a better gear shift sifting for the
early automobile. This resulted in a better early auto transportation vehicle
and more sales for the company. Both Mr. Benz and Mr. Daimler were early
pioneers by establishing the automobile transportation companies. Manny years
later, Mr. Benz and Mr. Daimler combined their companies to what we know as the
Daimler Benz Automobile Company.
Part II : The Development of Automobile Transport in
the U.S.
(Not yet available)
