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first invented car
Nicolas Cugnot, a French military engineer developed a steam powered road-vehicle for the French army to haul heavy cannons.Using a steam engine fixed to a three-wheeled cart, Cugnot successfully converted the back-and-forth action of a steam piston into rotary motion. The truck reputedly reached walking speed and carried four tonnes. The army later abandoned his invention. -
Britain’s steam powered cars
Richard Trevithick improved the design of steam engines, by making smaller and lighter with stronger boilers generating more power. In 1801, he put one of his new compact steam engines on wheels. -
Uphill struggle
English engineer, Samuel Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn a mixture of oxygen hydrogen gas. He used it to briefly power a vehicle up Shooter's Hill - the highest point in south London. -
Car Manufacturers get green
Manufacturers have acknowledged that oil reserves will dry up in the future. They’re now developing engines that use more than one fuel source – hybrid engines. Honda and Toyota initially introduced their petrol/electric hybrids to the Japanese market, before releasing them in America and Europe in 2002. -
1977 through 2000cars history
A few thousand all-electric cars (such as Honda's EV Plus, G.M.'s EV1, Ford's Ranger pickup EV, Nissan's Altra EV, Chevy's S-10 EV, and Toyota's RAV4 EV) are produced by big car manufacturers, but most of them are available for lease only. All of the major automakers' advanced all-electric production programs will be discontinued by the early 2000s. -
Struggling with the economy
Struggling to remain profitable during the economic downturn, executives from the Big Three American automakers go to Washington to make the case for a $25 billion Federal bailout of the U.S. automotive industry. -
Scientists create artificial life
In a giant leap for biotechnology, a team of scientists led by DNA pioneer Dr Craig Venter have successfully created the first artificial lifeform. Mycoplasma laboratorium is an entirely new species of bacterium, with a man-made set of genetic code – originating on a computer – and placed on a synthetic chromosome inside an empty cell. Using its new “software”, the cell can generate proteins and produce new cells. -
The Space Shuttle fleet is retired
This year sees the last of the Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station and the subsequent retirement of the fleet. Two private companies – SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation – will take over the remaining work, using cheaper disposable rockets.
