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The History Of Cars

The history of the car is interesting because the car has evolved so much. Especially over the last couple of centuries.



1680 – Christian Huygens designed an internal combustion engine fueled by gunpowder.



The 19th Century:

  • 1807 – Francois Isaac de Rivaz invented an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen and oxygen.
  • 1824 – Samuel Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn gas.
  • 1858 – Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir invented an electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine.
  • 1862 – Alphonse Beau de Rochas patented a four-stroke engine.
  • 1863 – Lenoir attached an improved engine to a three-wheeled wagon. 
  • 1864 – Siegfried Marcus built a one-cylinder engine with a carburetor and attached his engine to a cart. 
  • 1866 – Eugen Langen, and Nicolaus August Otto improved on Lenoir’s and de Rochas’ designs. 
  • 1872 – Gottlieb Daimler was the technical director of the company called Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik.
  • 1873 – George Brayton developed a kerosene engine considered the first safe and practical oil engine.
  • 1876 – Nicolaus August Otto invented a four-stroke engine called the “Otto cycle”.
  • 1876 – Sir Dougald Clerk invented the first successful two-stroke engine. 
  • 1883 – Edouard Delamare-Debouteville built a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas.
  • 1885 – Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach patented the prototype of the modern gas engine.
  • 1885 – Ransome Eli Olds and his father father, Pliny Fisk Olds, began making steam and gasoline engines. 
  • 1886 – Karl Benz received the first patent (DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car.
  • 1886 – Daimler took a stagecoach and modified it to contain his engine.
  • 1887 – Olds designed his first steam-powered car.
  • 1889 – Daimler created a two cylinders, four-strokes engine with V-shaped valves.
  • 1889 – Panhard & Levassor manufactured automobiles. (French company)
  • 1890 – Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.
  • 1890 – Daimler established the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft.
  • 1890 – Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor used a Daimler engine to create their first automobile. 
  • 1891 – Peugeot manufactured automobiles. (French company)
  • 1893 – Charles and Frank Duryea became the first American gas-powered commercial car manufacturers.
  • 1894 – The Benz Velo was the first standardized automobile. 
  • 1895 – The modern transmission was built and credited to Panhard and Levassor.
  • 1895 – One hundred and thirty four identical Benz Velos were produced.
  • 1896 – The Duryea Motor Wagon Company had sold thirteen models of the Duryea.
  • 1897 – Emile Levassor tragically was killed in a fatal car accident during the “Paris to Marseille” race.
  • 1899 – Olds moved to Detroit to start the Olds Motor Works.


    The 20th Century

  • 1901 – Olds produced 425 “Curved Dash Olds” and was the leading American car manufacturer from1901 to 1904.
  • 1901 – Wilhelm Maybach created the Mercedes car.
  • 1901 – The curved dash Oldsmobile was the first car to be mass produced in the United States.
  • 1903 – Henry Ford formed the Ford Motor Company.
  • 1908 – Henry Ford introduced the Model T.
  • 1913-14 – Henry Ford invented and improved the assembly line in his car factory in Ford’s Highland Park in Michigan.
  • By 1927, 15 million model Ts had been manufactured making Ford the biggest car manufacturer in the world.

And It Only Got Better From There!

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