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The Invention of the Automobile

 

            In terms of the lives of average people there is little doubt that the automobile is .
             the most revolutionary invention in the history of transportation since the wheel .
             itself. The basic idea is simple, choose a wheeled vehicle from the many types typically .
             pulled by horses or oxen, add a motor and create a self-propelled, personal transportation .
             vehicle.
             The automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single .
             inventor but rather contains an entire history. The automobile reflects an evolution that .
             took place worldwide. It is said that over 100,000 patents created the "modern- .
             automobile. As with all great things there are turning points to the many firsts that o.
             occurred along the way. Starting with the first theoretical plans for a "horseless carriage- .
             that had been drawn up by both Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. .
             In 1769 the very first self-propelled road vehicle was a military tractor invented .
             by French engineer and mechanic Nicolas Joseph Cugnot . He used a steam engine to .
             power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal by mechanic Randolph .
             Brezin. It was used by the French Army to haul artillery at a whopping speed of 2.5 mph .
             on only three wheels. Although it had to stop every 10-15 minutes to build up steam .
             power it was still carrying its own weight. The steam engine and boiler were separate .
             from the rest of the vehicle and placed in the front. It wasn't until but a year later that he .
             built a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers at nearly 4 mph. Almost 8 .
             months later Cugnot mananged to "drive- his 2nd tractor into a stone wall, The first car .
             accident and the start of bad luck, after the crash one of the men who helped fund the .
             project died, and the other was exiled. Bankrupt and injured is dream died. Seven years .
             later the first U.S patent for a steam-powered "horseless carriage- was granted to Oliver .
             Evans, a banker who sought to revive the earlier French design.


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