Car History Of The First Gas Powered Cars

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.

Then in the year of seventeen seventy one Cugnot was in a wreck and he hit a brick wall. This made Cugnot the very first person in history to ever have a motor vehicle accident. This was only the beginning of his bad luck because one of Cugnot's friends died and one was exiled. After all of this trouble that he went through his money was depleted and he stopped trying to better the motor vehicle.

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.

At the turn of the century the electric, gas and steam powered cars were becoming very popular. In eighteen ninety nine and nineteen hundred was when the most cars were bought and they were outsold by all other types of cars. The electric cars were much better than their rival. They were lacking in vibration, smell and noise. This was good because the gas powered car had all of these and most people did not like them.

The thing that most people found most difficult in the gas vehicles was changing gears and the electric vehicles did not require you to change the gears. The steam powered cars also did not require you to change gears manually but they were quite cold natured and on cold mornings you would have to wait around forty five minutes for the car to be drivable.

With all this history Karl Benz was the first to get a patent on a gas fueled car and he received this on January twenty ninth, eighteen eighty six. Karl Benz was also the worlds first largest manufacturer of autos by the time the nineteen hundreds came about. - 21393

About the Author:

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