The First Rechargeable Electric Car Was Made In 1881
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As early as 1832, inventors experimented with electric horseless carriages. But no one had successfully built a rechargeable battery. Therefore, early electric vehicles were essentially disposable. Gustave Trouvé was a multi-talented French inventor. He first pioneered new, lightweight rechargeable battery technology. Then he greatly improved the efficiency of existing electric engines.
He used these components to invent many devices. For example, he invented a self-propelled boat and electric helicopter. He also invented the metal detector and headlamp. Trouvés other contributions include an early endoscope and a portable slide projector.
It was only a matter of time before Trouvé turned his attention to the automobile. In 1881 he mounted his battery and motor on a British tricycle. Then he rode it around the streets of Paris. Thus, the first rechargeable electric car was made in 1881.
What Was The Very First Car Company It’s Complicated
Contraptions we can consider ‘automobiles’ have been around for longer than you thinkand companies formed to build them long predate internal combustion.
What was the first company formed to build a car?
Even if you dont know off the top of your head, youd think the answer would be more or less forthcoming. At the very least, you can probably guess the decadethe 1880s seems likely. Thats when the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was introduced, after all.
But if you look beyond gasoline-powered internal combustion and start dabbling in, say, steam, the timeline gets pushed back decades. Steam wagons were plying roads in France in the 1870s, for example. Was a company formed to build such a contraption not, arguably, a car company?
As with so many historical rabbit holes, the further you dig, the stranger, and more intriguing, things getand the further back in time you have to travel to get a sense of where it all started. What I found when I started exploring the early history of the car will, if nothing else, make for great trivia for those post London-to-Brighton Run drinking sessions.
History Of The Automotive Powerplant
These days, its hard to imagine a world without cars. But thats just where things stood less than a mere 150 years ago.
Though we often take our modern, car-filled existence for granted, we owe the continual progressions of technology to a slew of eccentric inventors who just wouldnt stop tinkering around with various machines in the 1800s.
Out of this inspired experimentation came a variety of primitive vehicles and unique engine technology. But who made the first real car engine?
What would those early inventors say today if they saw the engines inhabiting our new Mercedes-Benz inventory?
The first true car engine is typically credited to Karl Benz. After years of being obsessed with bicycles and technology, Benz developed whats taken to be the first gasoline-powered automobile in 1885. The engine in question was a single cylinder four-stroke contraption.
The automobile Benz developed was the first designed to generate its own power, instead of simply being a motorized stagecoach or horse carriage. As a result, Benz received an official patent for his Motorwagen. A few years later, the Benz Motorwagen became the first commercially available automobile. His efforts, of course, eventually formed an integral part of Mercedes-Benz.
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Ford Introduces The Flathead V8 Engine
As with the new Model A, Henry Ford shut down all other production operations to work on this innovative project. At great effort and expense, the company engineered a way to cast the first commercially successful V8 engine.
The flathead was a hit. It was affordable, versatile, and introduced just as the American market was becoming fascinated with ever-more powerful engines. It remained in production for over 22 years. To this day the flathead remains extremely popular with hot rodders.
Internal Combustion Engine: The Heart Of The Automobile
An internal combustion engine is an engine that uses the explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston within a cylinder the piston’s movement turns a crankshaft that then turns the car wheels via a chain or a drive shaft. The different types of fuel commonly used for car combustion engines are gasoline , diesel, and kerosene.
A brief outline of the history of the internal combustion engine includes the following highlights:
Engine design and car design were integral activities, almost all of the engine designers mentioned above also designed cars, and a few went on to become major manufacturers of automobiles. All of these inventors and more made notable improvements in the evolution of the internal combustion vehicles.
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The Importance Of Nicolaus Otto
One of the most important landmarks in engine design comes from Nicolaus August Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor engine. Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the “Otto Cycle Engine,” and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. Otto’s contributions were very historically significant, it was his four-stroke engine that was universally adopted for all liquid-fueled automobiles going forward.
When Were Cars Invented
The 1901 Mercedes, designed by Wilhelm Maybach for Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, deserves credit for being the first modern motorcar in all essentials.
Its thirty-five-horsepower engine weighed only fourteen pounds per horsepower, and it achieved a top speed of fifty-three miles per hour. By 1909, with the most integrated automobile factory in Europe, Daimler employed some seventeen hundred workers to produce fewer than a thousand cars per year.
Nothing illustrates the superiority of European design better than the sharp contrast between this first Mercedes model and Ransom E. Olds 1901-1906 one-cylinder, three-horsepower, tiller-steered, curved-dash Oldsmobile, which was merely a motorized horse buggy. But the Olds sold for only $650, putting it within reach of middle-class Americans, and the 1904 Olds output of 5,508 units surpassed any car production previously accomplished.
The central problem of automotive technology over the first decade of the twentieth century would be reconciling the advanced design of the 1901 Mercedes with the moderate price and low operating expenses of the Olds. This would be overwhelmingly an American achievement.
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Rise Of Japanese Automakers
Engineering in the postwar era was subordinated to the questionable aesthetics of nonfunctional styling at the expense of economy and safety. And quality deteriorated to the point that by the mid-1960s American-made cars were being delivered to retail buyers with an average of twenty-four defects a unit, many of them safety-related. Moreover, the higher unit profits that Detroit made on gas-guzzling road cruisers were made at the social costs of increased air pollution and a drain on dwindling world oil reserves.
The era of the annually restyled road cruiser ended with the imposition of federal standards of automotive safety , emission of pollutants , and energy consumption with escalating gasoline prices following the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 and especially with the mounting penetration of both the U.S. and world markets first by the German Volkswagen Bug and then by Japanese fuel-efficient, functionally designed, well-built small cars.
After peaking at a record 12.87 million units in 1978, sales of American-made cars fell to 6.95 million in 1982, as imports increased their share of the U.S. market from 17.7 percent to 27.9 percent. In 1980 Japan became the worlds leading auto producer, a position it continues to hold.
Ford Acquires The Lincoln Motor Company
Ford purchased Lincoln from Henry Leland, his former business associate from the Detroit Automobile Company. Since then, Lincoln has produced many luxury cars of historical and aesthetic note, including the 1931-1939 K-Series, 1936 Zephyr, Edsel Fords original Continental, the ensuing first-generation Lincoln Continental and the classic 1956-1957 Continental Mk. II.
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The Start Of Toyota’s International Sales
Toyota set up a headquarters in Hollywood in 1957 the first Toyota car registered in the United States was a 1958 Toyopet, sold in 1958 the California license plate was installed by Toyota Motor Sales president Shotaro Kamiya himself, in front of the California DMV. Two vehicles were imported, the Land Cruiser and Toyopet. Neither sold well the Toyopet was withdrawn while Toyota designed a car specifically modified for the American market â a strategy which later gave us the Avalon and Camry. Alan wrote:
I am the grandson of the first Toyota dealer in the US. It all started in Larkspur California . Only two vehicles were available, the Toyopet sedan and the Land Cruiser. San Francisco was where the first distribution center was set up.
The highlight of my grandfatherâs pioneer Toyota dealership was a personal visit to his home and showroom from Mr Toyoda, the president of the company. His visit was to thank him for his being the first dealer in the US. He presented my grandfather with two Seiko watches which I still possess.
The dealership came to a close in 1968with the passing of my grandfather. In addition to being the first dealer, he also possessed the largest classic car collection west of the Mississippi. He had over 100 classics including Hupmobiles, Packards, Reos, Dodges, Franklins, Marlots, Plymouths, Grahams, etc.
Ford Begins Crash Testing Its Vehicles
In the 60 years since then, Ford has performed more than 31,000 crash tests around the world. In recent years Ford has also used virtual crash testing to maximize the quantity and availability of crash data. In tandem with physical testing, the crash simulations help Ford gather more data than ever before.
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Henry Ford Ii Becomes President Of Ford Motor Company
The son of Edsel and the grandson of Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, served as president from 1945 to 1960 and as chairman and CEO from 1960 to 1979. When Henry II took over, the company and its bookkeeping practices were in disarray. With the help of ten former U.S. Army Air Force officers nicknamed the Whiz Kids, Henry II transformed the organization into a disciplined company with modern management systems prepared for the global challenges of the post-war world.
Why Do Most Cars Today Run On Gasoline
The gasoline engine has been reliable, practical, and fairly efficient since about 1900. It is easier to control than a steam engine and less likely to burn or explode. A gasoline car can go much further on a tank of gasoline than an electric car can go between battery charges. Gasoline engines have been improved by the use of computers, fuel injectors, and other devices. But growing concern about chemicals that gasoline engines release into the air have led to new interest in clean, electric cars and cars that run on natural gas, a vapor that is different from gasoline.
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Chemical Analysis And Production
Commercial gasoline is a mixture of a large number of different hydrocarbons. Gasoline is produced to meet a host of engine performance specifications and many different compositions are possible. Hence, the exact chemical composition of gasoline is undefined. The performance specification also varies with season, with more volatile blends during winter, in order to be able to start a cold engine. At the refinery, the composition varies according to the crude oils from which it is produced, the type of processing units present at the refinery, how those units are operated, and which hydrocarbon streams the refinery opts to use when blending the final product.
Gasoline is produced in . Roughly 19 U.S. gallons of gasoline is derived from a 42-U.S.-gallon barrel of . Material separated from crude oil via , called virgin or straight-run gasoline, does not meet specifications for modern engines , but can be pooled to the gasoline blend.
The bulk of a typical gasoline consists of a homogeneous mixture of small, relatively lightweight with between 4 and 12 atoms per molecule . It is a mixture of paraffins , olefins , and . The usage of the terms paraffin and olefin in place of the standard chemical nomenclature alkane and alkene, respectively, is particular to the oil industry. The actual ratio of molecules in any gasoline depends upon:
The various refinery streams blended to make gasoline have different characteristics. Some important streams include:
World War Ii And The Auto Industry
The automobile industry had played a critical role in producing military vehicles and war matériel in the First World War. During World War II, in addition to turning out several million military vehicles, American automobile manufacturers made some seventy-five essential military items, most of them unrelated to the motor vehicle. These materials had a total value of $29 billion, one-fifth of the nations war production.
Because the manufacture of vehicles for the civilian market ceased in 1942 and tires and gasoline were severely rationed, motor vehicle travel fell dramatically during the war years. Cars that had been nursed through the Depression long after they were ready to be junked were patched up further, ensuring great pent-up demand for new cars at the wars end.
Detroits Big Three carried Sloanism to its illogical conclusion in the postwar period. Models and options proliferated, and every year cars became longer and heavier, more powerful, more gadget-bedecked, more expensive to purchase and to operate, following the truism that large cars are more profitable to sell than small ones.
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Ford Introduces The Model T
Henry Fords Model T put the world on wheels with a simple, affordable, durable automobile. Ford sold 15 million Model Ts before ceasing production in May 1927, making it one of the best-selling vehicles of all time, and arguably the most famous car in the world.
In 1908, there were only about 18,000 miles of paved roads in the US. To deal with the primitive roads, Ford used light and strong vanadium steel alloy for critical parts. At the time, most of the automobiles in existence were luxurious novelties rather than affordable transport. But to appeal to the mass market, Fords vehicle also had to be reliable and easy to maintain. Fortunately for millions of new drivers, it was.
Ford Begins Construction Of The River Rouge Complex
It would become the largest integrated factory in the world by the following decade. Throughout its history, the self-contained Rouge Complex has contained a wide array of industries necessary to produce cars, including steel mills, a tire factory, a glass factory, a power plant and a reception depot for coal, iron ore, rubber and lumber. In the 1930s the complex employed over 100,000 workers. Today the River Rouge Complex continues to evolve to meet the needs of modern manufacturing processes.
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What Do We Mean By Car Company
There are a surprising number of surviving car companies that can trace their roots back centuries notably, Peugeot was founded in 1810 and spent the mid-19th century cranking out coffee mills before moving into bicycles and, eventually, cars. The company that became Pierce-Arrow was established circa 1872 to make birdcages, among other sundry goods. Obviously, none of these would qualify as the oldest company founded to make carsthey happened into automobiles many years after going into business.
The famed Benz Patent-Motorwagen arrived just a few years later, in 1885, and despite its delicate look and tricycle configuration, it is a remarkably sophisticated, surprisingly fully realized machine. It might well be considered the first serious internal combustion-powered automobile, and its successor, the four-wheeled Velo, is certainly one of the first successful production internal combustion-powered automobiles.
Yet however natural the move into car production was for Karl Benz, whether it was always part of the plan when he founded Benz & Cie. is pure conjecture. Here, were trying to determine who was the first to go into business with the primary goal of building automobiles.
United States 1946 To Present
The development of jet engines burning kerosene-based fuels during WW II for aircraft produced a superior performing propulsion system than internal combustion engines could offer and the U.S. military forces gradually replaced their piston combat aircraft with jet powered planes. This development would essentially remove the military need for ever increasing octane fuels and eliminated government support for the refining industry to pursue the research and production of such exotic and expensive fuels. Commercial aviation was slower to adapt to jet propulsion and until 1958 when the first entered commercial service, piston powered airliners still relied on aviation gasoline. But commercial aviation had greater economic concerns than the maximum performance that the military could afford. As octane numbers increased so did the cost of gasoline but the incremental increase in efficiency becomes less as compression ratio goes up. This reality set a practical limit to how high compression ratios could increase relative to how expensive the gasoline would become. Last produced in 1955, the was using 115/145 Aviation gasoline and producing 1 horsepower per cubic inch at 6.7 compression ratio and 1 pound of engine weight to produce 1.1 horsepower. This compares to the Wright Brothers engine needing almost 17 pounds of engine weight to produce 1 horsepower.
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Evolution Of The Automobile
When you think of the very first car, what do you imagine? Maybe a car made out of tree branches with stone wheels, powered by Fred Flintstones feet? Or a quaint little buggy with thin, oversized tires driven by a man wearing a top hat?
What did the very first cars look like, and how have they changed over the years? Theyre probably a little different than youd think!
Car And Car Engine Designers Chronologically By First Vehicle/engine Built
- Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot , French inventor of the world’s first automobile, a 17691770 steam-fuelled vehicle
- Étienne Lenoir, developer of the first atmospheric gaseous fueled internal combustion engine and automobile , pioneer of electroplating
- Nicolaus Otto, developer of the first successful compressed charge gaseous fueled internal combustion engine
- Siegfried Marcus, developed petrol-powered, internal combustion engine vehicles
- Wilhelm Maybach, designed engines starting in the 1870s80s first motorbike , second internal combustion car
- Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer, pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development
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