Car History Of The Electric Vehicle

By Mick Buick

Some people wonder about car history and how the cars they drive were built and where they originated. An internal combustion engine uses an explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston and then the piston will turn the crankshaft and in turn this makes the wheels turn. The most common fuels used in a car are Gas, diesel and yes even kerosene.

It was in 1769 that the very first self propelled vehicle was invented by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. This inventor unfortunately only lived until he was seventy nine years old. Cugnot also used a steam engine to power this vehicle. This little engine was used by the Army to haul things such as artillery and it went a whopping speed of two and a half miles per hour. This little invention was only a three wheeler believe it or not.

Then in eighteen twenty four another English man named Samuel Brown made a steam engine that would burn gas. This engine was used only one time and it was powered up shooter's hill in London. In eighteen fifty eight an engineer that was born in Belgian inventor and got a patent on a double, electric spark ignition combustion engine and this was fueled by gas that was made from coal. This man also improved the engine and made a three wheel wagon that completed a fifty mile trip.

The Americans paying attention to this electric vehicle took the invention of an electric tricycle and a six passenger wagon back in the year of nineteen sixty one. The tricycle and wagon was built by two men by the name of A. L Ryker and William Morrison.

The steam powered cars worked by fuel that burned and heated water in a boiler and this created steam that would expand and push pistons and in turn this made the crankshaft turn, and of course the crankshaft turned the wheels. Cugnot also made a pair of steam engine trains and they never did work very well. Because steam engines were so heavy they were not very good for vehicles because of their weight. Steam engines were very successful in locomotives though. So in turn after all this Historians think that Nicolas Cugnot was the real inventor of the first automobile.

After Cugnot was done with his inventions several other people invented steam powered vehicles. A french man names Onesiphore Pecqueur decided to not only improve Cugnot's vehicle but he also made the first differential gear. Then in seventeen eighty nine there was finally a patent for a steam powered land vehicle and this was given to Oliver Evans.

In eighteen seventy three until eighteen eighty three Amedee Bollee Sr. Started building really advanced steam vehicles. And then in eighteen seventy one a professor of physics that worked at the Wisconsin State University built a working steam car and it won a two hundred mile race. This was the first car in history to ever win a race. With all the people that tried to build and patent a new vehicle that would be more costly and energy efficient its a wonder why it took them so long to finally come up with something as good as we have today.

There is so much history to the steam powered car. It's surprising to know that steam powered stage coaches were made and then at one point banned from the roads. There were a lot of people that tried to invent and improve the steam powered car until finally around the nineteen hundreds electric land vehicles were invented and made the steam powered vehicles obsolete. - 21396

About the Author:

Mick is fascinated by old cars. If you want to find out more about the history of cars you can find lots of interesting facts car history timeline website.