History of the Automobile

The automobile was invented in a single day by a single inventor. The first theoretical plans for a motor vehicle that had been drawn up by both Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.

Nicolas Joseph Cugnot French engineer and mechanic was invented first self propelled road vehicle that was used by military tractor. He used steam engine to power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal by mechanic Brezin. There is one problem with the vehicle, it stop every 10 to 15 to build up steam power. In this vehicle, steam engine and boiler both were separate from the vehicle. In 1770, Nicolas built a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers.

In 1771, Cugnot drove one of his road vehicles into a stone wall, he was the first person to get into a motor vehicle accident. This was the first road accident. After one of Cugnot's patrons died and the other was exiled, the money for Cugnot's road vehicle experiments ended.

The working of first vehicle was that the steam engines powered cars by burning fuel that heated the water in a boiler, that creating steam and that the steam expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which then turned the wheels. The car has 3 wheel and carried 4 people. Cugnot also designed two steam locomotives with engines that never worked well.

Steam engines were very successfully used in locomotives. Many historians, who accept that early steam-powered road vehicles were automobiles, feel that Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile.