The most important part of the automobile is the engine, and so the earliest examples of automobiles follow shortly after the invention of that source of propulsion. The steam engine, much like the engines that powered the locomotives of the time, was the first type of engine, and therefore the first type of engine to be used in a motor vehicle. In 1769 French Army officer Captain Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built what many consider to be the first automobile. Cugnot's three-wheeled, steam-powered vehicle carried four persons. Designed to move artillery pieces, it had a top speed of a little more than 3.2 km/h (2 mph) and had to stop every 20 minutes to build up a fresh head of steam.
Many more examples of steam powered passenger vehicles followed shortly after. As early as 1801 successful but very heavy steam automobiles were introduced in England. Laws barred them from public roads and forced their owners to run them like trains on private tracks. In 1804 American inventor Oliver Evans built a steam-powered vehicle in Chicago, Illinois. French engineer Onésiphore Pecqueur built one in 1828.
Cugnot's Steam Powered Tri-cycle
Oliver Evans' High-Pressure "Hopper-Bottom" Engine
During the early 20th century steam cars were popular in the United States. Most famous was the Stanley Steamer, built by American twin brothers Freelan and Francis Stanley. A Stanley Steamer established a world land speed record in 1906 of 205.44 km/h (121.573 mph). Manufacturers produced about 125 models of steam-powered automobiles, including the Stanley, until 1932.
Jay Leno Driving his Stanley Steam Car
The steam car was joined shortly after it's invention by cars powered both by electricity and the internal combustion engine. The first examples of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine were largely European, but, as is the trend, American inventors followed shortly behind. Brothers Charles Edgar Duryea and James Frank Duryea built several gas-powered vehicles between 1893 and 1895. The first Duryea, a one-cylinder, four-horsepower model, looked much like a Panhard-Levassor model. In 1893 American industrialist Henry Ford built an internal-combustion engine from plans he saw in a magazine. In 1896 he used an engine to power a vehicle mounted on bicycle wheels and steered by a tiller. (That vehicle was called the Quadracycle, and it's picture can be found on the introduction page.)
This is an 1893 Duryea One-Cylinder.
The
electric car also played an important role in the developement of the automobile.
For a few decades in the 1800s, electric engines enjoyed great popularity
because they were quiet and ran at slow speeds that were less likely to
scare horses and people. By 1899 an electric car designed and driven by
Belgian inventor Camille Jenatzy set a record of 105.8810 km/h (65.79 mph).
Early electric cars featured a large bank of storage batteries under the
hood. Heavy cables connected the batteries to a motor between the front
and rear axles. Most electric cars had top speeds of 48 km/h (30 mph),
but could go only 80 km (50 mi) before their batteries needed recharging.
Electric automobiles were manufactured in quantity in the United States
until 1930.
Built in 1895 this is the first American built
electric car.
