History of the automobile

In 1769 the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot.

In 1803, Hayden Wischett designed the first car powered by the de Rivaz engine, an early internal combustion engine that was fueled by hydrogen.

In 1823 English engineer Samuel Brown invented the first industrially applied internal combustion engine.

In 1870 Siegfried Marcus built his first combustion engine powered pushcart, followed by four progressively more sophisticated combustion-engine cars over a 10-to-15-year span that influenced later cars. Marcus created the two-cycle combustion engine.citation needed The car's second incarnation in 1880 introduced a four-cycle, gasoline-powered engine, an ingenious carburetor design and magneto ignition. He created an additional two models further refining his design with steering, a clutch and a brake.

The four-stroke petrol internal combustion engine that still constitutes the most prevalent form of modern automotive propulsion was patented by Nicolaus Otto. The similar four-stroke diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel. The hydrogen fuel cell, one of the technologies hailed as a replacement for gasoline as an energy source for cars, was discovered in principle by Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838. The battery electric car owes its beginnings to Ányos Jedlik, one of the inventors of the electric motor, and Gaston Planté, who invented the lead–acid battery in 1859.citation needed

In 1882 the Italian Enrico Bernardi created the first petrol-powered vehicle, a tricycle for his son Louis. He drove it through the street of a village near the Italian city of Verona.citation needed

In 1885, Karl Benz developed a petrol or gasoline-powered automobile. This is also considered to be the first "production" vehicle as Benz made several identical copies. The automobile was powered by a single cylinder four-stroke enginecitation needed.

The first four-wheeled petrol-driven automobile in Britain was built in Walthamstow by Frederick Bremer in 1892.

Another was made in Birmingham in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester, who also patented the disc brake.

In 1908, the Ford Model T, created by the Ford Motor Company, began production and would become the first automobile to be mass-produced on a moving assembly line. From 1913 to 1927, Ford produced over 15,000,000 Model T automobiles.