History of the Automobile

[BADMIHAI]

I want to do a presentation on the history of the automobile, for school. I was googling for a nice history of the car, but could not find a nice one. All help is appreciated. Thanks, guys.

[Wutputt]

If I'm not mistaken the first vehicle regarded as a car was invented in the mid 1700's by a French guy. It was a tree wheeler driven by a steam engine and it had some military use.

I do know a bit more about the history of the internal combustion engine though. The first (2-stroke) internal combustion petrol engine was invented in 1858 by Etienne Lenoir (the first drawings of an IC engine were already made in 1673 by Christian Huygens but it wasn't possible to build it in those days), and commercialised and patented in 1860. The first types of this engine ran on coal gas, but were replaced in 1863 with a very primitive petroleum carburettor. This engine was in fact total shit, it was extremely inefficient and the ignition system was pretty unreliable. Otto, a salesman in those days, learned about Lenoir's engine thought there could be done major improvements in this design. His first 2-stroke IC engine patents were ratified in 1861. And together with Langen he improved this engine further until somewhere around 1866. In 1876 Otto patented the 4-stroke petrol engine, until today known as the Otto cycle, and current petrol engines are still based in this cycle (with a few exceptions).


Maybe you should by a book about the history of the car or try to find a car encyclopaedia.

[zondaland]

Interesting fact about Ford. When they were originally founded they went bankrupt. It was only when Henry had a second shot at it that he made the big time. Incidentally he founded the company (second time I think) on money that he won from a race.

I'm not aware of any comprehensive web site. If you can be a little more specific about what exactly you are looking for then we can probably help a bit more.

[lev_p]

Wutputt, the French guy's name is Kunyo (or something sounding similar with French rules :)) Was used as an artillery tractor. Wasn't that succeful, tho...
Else, I can add to Wutputt story what everyone knows already - Daimler came around with a first car (3-wheeler) and Benz with a first bike (a quad, actually). Now, I've read somewhere recently that another Swiss or German had actually built the first car a few months before Daimler, but it took him some time to get it patented.
Here is an article from About.com (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarssteama.htm)
Here is another good article (http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm)

[Sir_GT]

Google would be a difficult source for something as broad as this. If you ask me, as long as you're willing to spend a bit, there are quite a few books you can get that detail the history of automobiles quite well.

I would spend a few quid I were you. The books are always worth keeping anyway.

[BADMIHAI]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Since it will be a 15 minutes presentation, I decided I should present on the cars that really made a difference...like the hatchbacks, minivans, hybrids, etc.

[Sir_GT]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Since it will be a 15 minutes presentation, I decided I should present on the cars that really made a difference...like the hatchbacks, minivans, hybrids, etc.

Why not just download the enzo ferrari story? If you could show clips of that, I'm sure everybody would be more than interested.