History of the Automobile

By teegs
  • Invention: Cugnot builds first self-propelled road vehicle

    Invention: Cugnot builds first self-propelled road vehicle
    Nicolas Cugnot, a French military engineer developed a steam powered road-vehicle for the French army to haul heavy cannons.
  • Trevithick builds a full-size steam road carriage

    Trevithick builds a full-size steam road carriage
    Builder of the first working railway steam locomotive.
  • Murdoch builds a working model of a steam carriage

    Murdoch builds a working model of a steam carriage
    Britain's first working model of a steam engine carriage
  • Evans is given the first automobile patent in the US

    Evans is given the first automobile patent in the US
    Later, in 1805, Evans created the first automobile in the USA and also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land and through a paddle wheel in the water.
  • Discovery: First electric locomotive made

    Discovery: First electric locomotive made
    Robert Davidson built an electric locomotive that attained a speed of four miles an hour. Electric cars used rechargeable batteries that powered a small electric motor. The vehicles were heavy, slow, expensive, and needed to stop for recharging frequently.
  • Lenoir makes a car with internal combustion engine

    Lenoir makes a car with internal combustion engine
    Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir invented a two-stroke, internal combustion engine, that was fuelled by coal gas and triggered by an electric spark-ignition.
  • Diffusion: First Marcus car runs on gasoline

    Diffusion: First Marcus car runs on gasoline
    Siegfried Samuel Marcus was the first man to propel a car with gasoline.
  • Benz Motorwagon is the first commercially available automobile

    Benz Motorwagon is the first commercially available automobile
    Two former French wood machinists, Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor, set up the world’s first car manufacturers. Their first car was built in 1890 using a Daimler engine.
  • Benz makes first gasoline powered commercial auto

    Benz makes first gasoline powered commercial auto
    The first vehicles driven using internal combustion engines were developed roughly at the same time by two engineers working in separate parts of Germany – Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.They simultaneously formulated highly successful and practically powered vehicles that, worked like the cars we use today.
  • Panhard et Levassor first motor company

    Panhard et Levassor first motor company
    The first company to form exclusively to build automobiles.
  • Duryea company builds first American gasoline automobile

    Duryea company builds first American gasoline automobile
    The first American firm to build gasoline automobiles.
  • Lancaster builds one of first petrol car in UK

    Lancaster builds one of first petrol car in UK
  • Oldsmobile becomes first car sold in high volumes

    Oldsmobile becomes first car sold in high volumes
    Dominated the veteran era of automobile production.
  • Ford Motor Company formed

    Ford Motor Company formed
  • First Cadillacs introduced

    First Cadillacs introduced
  • Ford introduces model A

    Ford introduces model A
  • Ford Model T makes automobile usage popular

    Ford Model T makes automobile usage popular
    By 1927, 15 million Model Ts had been manufactured. Workers on the production line assembled the car just in ninety-three minutes,
  • Cars made for racing purposes

    Cars made for racing purposes
    Delage, Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye, and Bugatti constructing streamlined vehicles with engines producing up to 450 kW (612 hp), aided by multiple-stage supercharging.
  • Kettering invents electric starter for Cadillac

    Kettering invents electric starter for Cadillac
    Charles Kettering invented the electric ignition and starter motor. Cars could now start themselves. Kettering later introduced independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.
  • Ford makes first moving assembly line for cars

    Ford makes first moving assembly line for cars
    Made it the biggest car manufacturer
  • First single foot pedal operates 4-wheel brakes

    First single foot pedal operates 4-wheel brakes
  • First luxury cars made

    First luxury cars made
  • Jeep designed

    Jeep designed
    First built for the army
  • Deusenberg uses four wheel hydraulic brake in US

    Deusenberg uses four wheel hydraulic brake in US
    The Duesenberg, made in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the first American car with four-wheel hydraulic brakes, replacing ones that relied on the pressure of the driver’s foot alone.
  • Power steering system introduced

    Power steering system introduced
    Invented in the 1920s by Francis W. Davis and George Jessup in Waltham, Massachusetts.
  • Mercedes-Benz makes independant front suspension

    Mercedes-Benz makes independant front suspension
    Introduced the first modern independent front suspension system, which gave cars a smoother ride and better handling. By making each front wheel virtually independent of the other though attached to a single axle, independent front suspension minimizes the transfer of road shock from one wheel to the other.
  • First air conditioned cars

    First air conditioned cars
    The Nash Motor Company adds the first air conditioning system to cars
  • Airbag is invented

    Airbag is invented
    Invented by John W. Hetrick of Newport, PA, U.S. in 1951 and he patented the device the following year.
  • Car manufacturers go green

    Car manufacturers go green
    Manufacturers acknowledge that oil reserves will dry up in the future. Start to develop 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.
  • Ford introduce active park assist, back up cameras etc,

    Ford introduce active park assist, back up cameras etc,
    Helps you parallell park, and back up