History and Evolution of the Automobile

This book presents the history of the automobile and its evolution.
The 19th century is marked by unparalleled advances in science and its
applications to the industrial arts. The automobile is looked upon as an ultra
progressive idea. The records, however, show that the subject engrossed the
attention of inventive minds many hundreds of years ago. In fact, as far back
as the beginning of the thirteenth century a Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon
prophesied that the day would come when boats and carriages would be propelled
by machinery.
The first authentic record of a self-propelled carriage dates back to the
middle of the sixteenth century. The inventor was Johann Haustach, of
Nuremburg. The device is described as a chariot propelled by the force of
springs, and it is said that it attained a speed of two thousand paces per
hour, about one mile and a quarter. Springs have been tried by many inventors
since that time, but always without success from the simple fact that the
amount of energy that can be stored in a spring is practically insignificant.
In 1763 a Frenchman by the name of Cugnot devised a vehicle that was propelled
by steam, and a few years after the date of his first experiment, constructed
for the French Government a gun carriage which is shown in Fig. 1. As will be
seen, the design was of the tricycle type, and it was intended to mount the
gun between the rear wheels. The boiler, which resembles a huge kettle, hung
over the front end and was apparently devoid of a smoke stack. Motion was
imparted to the front wheel by means of a ratchet. Although this invention is
very crude, it must be regarded as meritorious if we consider that it was made
before the steam engine had been developed in a successful form for stationary
purposes.
The next effort to solve the problem was made by W. Symington in the year
1784, the carriage devised by him being illustrated in Fig. 2. This coach,
although pretentious in appearance, was crude mechanically, but it actually
ran. The service, however, was not what could be called satisfactory.
In 1803, Richard Trevithick brought out the carriage shown in Fig. 3, which
could run. but was artistically a failure. Moreover, the machinery was such as
would soon give out, even if well designed, on account of its exposed
position.
Between 1805 and 1830, quite a number of steam vehicles were invented and put
into practical operation...

*[29 janvier]: selon le calendrier julien
*[IIe]: 2e siècle
*[6e]: Sixième
*[apr. J.-C.]: après Jésus-Christ
*[Ier]: 1er siècle
*[XIXe]: 19e siècle
*[26 mai]: selon le calendrier julien