Scott Manning, age 12, of Champaign, Ill., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST AUTOMOBILE BUILT?
After the steam engine was invented in the early 17th Century, various attempts were made to apply this source of power to self propelled road vehicles. The first successful self propelled road vehicle was a steam automobile that was invented in 1770 by a French engineer named Nicolas Cugnot. It was designed to transport artillery and it ran on three wheels.
But the first automobile to carry passengers was built by a British inventor named Richard Trevithick in 1801. His success was due to the efficiency of his power unit, which was the first to have the piston moved by steam at high pressure.
Later, Trevithick successfully embodied his power plant in a locomotive for rails. He is considered the founder of both road and rail automotive transportation.
In the United States, an inventor named Oliver Evans obtained the first patent on a steam carriage in 1789. In 1803 he built a self propelled steam dredge, which is regarded as the first self propelled vehicle to operate over American roads.
Improvements in the steam engine and in vehicles continued, especially in England, and by 1830 steam coaches were in regular daily use to transport passengers over English roads. Starting in 1831, however, restrictive legislation in England forced the steam coaches off the roads, and by 1860 development of self propelled vehicles virtually ceased.
In France and Germany, meanwhile, attention turned to the development of the internal combustion engine.
The first internal combustion engine was designed by Christian Hugens, a Dutch scientist, in 1678. In 1860, a French inventor named Etienne Lenoir built the first practical internal combustion engine and in 1866 a more efficient one was built in Germany by two engineers. Eugen Langen and Nikolaus Otto. Otto's four cycle engine was a prototype of the so called Otto cyle engines used in most modern automobiles and airplanes.
The high speed internal combustion motor of the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler revolutionized the automobile industry. His four cycle, single cylinder motor, patented in 1887, achieved speeds many times those of any previous engine, thereby producing many times the power for the same weight.
In 1889 he developed a two cylinder engine that gave still greater power. The cylinders were in a V type configuration.
A French manufacturer, Emile Levassor, launched experiments in 1891 and subsequently started an automobile manufacturing organization that incorporated Daimlers engine.
In the United States, pioneer automobile manufacturers were very active in the 1890s. Brothers Charles and Frank Duryea brought out a horseless carriage as did Elwood Haynes and Alexander Winton. Henry Ford produced his first car, an experimental model, in 1893.