120 years of the modern car
Patent DRP 37435 for the Benz Patent Motor Car in 1886 is considered the birth date of the modern car. That
year, in January, Karl Benz (pictured) applied for his “vehicle with gas operation” which included such
features as a single-cylinder, four-stroke engine powered by gasoline; a carburetor; water-cooled radiator; and
electric ignition. During that same year, Gottlieb Daimler and engineer Wilhelm Maybach created the first “horseless” carriage by attaching Daimler’s engine to a coach. Benz and Daimler’s organizations would later merge to form Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler AG).
Shortly after Daimler’s death in 1900, his company’s largest distributor approached Maybach to develop the most advanced car of its time. That vehicle, named after the distributor's daughter Mercedes, became the template used by almost all modern cars.
History of the modern car (and the car in general) can also be found here, here, and here.
[Source: Mercedes-Benz]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Edsel 8:45PM (1/30/2006)
Thanks Joel for posting this. So often we're consumed with the present that we forget the past.
And to go along with the history of automobiles; try the history of roads too.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blasphalt.htm
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Lithous 8:55PM (1/30/2006)
"Steam cars had been built in America since before the Civil War but the early one were like miniture locomotives. In 1871, Dr. J. W. Carhart, professor of physics at Wisconsin State University, and the J. I. Case Company built a working steam car. It was practical enough to inspice the State of Wisconsin to offer a $10,000 prize to the winner of a 200 mile race in 1878.
The 200 mile race had seven entries, or which two showed up for the race. One car was sponsored by the city of Green Bay and the other by the city of Oshkosh. The Green Bay car was the fastest but broke down and the Oshkosh car finished with an average speed of 6 mph."
(source: http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm)
So, my question is, when gas engines are completely gone (electric or hygrogen or whatever) will Benz still get credit for inventing the car? I mean, a 200 mile trip is nothing to sneeze at, IMO.
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Joel A 9:18PM (1/30/2006)
You're welcome, Edsel.
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Joel A 9:19PM (1/30/2006)
Lithous,
Unknown. Will be interesting to see what technologies will dominate transportation.
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fragmaster170 9:34PM (1/30/2006)
Ever hear of the Doble steam cars?
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Corey W. 9:45PM (1/30/2006)
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.
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md 10:02PM (1/30/2006)
Sure he will still get credit, Watt still gets credit for refining the steam engine to a point that it became const-effective. We may in fact continue to power our cars with internal combustion well into the future, we will just be using bio-fuels, and hopefully, enventually, hydrogen internal combustion engines.
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Hammer 10:03PM (1/30/2006)
LITHIOUS
You took the words right out of my mouth. They link the invention of the automobile to a manufacturer like Mercedes just to make money. It doesn't benifit any current maker if you state true history.
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Lithous 10:36PM (1/30/2006)
"Historians, who accept that early steam-powered road vehicles were automobiles, feel that Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile."
Except I see words like:
1) "tractor" (which I will say is fair to overlook but...)
2) "on only three wheels"
3) "had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes"
4) "engine and boiler were separate from the rest of the vehicle"
And it makes me wonder, what the hell were the historians who accepted this as the first car, somkin'? ;)
"We usually credit the German car-builder Gottlieb Daimler with building the first motorcycle. In 1885 Daimler built a motor-powered bicycle but then added side wheels to stabilize it."
...
"In 1868, Roper built a steam-powered motorcycle."
(source:http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1286.htm)
And to think Americans started out making ULEV and the Germans had to come and pollute the air and kill the ozone. :)
Don't forget the EV-1 as well.
Americans keep trying to get the rest of the world to go clean but the Germans and Japanese keep adding gas to the American advances.
I.E. U.S. = Steam and Germany = gas
I.E. GM = EV-1 (all electric) and Toyota = Hybrid (has gasoline).
If only the Japanese weren't sleeping they would have invented the battery car in 1712 or something. zzzz zzzz
Funny as I am typing the Mercedes' commercial for "the world's first automobile race" just came on. I wonder if it was 200 miles like the American one was years and years before (which I quoted above)?
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Lithous 10:49PM (1/30/2006)
"The large scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Oldsmobile in 1902, then greatly expanded by Henry Ford in the 1910s." (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile#Steam_powered_vehicles)
If it wasn't for American car companies who knows when the average Joe would have been able to afford a vehicle. Oldsmobile = GM and Ford = (well) Ford.
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Lithous 10:57PM (1/30/2006)
"Sure he will still get credit, Watt still gets credit for refining the steam engine ..."
But the problem is getting credit for refining and getting credit for inventing are two different things. If someone said Benz refined the automobile for his time, I have no problem with that.
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Mike from Scarborough 11:37PM (1/30/2006)
Here's something for ya.Ferdinand Porsche in the 1890's while working for Austia's National Utility Kicked everyones ass in what was back then a major Road race.One of the very fist recorded.The car had one single cylinder gas engine wich coupled a DC generator,wich drove 4 dc motors at each wheel.Stunned by this Carl Benze,courted Porsche to work for him and Daimler,an on and off again relationship insued but Ferdinand wanted to build a race car company not vehicles for the masses.In My Oppinion Ferdinand Porshe was the greatest car vehicle inovator,which yes included the Bug,and some tractors,only to get capital to fund what was later his son's triumph.The first Porsche car.So those who think the Japs had the first Hybrid car??There off by 110 Years........
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matt 11:39PM (1/30/2006)
I would still think the three-wheeled steam engined "car" would still qualify as an automobile. It may have been junk and couldnt travel a great distance but that isnt really what defines an automobile. Cugnot 's three wheeled tricycle carried passengers, so it was a passenger vehicle. The type of engine shouldnt be of any consequence. It was a primitive whatever you want to call it but IMO it should still count as an automobile.
That being said the car is just an evolution of many different inventions. Without the wheels, the engine, brakes, assembly line etc. you wouldnt have anything. And the article did calle it the "modern car", whatever that means. But yeah, more of a benz ad than anything (not minimizing their accomplishments though)
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Lithous 12:06AM (1/31/2006)
Mike from Scarborough, Porsche was instrumental in the VW: http://media.vw.com/article_text/VWHistory.pdf
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Rastus 1:27AM (1/31/2006)
120 years and LOOK!!! we have F350's with redneck white trash behind the wheels. We have Suburbans and Expeditions doing battle for who can attract the trashiest of the TRASH. We CAN'T suck down enough of that volitile filth called oil to satisfy our unquenchable desires.
See what you created? Nah, I'm not blaming Karl Benz...not at all. It wasn't until later, much later, in the 1990's when we bastardized the idea of efficient transportation. Karl Benz WAS INDEED after EFFICIENT transportation! Leave it to the GM's and the Ford's of this world to royally F up what their predecessors created for them.
Don't start of the EV1...that thing was never intened for public consumption...it was a large-scale science project at best. It took Toyota and Honda to put high-technology into the consumer's garage.
Long live the 12mpg SUV. Swine...I don't care What your social status us....swine nontheless!
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Mike from Scarborough 1:28AM (1/31/2006)
Thanks #12.I already know that.He never wanted to build cars for the masses as much as his dream to own and run a winning race car team.His prototypes of the bug to the German Gov. Got him funding for his racing developement wich led to Porsche's son's first road cars.
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matt 3:19AM (1/31/2006)
Rastus, Toyota is just as bad as any car company when it comes to fuel consumption. Take a look at all the SUVs they make, the trucks they are making and the fleet mpg their vehicles get. Their SUVs and trucks keep getting bigger and bigger. Yes they have done well with hybrids but it isnt like they are the only ones working on bringing more efficient cars. Ford, GM, BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, etc. are all spending money trying to lower fuel consumption. Honda though has done more for fuel efficiency.
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Future large SUV owner 4:06AM (1/31/2006)
Rastus, you seem to turn everthing into a big American car issue. Did a member of your family get run over by a large American suv? Or are you just a little bitch?
Buyers decide what to buy...not you!
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Pround American 5:26AM (1/31/2006)
lol @ Lithious fuming that an American didn't invent the modern car. Get over it already.
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Galley 7:20AM (1/31/2006)
And let's not forget that Adolf Hitler was behind the launch of one of the greatest cars of all time, the VW Beetle (before going insane).
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