If we’re going to be really specific, then the first steam powered vehicle was actually created around 1672. It was invented by Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China. He built a steam-powered vehicle as a toy for the Chinese Emperor. It was too small to be driven, but it is thought that this was the first ever working steam-powered vehicle.
But, if we’re looking at a vehicle that was large enough to transport people and cargo, then this wasn’t until the late 18th century. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot designed a steam-driven artillery tractor in 1770 and 1771. However, it was impractical and wasn’t developed. Instead, it was up to us, the Brits. William Murdoch built a working model of a steam carriage in 1784. And, in 1801, Richard Trevithick was running a full-sized vehicle on the roads of Camborne.
The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789.
When was the first “real” car invented?
Okay, so the cars that existed up until now weren’t really cars. Well, they weren’t proper cars. These didn’t come about until 1873 when a Frenchman built a self-propelled steam road vehicle. This could transport groups of passengers.
The first carriage-sized car that could be used on the existing wagon roads in the United States was a steam-powered vehicle invented by Dr. J.W. Carhart in 1871.
Interestingly, this led the State of Wisconsin to offer a $10,000 award to the first person to produce a substitute for the use of horses and other animals. The condition was that the substitute would have to maintain an average speed of more than 5 miles an hour over a 200-mile course. This was the first ever automobile race between states. Seven vehicles were registered, and only two started to actually compete, and one of those broke down. The winner was from Oshkosh and finished the course in 33 hours and 27 minutes.
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127 years of modern automobile evolution
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