A Brief History of Cars

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARS
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INTRODUCTION Possibly the first powered vehicle
was a steam-powered toy built in 1672 for the
Chinese Emperor by Flemish Priest Ferdinand
Verbiest.It wasnt until the late 18th century
that steam-powered vehicles were able to carry
people, and later attempts were made to develop
this, with brakes, transmissions, and improved
steering introduced. 
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01 The earliest cars were essentially carts with
engines, known as horseless carriages.However,
the Locomotive Act of 1865 brought the
development of road automobiles to an end by
demanding that a man carrying a red flag and
sounding a horn walked ahead of any
self-propelled vehicles on public roads!The law
was not repealed until near the end of the
century, but in the meantime attention turned to
developing the railway instead.
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02 The first car powered by an internal
combustion engine was designed by François Isaac
de Rivaz in the early 1800s. It used a hydrogen
and oxygen mixture. Nikolaus Otto later patented
the internal combustion engine that remains the
most common type today, while Rudolf Diesel
invented a diesel version.
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03 A little over 60 years later, Siegfried Marcus
gave us the first gasoline-powered
version.Putting this on a cart, he improved his
design over the years, adding steering, a clutch,
and brakes.Siegfried Marcuss place in history
as the inventor of the motorcar was almost
entirely erased by the Nazis in World War II
because he was of Jewish descent and credit was
given to Karl Benz instead.
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04 The Karl Benz automobile came in 1885, and he
began selling them the next year, making his the
first mass-produced car.Operating under license
from Benz, they were also produced in France by
Emile Roger.Its top speed? About 6mph!
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05 With cars being mass-produced, a way to keep
track of them was neededVehicle registration
plates were introduced by France in 1893.In
1898 the Netherlands introduced the first
nationally recognised registration plate that
used sequential numbers.America followed suit
in 1903, having previously only required the car
owners initials on the back of the vehicle. In
the UK, the 1903 Motor Car Act made plates a
requirement from 1904. The first of these - A1 -
was claimed by Earl Russell, who allegedly camped
out overnight to ensure he was the first in
line.The first number plates were made of baked
porcelain on iron or ceramic. They were very
fragile and few survive to this day. Other
materials were also tried, including leather,
cardboard, and plastic. During wartime, when
supplies were in short supply, some plates were
made pressed soy beans!
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06 The Ford Motor Company began mass-producing
cars in 1908.In 1913 the assembly line was
introduced, allowing Henry Ford to make the Ford
Model T in vast quantities which, in turn,
allowed him to keep the price down, making it
more affordable.Capable of producing 10,000 on
the assembly line each day, Ford sold over 15
million cars by the time he stopped making them,
a figure not topped until the Volkswagen Beetle,
45 years later.At first all Ford Model T
vehicles were all black because black paint dried
the quickest!They used wooden wheels just like
the ones used to shift artillery, but by 1926
wire wheels were used with inflatable tyres
rather than solid ones. You started the car via a
crank handle at the front.
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07 Benz may have been the first when it came to
mass-production, but by the end of the 20th
century, Japan had overtaken America to become
the leading manufacturer of automobiles. Now its
China who leads the way.Car designs have
changed many times over the years, and the 21st
century is seeing electrically-powered cars rise
in popularity, with self-driving cars no longer
an idea confined to science fiction! Who knows
where theyll take us next
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