Early Cars

Although it is Karl Benz who is credited with the first prototype (in 1885) of the modern car, the first self-propelled vehicle was invented more than 100 years earlier. However unlike the "Benz model", most of the machines designed during that period were steam-propelled.

The early car era nonetheless played an extremely significant role in the evolution of today's car.

1769 - NICOLAS CUGNOT

The very first self-propelled car was built in 1769, when Nicolas Cugnot, a French military engineer designed a steam powered road-vehicle.

The vehicle was built at the Paris Arsenal, and was used by the French Army to move cannons. It had three wheels with the engine in the front along with the boiler. While Cugnot's 'car' was capable of attaining speeds of upto 6 kms/hour, it was far too heavy and slow to be of practical use.

1771 - THE FIRST MOTOR ACCIDENT

Nicolas Cugnot who designed the first car in 1769 made another steam-driven vehicle two years later, also at the Paris Arsenal. The machine reportedly ran quite well, although on one occasion it ran into a wall, thus recording the world's first motor-accident. The vehicle may still be seen today in the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz

Issac de Rivaz (Switzerland), designed several successful steam-run cars towards the late 18th century. In 1807 he designed an "internal combustion engine".The engine was gas driven and used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy.

de Rivaz used this engine to develop a car, and the occasion was historic. This was the first vehicle to run on an internal combustion engine. In subsequent years Rivaz worked on his design, and in 1813 developed a 6 metres long car, weighing almost a ton.

1860 - Jean Etienne Lenoir

The early 19th century saw several different designs of the internal combustion engine (including that of de Rivaz, who also built a car based on his engine). However none of these early designs showed any degree of commercial success.

The first successful internal combustion engine was a two-stroke gas driven engine patented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir of Belgium in 1860. In 1862 he built an experimental vehicle driven by his gas-engine, which managed to achieve a speed of 3 kms/hour. By 1865 around 500 of these engines were in use in Paris alone.

1865 - Red Flag Act

Progress in the development of cars saw stiff opposition from companies running horse-driven coaches. In the mid-1800s turnpike charges (similar to toll charges) for the "early cars" that which were then plying on road, were steeply hiked. These heavy and crudely built steam-driven vehicles must have badly damaged roads, and to some extent the increase was possibly justified.

The 'Locomotives on Highways Act' (Red Flag Act) was passed by the British Government in 1865. It was intended to regulate the use of heavy traction engines pulling large loads. The Act limited speeds to 6.4 kms per hour in the country and 3.2 in towns. It also required that every road locomotive must have three attendants - one to steer, one to stoke and one to walk 50 metres ahead of the vehicle, bearing a red flag, signaling the driver when to stop.

The Red Flag Act discouraged further developments of road-steam-vehicles. A subsequent Act passed 13 years later in 1878 did away with the red flag, but nevertheless the vehicle still had to be preceded by a man on foot to warn drivers of horse-driven coaches.

1876 - Nikolaus August Otto

The first practical "four-stroke" engine was patented by the Otto and Langen Company of Deutz, Germany.

A1-intake valve
A2-piston
A3-fuel/air mixture
A4-cylinder
B1-spark plug
B2-compressed mixture
C1-mixture ignites
D1-exhaust valve
D2-burned gases

Nikolaus Otto was a salesman with a grocer when he read of Lenoir's two-stroke gas-driven internal combustion engine. Otto started a workshop in Deutz near Cologne, supported by Langen in 1863. He had a model engine built and improved upon the gas engine, making it a practical power source. The four-stroke Otto Engine was invented in 1876, and a large number of engines were produced under the patent of Otto and Langen.

It was however, a German engineer named Gottlieb Daimler, who, carried out much of the development work on the engine. Daimler was at the time employed with Otto and Langen, and a substantial credit for the success is due to him.