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Wheels were invented 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. They were made from solid wood. Animals pulled carts on wheels. A thousand years later, spokes were added which made the wheels much lighter. -
Wheels were invented 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. They were made from solid wood. Animals pulled carts on wheels. A thousand years later, spokes were added which made the wheels much lighter. -
The first vehicle to move by itself was the steam tractor, invented in 1769 by the frencjman Nicolas Cugnot. The steam tractor worked by pumping pistons up and down to move the wheels. But the tractor was very heavy and unstable. -
The first steam train was built in England in 1804 by Richard Trevithick and travelled at 8 kph (Kilometers per hour). In 1829, George Stephenson and his son Robert won a competition to invent the fastest steam train. The Stephesons Rocket could travel at 48 kph. -
Transport on the road and rail was further advanced by invention of the internal combustion engine in 1859. The combustion engine worked by burning fuel inside cylinders and was much smaller and lighter than a steam engine. And in 1885 the german engineer Karl Benz built the first petrol-powered car. -
By the 1900s diesel engine trains (named after Rudolf Diesel, another German engineer) were also replacing steam trains. -
These early hand-built cars were too expensive for ordinary people. But in 1908 Henry Ford started mass- producing cars in his factories. In the first 20 years of production, 15 million Model T Ford cars were sold. -
Nowadays, cars and trains are often powered by diesel or petrol, but these fuels will run out. High speed trains, such as the Japanese bullet train or the French TGV, which can travel over 300 kph now use electricity. -
Scientist are also experimenting with magnetic levitation trains and fuel cell cars (hydrogen) and solar powered cars.