The making of automobiles started in the year 1770. In 1770 a man named Nicholas Joseph Cungnot from France built a large steam-driven vehicle. The vehicle didnt last long because the vehicle could only be driven for 12 to 15 minutes before running out of steam and the vehicle was too heavy and had poor balance and made it difficult to steer. Nothing more had been done until in the 1784. In 1784 James Watt made a patent on a steam carriage, but nothing became of it.
Then in 1785 John Fitch invented a steam-propelled boat in New Jersey. And then in 1786 he organized a company to build the steam engines and then even built a model of a road vehicle with an engine but committed suicide before anything came of it. In 1787 Oliver Evans put a patent on a steam engine in Maryland, for the use in land transportations. In 1791 Nathan Read got a federal patent for a high pressure boiler and improved cylinder.
And began to make plans to apply this to a land carriage. In 1792 Oliver petitioned the American government for a patent on a reciprocating engine plus a rotating engine and boiler-enclosed furnace, but it was unsuccessful. In 1797 Richard Trevithick began to work on a high-pressured steam engine in England. And James Watt opposes his work, he felt that it is publicly hazardous. And then in 1801 Cirnishman Richard Trevithick built a steam carriage. This carriage held several people and went 5 to 6 mile per hour uphill and 8 to 9 miles per hour on flat land. But cought fire and was destroyed. In 1803 Richard built an improved steam carriage, which was shipped to London. It was drove around London and reached to speed of 8 to 9 miles per hour.
But then funding for it ran out and the engine was sold. And then in 1804 Oliver Evans was granted and American patent for his steam engine to power boats and land carriages. He put in a newspaper and began to publicly sell the engines. And then in 1805 Evans constructed a 20 -ton steam dredge for the City of Philadelphia, called the “Orukter Amphiboles” or the Amphilibios Digger. It was the the first vehicle to move under its own power across the streets of Philadelphia. In 1807 Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland put a patent on a trolley powered by a primitive gas engine. In 1815 Colonel John H. Stevens received a charter from the state of New Jersey to build the first American railway. Later in 1825 Thomas Blanchard completed one of the first few operable steam carriages of the United States in Massachusetts. It was able to drive forward and in reverse, steer and climb up hills.
In 1826 Samuel Brown put a patent on a”gas-and-vacuum” engine, which would climbed Shooters Hill in London. And John Stevens completed a circular track in Hoboken. And then in 1829 Goldsworthy Gurneys steam carriage traveled from London to Bath. This was the first long travel for a self-propelled road vehicle. 1832, officals in Fredericksburg, Virginia and Troy, New York, began to build improved road ways for the steam carriages to drive on.
1835, a steam wagon is built in Vermont, and demonstrated by an unknown inventor. And then in 1837, Thomas Davenport patented an electric motor. Later in 1844 Stuart Perry, from New York, constructed an internal combustion engine, using turpentine as fuel. It was patented in 1844 and 1846, and had a two-cycle method of operation.
In 1847 Moses G. Farmer of Massachusetts built a locomotive powered by forty-eight Grove electrical cells of one-pint capacity each. That then became the first electrical powered land carriage. In 1851 the American Steam Carriage Company is established in New York City. However, the business failed a few years later. And then in 1853, Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci patented the first practicable gas engine in Italy. No workable designs became of their effort though. And Richard Dudgeon began to work on an operable steam carriage, and built another in 1866. In 1857 Dr. Alfred Drake exhibits an “explosive gas engine” at the Crystal Palace in New York. The engine was ignited by internally-placed hot tubes. And in 1859 Belgian J. J. Etienne Lenoir built an engine dilated but the combustion of gas and used a jump-spark method. A company in Paris is formed to develop the engine.
1866, Nikolaus August Otto patented a “free-piston” engine in Germany. Joseph Ravel Built the first steam car to have a boiler heated by petroleum, rather then fuel in 1868. The 1870s got a little more busy then before. In 1870 Siegfried Marcus, of Austria, put anatmospheric engine in to a wheelbarrow , to consider it as a airship engine. It was unable to be propelled more then 200 yards. John Ericcson built a small experimental steam engine which worked by solar power.
Later in 1872 Nikolaus Otto formed a company with the engineer Eugen Langen to produce his free-piston engine. In 1873 a self-propelled carriage called LObeissante was constructed by Amedee Bollee. 1876, Ottos chief engineer, Franz Rings developed a petroleum engine to replace to free-piston engine. Bollee finished his second vehicle in 1878. In 1879 Karl Benz built his first two-stroke gasoline engine.
French aristocrat Comte Albert de Dion backed George Bouton and George Trepardoux to build a workshop to make steam carriages in 1882. In 1883 Gottlieb Daimler did an experiment with a single-cylinder engine mounted in a bicycle frame. After moving to Puteaux in 1884, de Dion, Bouton and Trepardoux started to fill a series of orders for light steam vehicles. Karl Benz finished a three-wheeled vehicle in 1885, the vehicle had a four-cycle gasoline engine. And it could develop 3/4 horsepower. In 1886, Nicolaus Otto tried to patent a four-stroke engine but a four-stroke engine was already patented in France.
Also in 1886, Daimler carried out test with a gas engine mounted in a converted four-seater carriage. And then in 1887 Leeon Serpollet built stem tricycle and obtained the first drivers license in Paris. In 1888 Benz started to sell his improved motor carriage and sold two of them outside of Germany through a a French agent. Then in 1889 Armand Peugoet had a Serpollet steam tricycle built and it was exhibited.
