LEAN AND GREEN: 1997

1997 : Car Manufacturers get green

Manufacturers have acknowledged that oil reserves will dry up in the future. They’re now developing engines that use more than one fuel source – hybrid engines.

Honda and Toyota initially introduced their petrol/electric hybrids to the Japanese market, before releasing them in America and Europe in 2002.

SAFE STOPPING: DISTANCE DECREASED 1978

1978 : Safe stopping distance decreased

The first antilock braking systems (ABS) were developed for automobiles by German manufacurers, Bosch. They first appeared in trucks and cars made by Mercedes-Benz.

ABS brakes to allow the driver to maintain steering control and to shorten braking distances.

EMISSION REGULATIONS INTRODUCED, SO WAS SEAT BELTS 1965

1965 : Emissions regulations introduced

Controls on harmful emissions initially introduced in California, the rest of the world soon followed suit.

Safety devices also became mandatory – before this, manufacturers only included seat belts as optional extras.

PROGRESS AT FAST PACE 1911

1911 : Key development

Working for Cadillac’s design and development department, Charles Kettering invented the electric ignition and starter motor. Cars could now start themselves.

Kettering later introduced independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes. And By 1930, most of the technology used in automobiles today had already been invented.

FORD ESTABLISHED 1903

1903 : The Ford Motor Company Formed

After fitting moving assembly lines to the factory in 1913, Ford became the world's biggest car manufacturer.

By 1927, 15 million Model Ts had been manufactured. Workers on the production line assembled the car just in ninety-three minutes.

FIRST CAR ACCIDENT,FIRST CASUALITY 1903

1896 : First Road Traffic Death

Bridget Driscoll, a 44-year old mother of two from Croydon, stepped off a kerb and into the history books. She was hit by a passing motor car near Crystal Palace in London. She died from head injuries.

The driver, Arthur Edsell, was doing just 4mph at the time. The coroner, returning a verdict of accidental death, said “I trust that this sort of nonsense will never happen again.”

GRAND PRIX: FLAGGED OFF 1894

1894 : Grand Prix racing begins

Motor racing began as cars were built. Races quickly evolved from a simple chases from town to town, to organised events like time trials endurance tests for car and driver.

Innovations in engineering soon saw competition speeds exceeding 100 mph. Since races were often held on open roads, fatalities were frequent among drivers and spectators.

MERCEDES,MAYBACH AND CARBURETTOR: 1890

1890 : Maybach speeds things up

Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. Three years later, he develops the spray-nozzle carburettor, which becomes the basis for modern carburettor technology.

A decade later, Maybach developed a race car using lightweight metals fitted with a 35-hp four-cylinder engine and two carburettors. Named the Mercedes, the car reaches 64.4 km/h to shatter the world speed record.

THE FIRST MOTOR COMPANY: 1889

1889 : The First Motor Company formed

Two former French wood machinists, Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor, set up the world’s first car manufacturers. Their first car was built in 1890 using a Daimler engine.

Another French company, Peugeot was formed the following year, and still going strong today.

ADVENT OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE: 1886

1886 : Motor age moves forward

The first vehicles driven using internal combustion engines were developed roughly at the same time by two engineers working in separate parts of Germany – Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.

They simultaneously formulated highly successful and practically powered vehicles that, by and large, worked like the cars we use today. The age of modern motor cars had begun.

BRITISH CARS: STEAM POWERED 1801

1801 : Britain’s steam powered cars

Richard Trevithick improved the design of steam engines, by making smaller and lighter with stronger boilers generating more power. In 1801, he put one of his new compact steam engines on wheels.

His ‘road locomotive’ - known as the Puffing Devil – was the first horseless carriage to transport passengers. Innovations like hand brakes, gears, and steering improvements were developed in subsequent decades.

THE FIRST CAR: SELF PROPELLED 1769

Nicolas Cugnot, a French military engineer developed a steam powered road-vehicle for the French army to haul heavy cannons.

Using a steam engine fixed to a three-wheeled cart, Cugnot successfully converted the back-and-forth action of a steam piston into rotary motion.

The truck reputedly reached walking speed and carried four tonnes. The army later abandoned his invention.

A SAGA UNTOLD

The automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. It is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile. However, we can point to the many firsts that occurred along the way. Starting with the first theoretical plans for a motor vehicle that had been drawn up by both Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.

In 1769, the very first self-propelled road vehicle was a military tractor invented by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725 - 1804). Cugnot used a steam engine to power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal by mechanic Brezin. It was used by the French Army to haul artillery at a whopping speed of 2 1/2 mph on only three wheels. The vehicle had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to build up steam power. The steam engine and boiler were separate from the rest of the vehicle and placed in the front (see engraving above). The following year (1770), Cugnot built a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers.

In 1771, Cugnot drove one of his road vehicles into a stone wall, making Cugnot the first person to get into a motor vehicle accident. This was the beginning of bad luck for the inventor. After one of Cugnot's patrons died and the other was exiled, the money for Cugnot's road vehicle experiments ended.

Steam engines powered cars by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which then turned the wheels. During the early history of self-propelled vehicles - both road and railroad vehicles were being developed with steam engines. (Cugnot also designed two steam locomotives with engines that never worked well.) Steam engines added so much weight to a vehicle that they proved a poor design for road vehicles; however, steam engines were very successfully used in locomotives. Historians, who accept that early steam-powered road vehicles were automobiles, feel that Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile.

After Cugnot Several Other Inventors Designed Steam-Powered Road Vehicles
Cugnot’s vehicle was improved by Frenchman, Onesiphore Pecqueur, who also invented the first differential gear.
In 1789, the first U.S. patent for a steam-powered land vehicle was granted to Oliver Evans.
In 1801, Richard Trevithick built a road carriage powered by steam - the first in Great Britain.
In Britain, from 1820 to 1840, steam-powered stagecoaches were in regular service. These were later banned from public roads and Britain's railroad system developed as a result.
Steam-driven road tractors (built by Charles Deitz) pulled passenger carriages around Paris and Bordeaux up to 1850.
In the United States, numerous steam coaches were built from 1860 to 1880. Inventors included: Harrison Dyer, Joseph Dixon, Rufus Porter, and William T. James.
Amedee Bollee Sr. built advanced steam cars from 1873 to 1883. The "La Mancelle" built in 1878, had a front-mounted engine, shaft drive to the differential, chain drive to the rear wheels, steering wheel on a vertical shaft and driver's seat behind the engine. The boiler was carried behind the passenger compartment.
In 1871, Dr. J. W. Carhart, professor of physics at Wisconsin State University, and the J. I. Case Company built a working steam car that won a 200-mile race.