In which year was the automobile invented?
2 Answers
The world's earliest true automobile was an internal combustion engine vehicle manufactured by Brown in England in 1826. It was granted Patent No. 5350 on April 25 of that year. This two-cylinder vehicle performed exceptionally well, capable of traveling on flat roads and traversing mountains. In May 1926, it successfully climbed Hunter's Hill in Blackheath, Kent, England. History of automobile development: In the 15th century, scientist Leonardo da Vinci envisioned a self-propelled vehicle and left behind a design drawing. This was a vehicle powered by a spring mechanism. In 1649, German clockmaker Hans Hautsch attempted to build such a vehicle based on the design, achieving a speed of 1.5 km/h. Due to military needs, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725–1804), a captain of artillery in the French army during the reign of Louis XIV, was commissioned to develop a powered vehicle for towing artillery. In 1769, he completed the first vehicle at the Paris Arsenal, but it failed to move, marking a failed attempt. In May 1771, he built a larger second vehicle, capable of seating four people and reaching a speed of 9.5 km/h. This became the first vehicle in history to use steam power without relying on wind, animal power, or other external forces. It was a wooden three-wheeled vehicle, 7.2 meters long and 2.3 meters wide. Because the boiler and two cylinders were mounted on the front and top of the front wheels, which shook during movement, the vehicle was extremely unstable to drive. Additionally, lacking a condenser, it had to stop every 15 minutes to add water, making it very cumbersome. Moreover, without brakes, it was highly dangerous. During one test drive, it crashed into a city wall, resulting in an accident. In 1789, Napoleon I ordered improvements to the vehicle, and in 1801, it was sent to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris for preservation. The world's first internal combustion engine automobile was successfully developed by German Karl Benz (1844–1929) in October 1885, establishing the fundamental design principles for automobiles that even modern vehicles still adhere to.
The exact year of the automobile's birth is 1886, when Karl Benz filed a patent in Germany, and that three-wheeled gasoline-powered vehicle was recognized as the first modern car. When I delved deeper into this history, I discovered that before Benz's invention, transportation mainly relied on horse-drawn carriages or steam locomotives, and his innovation completely revolutionized the way people traveled. The backdrop was the 19th century, during the vigorous development of the Industrial Revolution, where breakthroughs in internal combustion engine technology made automobiles a reality. From that year onward, cars evolved rapidly, with innovations like Henry Ford's assembly line production making them widely accessible and transforming urban development and daily life. I always find this story quite fascinating because it's not just the starting point of transportation but also propelled global economic growth and reduced travel time. Looking back at 1886 today and seeing new technologies like autonomous driving, I can imagine how much slower the world would have been without Benz's bold attempt back then.
