It just so happened that in history a chain of accidents often leads to great discoveries. It was as a result of a banal coincidence that the first cars appeared.
Many great minds dreamed of building a "self-propelled cart". Even Leonardo da Vinci worked on the drawings of the first car. His spring-driven wagons were used in parades and folk festivals during the Renaissance. Scientists in Florence in 2004 recreated da Vinci's design according to surviving drawings and sketches. This clearly proved that the first cars could well exist in the era of the great inventor.
But the spring drive of the Italian did not inspire confidence in the reliability of the mechanism. Work on the creation of more advanced models did not stop. And now another discovery was the invention of a steam automatic machine by the Russian mechanic Polzunov. By itself, the machine did not move, but it was able to convert the energy of the fuel into which, in turn, contributed to the process of vaporization in the boiler. And the steam could be used at will. On the basis of the Polzunov steam engine, the French inventor N. Cugno created a self-propelled wagon. She was used as a vehicle for transporting cannons. Carts with a steam plant in terms of weight and size could compete with modern trucks. What was worth only the weight of the fuel and water necessary for its movement. With such a mass, the speed of the first car barely reached 4 km / h.
The steam engine haunted not only foreigners. Ivan Kulibin also worked on the creation of the car. Its design was technically more complex than that of the Frenchman. The Kulibino scooter cart had rolling bearings that significantly reduced the coefficient of friction, a flywheel that allowed increasing the shaft speed, a brake, and even a kind of gearbox. However, the first cars of Kulibin did not find practical application.
So the history of the automotive industry would have revolved around the steam engine if Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had not created a gasoline engine. Of course, it would be unfair to fully attribute the glory of the invention of the internal combustion engine to these two great people. Unfair to the other 400 co-authors, among whom was the engineer Nicholas Otto, who received a patent for an internal combustion engine.
The appearance of the internal combustion engine was a turning point in the history of the creation of self-propelled vehicles. Now Karl Benz more or less accurately imagined which first car could firmly establish itself in history. In 1886, Benz patented his new creation - a self-propelled carriage. It used a gasoline engine as a driving force. Ironically, another German designer creates the same crew. At the same time, the two inventors worked independently of each other. Despite the fact that Daimler created the first carburetor and motorcycle a year earlier, it was Benz who got the laurels of the inventor of the car.
The first cars were three-wheeled double carriages. Instead of horses, they were driven by a water-cooled gasoline engine. The engine was located in a horizontal position above the rear axle. Torque was transmitted to the axle through two chain and one belt drive. To start the engine, the designer installed a galvanic battery. Despite the fact that the frame of the car consisted of metal tubes and was very fragile, and which the driver could count on did not exceed 16 km / h, this was a tangible progress in the history of mechanical engineering. It was these crews that subsequently made it possible for designers to create high-speed modern cars.
The first mechanism underlying modern machines is the wheel. It was invented on the territory of modern Romania more than 5 thousand years ago, spread throughout Europe and around the world. Now wheels are used for all mobile machines.
Using wheels, man invented a wheelbarrow for transporting stones and earth. Having improved the wheelbarrow, he installed it on two wheels. The first prototype of the current machines was a cart with four wheels. At first, it was powered by the muscular strength of people. Then animals began to be used as traction.
Residents of various countries have adapted animals that historically live in this territory for harness in carts. Horses, mules, oxen, donkeys have become such a traction force in different regions of the planet Earth.
In 1817, the German professor Baron Karl von Drez from the city of Karlsruhe created a model of the first scooter with a steering wheel. Further improvement allowed a person to move around with the help of pedals, which he twisted with his feet. Four-wheeled carts, driven by pedals, began to appear everywhere.
Steam powered car
A great impetus to technical development was brought by the use of a steam power plant as part of a mobile vehicle. The first steam powered car was built by Ferdinand Verbst. The car was small, the emperor of China played with it. The steam car at first did not receive proper distribution. In 1680, Isaac Newton described in detail a carriage propelled by steam.
The blacksmith from England Thomas Newcomen in 1712 for the first time demonstrated to the public an atmospheric engine of his own invention. His steam engines began to spread throughout England. By 1735, there were more than a hundred of them throughout the country.
A full-size steam engine was patented in 1770 by French inventor Nicola Joseph Cugno. She served to transport artillery pieces.
The most important moment in the history of the world development of automotive technology came when the internal combustion engine was invented. In 1799, the Frenchman F. Lebon discovered lighting gas - a mixture consisting of several gases:
- methane;
- carbon monoxide;
- hydrogen and others.
At first it was used for lighting. In 1801, Le Bon received a patent for a gas engine, consisting of a combustion chamber and two pressure compressors. Further, everything developed incrementally. In 1804, the Belgian Jean Etienne Lenoir proposed using electric ignition in cylinders to ignite a combustible mixture.
Such an engine was patented in 1859. In total, several hundred of these motors were produced. The German engineer August Otto went even further. In 1864, he received a patent for his own model of a gas engine with an efficiency of 15%. His firm "Otto and Company" produced about 5,000 motors. In the same period, a four-stroke engine appeared.
By 1897, 42,000 light gas motors had been produced. The rapid development of engines pushed scientists around the world to search for efficient fuel. The American Brighton was the first to develop in 1872 an evaporative carburetor and used gasoline as a fuel for an internal combustion engine.
In 1883, talented German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and his friend Wilhelm Maybach created a gasoline engine. According to all technical characteristics, the power unit was suitable for installation and effective use as part of a car.
The Hungarian designer Donat Banki managed to finally improve the motor in 1893. He introduced a simple but reliable power supply system into the design. Banks invented the carburetor, which is still used today. Gasoline was sprayed over all cylinders, a jet system appeared, the fuel mixture began to be sucked through the carburetor.
First car production
Scientists still continue scientific disputes about who invented the car. The car was the fruit of a joint historical search for scientists over three centuries of a convenient vehicle for all mankind. The first person to build a car was an engineer from Austria, Siegfried Markus.
Conducting his experiments on creating a combustible mixture of gasoline with air, he kindled a candle. The mixture ignited and an explosion occurred. Marcus drew conclusions, and in early 1864, his engine was installed on a three-wheeled wagon. The car became the first car in history.
But the laurels of superiority received other inventors. Official sources informed the whole world in 1885 about the creation of the first car with a gasoline engine. Its creator was a talented German designer, an outstanding engineer Karl Benz. A year later, he received a patent for his own innovative invention.
The patent was accompanied by permission to start mass production of cars. The German inventor created a prototype machine, set up production and became a great entrepreneur of the 19th century. His plant became the first enterprise for the serial production of long-awaited cars for Germany, Europe and the whole world.
Since then, people have ceased to perceive the car as a toy. The car has become a complete means of transportation.
1989 was marked by the opening of a new car factory - the French Pahnar et Levassor. In 1991, another French company appeared - Peugeot. Europe has become the center of the automotive industry for the whole world. At the same time, other automobile companies in Europe, America, Germany and many other countries, known to this day, began to open.
Bronze Age Cars
The Bronze Age for automobiles began in 1905. This historical period received this name because the body parts of cars of that time were stamped from sheet bronze. Bronze cars were already not some kind of curiosity or a toy for most users. The car has become a necessity for moving, working, traveling, transporting goods.
Mass production of machines of various classes, designs, and configurations began all over the world. In parallel with the development of the automotive industry, other related industries gained power. During this 10-year period, rapidly developed:
- tire production;
- metallurgy;
- glass production;
- production of seals, seals, cuffs;
- chemical sphere;
- production of foam rubber, leather substitute, cardboard;
- increased production of motor oils, liquids, paints, enamels;
- production of batteries, electrical equipment.
Good roads, bridges, interchanges are necessary for the movement of cars. In large metropolitan areas and large settlements, grandiose construction of these facilities began, new highways, highways, asphalt roads arose.
With the introduction of traffic rules, courses and schools began to be organized to teach driving, handling equipment, and rules for driving on roads.
vintage era cars
Since 1919, the vintage era of the automotive industry has begun. Prior to this, the engine was located in cars in the rear compartment. This made it difficult to cool the power unit. The designers introduced the front engine and the presence of a water radiator in front of it. By counterflows of air, the radiator now intensively cooled the working fluid, which circulated through it into the internal combustion engine.
Heat was constantly removed from the power unit, protecting the installation from overheating. If the first cars of the Bronze Age were made with an open top, then for cars of the vintage era they began to make closed bodies with glass windows. Subsequently, a special automobile window lifter was invented. Thanks to this mechanism, it became possible to open the windows in the car to any size.
Automobile companies of all countries began to standardize the management of cars. Bearings, fasteners - bolts, nuts, washers were standardized. The unification of the main components, parts, components was carried out at a wide pace. For the purpose of interchangeability, design documentation was created, large factories exchanged drawings among themselves and helped smaller enterprises in terms of standardization and unification of products.
The period of the vintage era was marked the following inventions, which began to play a key role in the design of vehicles:
- hydraulic braking system;
- front-wheel drive;
- system management;
- internal combustion engines with multiple valves - up to 16;
- overhead camshaft;
- automatic transmission;
- two-speed gearbox.
The era of vintage cars lasted 10 years, from 1919 to 1929, and became a definite breakthrough in the evolution of world engineering.
pre-war era
After the vintage era in the automotive industry, the pre-war era began. Before the Second World War, mechanical engineering and automobile production in advanced countries developed at a rapid pace. Annually there was an increase in output. More than 4 million cars were produced in the world annually. The main world leader in this industrial race was the United States.
American automobile corporations located in Chicago, Detroit produced colossal volumes of products.
In the period of the 30s of the last century, the “big three” of automotive giants formed in the United States, consisting of industrial engineering concerns - General Motors, Ford, Chrysler. These corporations play a key role in the production of automobiles today.
Before the war, the US automobile industry produced 83% of the entire world car market. Western European manufacturers accounted for 14% of the total turnover of vehicles. This race of technical monsters of the planet was crossed out by the Second World War. The automotive industry has been thrown far back. During the war years, new tasks appeared that needed to be addressed in the first place.
After the end of World War II, the layouts in automotive engineering changed. Germany has become one of the most key players in the market for the production and sale of motor vehicles. The "German miracle", which was implemented with the help of American sponsors, allowed the devastated country to become the most technically developed country in Europe in 10 post-war years.
Japan has joined the world market of countries with developed automotive industry. In the Land of the Rising Sun, machine-building corporations began to be built at a rapid pace, which in a short time mastered the production of the world's best models of motor vehicles: Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Subaru.
European manufacturers managed to increase their share in the global volume of car production to 46%, the Japanese captured about 13% of the total market, the United States slowed down to 32%.
In the post-war period, new large car factories were built in France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. World production of automotive technology began to develop even faster than before the war.
The current global automotive production is measured in millions of units. In addition to traditional market participants - the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Sweden - many world states are honorary members of the automakers club. Own cars are produced by: Korea, Australia, Brazil, India.
China has organized a huge car market in our time. Manufacturers from the Celestial Empire have become virtuosos in the design, manufacture and implementation of both models of their own design, and any European, American ones under licenses at their car assembly plants. Russia is also the largest player in the global automotive market.
Worldwide car production for 2008 is shown in the table below
In total, there are 20 major automobile factories in our country that produce cars of their own design. In addition, another 20 assembly plants produce foreign cars under foreign licenses. All enterprises are certified in the global ISO:9001 certification system and meet the highest quality standards.
A modern car for a person of the era of the beginning of the birth of machines is a technical tool akin to an airplane or a spacecraft. Once a great master of brush and technical thought, Leonardo da Vinci created cars of the future on his canvases. But even a great master could not foresee such a degree of perfection.
The modern car is the pinnacle of technical thought. This is a real robotic complex. The current car can develop tremendous speed - up to 500 km / h. Parking sensors allow you to position the vehicle in the tightest spaces. Satellite navigation systems guide drivers even in the most inaccessible places.
The machines are equipped with sophisticated electronics that allow you to warm up the engine at a distance and start it in any frost. Smart nodes, like a differential, distribute loads in an optimal way, allowing you to fit into turns and get out of difficult road conditions. On-board computers now control all the life support systems of cars, prompting drivers to get out of critical situations.
The future of the car
High technologies, modern materials, fresh technical ideas contribute to the further development of the car. The car will develop as a vehicle with good visibility, great design, modern ergonomic characteristics. Significant attention of designers and designers will be paid to creating coziness and internal comfort for the driver and passengers.
Since the car is a high-speed object, the absolute safety of the driver and passengers is put in the first place. The existing ones will be used and improved, as well as new means will be created to protect a person at the time of an accident:
- protective belts;
- soft materials for the steering wheel and column;
- special glasses that do not allow injury;
- sinking sharp interior details;
- perfect airbags.
Now in the global automotive industry, cars without a driver are being widely developed and are already in operation. The vehicle is fully controlled by a robotic complex and an embedded computer brain. Perhaps in the near future all our roads will look like this. A person will only reap the benefits of high technological processes, and the machines will work.
The history of the car is described in many books in all languages of the world. In each book, the authors report that in such and such a year in such and such a city, such and such an inventor built the first self-propelled carriage. In search of a name for the new machine, the inventor turned to Latin and Greek, the classical languages of science. In Greek, "self" will be "autos", and "mobile" in Latin - "mobilis". So the newborn car got its name.
French authors see the beginning of the history of the automobile in a late 18th century steam wagon built in Paris; English - in steam stagecoaches that cruised the roads of England in the first half of the 19th century; German - in "horseless carriages" with internal combustion engines that appeared in Germany in the 80s of the 19th century. The most "backward" are the representatives of the "car nation" - the Americans. Mentioning only in passing about the various European, Chinese, Egyptian predecessors of the car, they describe in detail its development, starting from the very end of the 19th century, from the gasoline carts of their compatriots - Hines, Ford, Olds.
Russian historians could begin their story at any stage in the development of the car - with Kulibin's muscle-strength scooter, which anticipated the scheme of the first gasoline cars; with the invention by Polzunov of the first universal engine - a continuous steam engine; from the construction of an engine for liquid fuel at the Okhtenskaya shipyard in St. Petersburg or from the “gasoline cart” of Putilov and Khlobov.
But more often than not, and quite rightly, they begin the history of the automobile at a very early stage, with the appearance of carts driven by the muscles of passengers. Such wagons were built in the 16th-18th centuries in Russia and in other countries.
Automobile predecessors. What did the car get from them?
Wagons of all kinds gave the automobile wheels with axles, springs and brakes. On steam stagecoaches, scooters and bicycles, individually turning front wheels were tried. There were also applied:
- differential - a mechanism that allowed the rotation of wheels mounted on the same axle at different speeds;
chain transmission; - solid rubber and even air-filled tires.
The articulated control system, conceived for horse-drawn and steam-powered vehicles, was also adapted to the automobile.
From metal-cutting machines, the car received a gearbox.
Even the ships and those invested their mite in the design of the car: the universal joint, used for a long time to install the compass, moved from the ships to the car. Finally, an engine appeared, created at first not for a car, but for mining, pumps, factory power plants.
Among the predecessors of the car, we see various cars, including self-propelled carts: steam stagecoaches, scooters, bicycles. But we don't usually call them cars. The true mass trackless self-propelled vehicle, which we now call a car, became possible only as a result of the development of an industry capable of producing complex mechanisms in large quantities, and with the presence of a light, economical, always ready for action powerful engine. Such an engine over the past decades, no doubt, is the internal combustion engine. It is not for nothing that millions of cars are equipped with gasoline and diesel engines, while steam and electricity are used as a driving force for cars so far only on a few thousand cars. Therefore, the statements of some historians that if Ford had at one time been engaged in steam cars, then maybe all cars would now be steam, are completely absurd.
Perhaps someday mass cars will move using the energy of splitting atoms or the energy of high-frequency currents transmitted over a distance. Let's not lose sight of these prospects. But the modern car and the car of the near future are inextricably linked with an internal combustion engine running on liquid or gaseous fuels.
The very first steam powered cars
Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of the Jesuit community in China, built the first steam powered car around 1672 as a toy for the Chinese emperor. The car was small and could not carry a driver or passenger, but it may have been the first working steam transport.
In 1770 and 1771 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated his experimental steam powered artillery tractor. fardier and vapeur(steam cart). Such a car could reach speeds of up to four and a half kilometers per hour on the road, but it only had enough water and steam for only twelve minutes of movement.
To ensure the movement of the car, it was necessary to fill the boiler with water and light a fire under it, since it did not have its own firebox. The engineer carried out the order of the French military, namely the Minister of War Etienne Francois. During the tests, there were several accidents, and the project was closed. The first car had significant drawbacks - an inefficient braking system, the need for frequent stops to ignite the furnace, and a rapid drop in pressure in the boiler.
A photo. "Small Cugno Cart" - a prototype of a modern car
In 1802, the English inventor Watt presented his version of the car, which developed speeds on a straight road up to fifteen kilometers per hour. In 1790, the American Nathan Reed presented his model of a steam car. Another American, Oliver Evans, created an amphibious vehicle fourteen years later.
In the nineteenth century, having become widespread, steam-powered cars were used to transport people. The person who controlled it was called the driver, the one who kindled the steam boiler was called the driver. It should be noted that cars have been improved many times, but remained very inconvenient for operation. The most famous cars of the second half of the nineteenth century were the "Curts" and "Mansel". Their speed did not exceed thirty-five kilometers. These cars are called the forerunners of the first real cars.
Rice. First amphibious vehicle
Even after the advent of internal combustion engines, enthusiasts and admirers of cars with steam engines continued to use them, making a number of improvements. It was possible to reduce the engine start time to sixty seconds. It is known that until the forties of the twentieth century, Europe and the United States continued to produce buses and trucks with steam engines, which were distinguished by low noise and smoothness.
The first cars with an internal combustion engine
The inventor of the internal combustion engine is E. Lenoir, who in 1860 was the first to create an engine in which fuel was burned inside the engine cylinder. This invention played a major role in the automotive industry. The first car with such an engine appeared in 1886. Its creator is G. Daimler. A few months later, the world got acquainted with the three-wheeled car of K. Benz. Gradually, new cars began to replace more bulky cars with steam engines. Thus, the year 1886 is officially recognized as the year of birth of the car.
Rice. E. Lenoir - the inventor of the internal combustion engine
Nine years after the invention and registration of a patent for the first car with an internal combustion engine, G. Daimler managed to launch the Daimler functional car into mass production. Karl Benz also did not lag behind and began the industrial production of his "brainchild". Thus began the mass production of cars. In 1892, a car built by G. Ford appeared, but only eleven years later he began its mass production.
A photo. The first production cars "Daimler"
Since 1894, car races began to be held, which in turn also influenced the development of the automotive industry. So, at the first races arranged, the maximum speed of a car reached twenty-four kilometers, five years later it reached seventy kilometers, and after another five years - one hundred kilometers per hour. Already in 1900, special racing cars began to be produced.
The first car in Russia
The first Russian car appeared in St. Petersburg in 1896. The carriage itself was built by Frese and Co. and resembled a foreign design with some improvements, namely, it was distinguished by the presence of rubber tires and a durable elegant finish. The engine for the car was built at the St. Petersburg Plant of Kerosene and Gas Engines by E. Yakovleva. They tried to make the cost of the car such that the Russian car could compete in price with similar representatives of Europe.
A photo. The first Russian car of Frese and Co.
For the first time this two-seater crew with a gasoline engine (the car of Yakovlev and Frese) was presented at an exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. It is known that on a flat bridge a car could reach speeds of up to twenty miles per hour, while refueling was enough for ten hours of movement.
A photo. Presentation of the first domestic car Frese and Co. in Nizhny Novgorod
The idea of creating the first Russian car arose back in 1893 at the World Columbian Exhibition, where Yakovlev engines and Frese crews were presented. The embodiment of the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a car was presented only three years later at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition.
The first electric vehicles
The electric car appeared before the internal combustion engine. The first electric car in the form of a cart with an electric motor was created in 1841.
In 1899, in St. Petersburg, a Russian nobleman and engineer-inventor, Ippolit Romanov, created the first Russian electric omnibus for 17 passengers. Its general layout was borrowed from English cabs, where the driver was located on high goats behind the passengers. The crew was double and four-wheeled, the front wheels were larger in diameter than the rear ones. The first electric car used a lead battery of the Bari system, which had 36 cans (voltaic poles). He required recharging every 60 miles (~ 64 kilometers). The total power of the car was 4 horsepower. The development of the crew was borrowed from the models of the American company Morris-Salom, which has been producing cars since 1898. The electric car changed the speed in nine gradations from 1.6 to 37.4 km/h. Romanov also developed a map of urban routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received a work permit. However, he could not find the necessary investments, so the business did not develop.
On April 29 or May 1, 1899, a special bullet-body electric car La Jamais Contente, driven by racing driver Camille Genazzi, was the first to break the 100-kilometer (62 mph) speed barrier on land. The official speed record was 105.882 km/h. Later, the famous American electric car designer Walter Baker reached a speed of 130 km/h. The record for longest range on a single charge was set by an electric car from Borland Electric, which traveled 103.8 miles (167 km) from Chicago to Milwaukee. The next day (after recharging), the electric car returned to Chicago under its own power. The average speed was 55 km/h.
What is a car? This word comes from the Greek "autos" - "self" and the Latin "mobilis" - "mobile", and in one word - "self-propelled". For someone today, he has become a luxury, for someone - a second wife, but the function of the vehicle, originally incorporated into the car by its inventors, has remained a priority today.
And every day, sitting behind the wheel of this vehicle, we don’t even think that if someone hadn’t come up with the idea of his invention one day ... Who is he, this someone?
The first known drawings of a car (with a spring drive) belong to Leonardo da Vinci, but neither a valid copy nor information about its existence has survived to this day. Although not so long ago, experts from the Museum of the History of Science from Florence were able to restore this car according to the drawings, proving the correctness of Leonardo's idea.
In 1770, the French inventor Joseph Cugnot built a three-wheeled tractor with a steam engine to move artillery pieces. He is considered the predecessor of not only the car, but also the steam locomotive. Steam carts for ordinary roads were also built in other countries, but they were heavy and uncomfortable, so they were not widely used.
In 1791, the Russian inventor Ivan Kulibin built a scooter cart driven by a pre-spun flywheel. This car had a brake, gearbox, rolling bearings, etc.
In total, more than four hundred designs are known that claim to be the first car. Long disputes about the priority of certain countries, inventors and designs forced us to develop four necessary and sufficient conditions for determining priority. The first is the development of the design of the transport vehicle. The second is the execution of a legal document, a patent. The third condition is the construction of a workable prototype and its public testing. And the fourth is the organization of the production of the product.
All these 4 conditions were first formally fulfilled by Karl Benz. On January 29, 1896, for his three-wheeled motor carriage, he receives a patent DRP No. 37435 and starts its production. Therefore, Benz is officially recognized as the inventor of the automobile. Although the car was actually invented by Benz back in 1885, it had some drawbacks. Well, about everything in order.
In 1871, Karl, who worked for a bridge-building firm in Mannheim, became engaged to an energetic girl, Bertha Ringent. The motto of the young family was the words: "Faith, hope and struggle." And now many historians quite seriously believe that it was Berta who brought the automotive industry to the main road, because it was she who was involved in the “kidnapping”, which became a turning point in the life and career of Benz, therefore, I think, it requires a detailed story.
“My car was stolen from me! There were three of them, they acted in concert and amicably. They were as in love with my car as I was. But they demanded more from him than I did... They wanted to test the stolen car and drive it for 180 kilometers on rough roads. The vagabond company consisted of my wife and both sons.”
In 1885, Karl demonstrated to the burghers of Mannheim his three-wheeled self-propelled carriage with a gasoline engine. However, the novelty caused not so much interest as irritation. When Benz decided to drive through the city, the noise of the engine frightened the butcher's horse. She carried, scattering the load along the way. To hush up the scandal, Carl bought the damaged goods, put the car under a canopy and began to improve it. The car was "hijacked" in the early summer morning of 1888, when its creator was sleeping. Benz's eldest son, Eugene, got behind the wheel, next to him was his mother, behind him was his younger brother. They went to relatives in the small town of Pforzheim. However, it was only a suggestion. There were plenty of adventures and excitement along the way.
At that time, gasoline could only be bought at kerosene shops, where it was sold as a stain remover. Malfunctions had to be fixed with improvised means - Berta used a long hat pin to clean the clogged gas line, and a hat tape to secure the parts of the ignition system. Every time going downhill, the mother was worried about the boys - the wooden brake would suddenly deteriorate. I had to stop more than once and ask the village shoemakers to upholster it with leather again. The rear wheel drive chains stretched out and began to jump off the sprocket teeth. I also had to stop at the forge. But for all their worries and ordeals, travelers were more than rewarded.
The inhabitants of Pforzheim flocked to gawk at the three-wheeled "horseless wagon." All of Germany learned about Bertha's long-distance rally, the press paid serious attention not only to her journey, but also to Karl Benz's car. Since that time, his path to fame and success began.
But before, everything was different. Benz's first car, made in 1885, was a three-wheeled two-seater carriage on tall spoked wheels. On it, Benz put his new four-stroke water-cooled gasoline engine with a capacity of 0.9 l / s.
The cylinder was located horizontally above the axis of the huge rear wheels and set them in motion through one belt and two chain drives. A large, horizontal flywheel was located under the engine. It was connected to the crankshaft by a bevel gear and was used to create uniform rotation and to start the motor. Electric ignition was powered by a galvanic battery - it was a more advanced solution than Gottlieb Daimler's glow tubes, which worked in parallel and independently of Benz. Unlike Daimler's wooden cart, Benz's car had a frame welded from metal tubes. The car developed a ridiculous speed by our standards - 16 km / h, but at that time it was a very progressive design.
Since 1888, Karl began to demonstrate his cars at international automobile exhibitions, but nevertheless, things went neither shaky nor rolls. Widespread fame came to Benz only after a five-day journey of his wife. By the way, historians consider it the first rally in the world. Like Benz's car, Bertha's journey has also become history. In 1893, Benz created a four-wheeled car by patenting his own pivot steering system. They turned one by one, and not entirely on a common axis - this was another technical victory for Benz. An open two-seat carriage on high wheels with a completely enclosed engine compartment, which housed a single-cylinder three-liter engine with a capacity of about three "horses", was Benz's favorite creation. No wonder he called it Viktoria - "victory".
After the creation of Victoria, the business of the company improved. Benz decided to create a series of carriages, adding to the powerful "Victoria" a lightweight model "Velo" (an improved four-wheeled version of the first three-wheeled carriage). Produced since 1894, Velo was believed to be the first mass-produced car (381 cars were manufactured in three years). "Benz Velo", which appeared in Russia in 1894, became the prototype of the first Russian car, built two years later by E. Yakovlev and P. Frese. But all this is of interest only to specialists.
Of course, Karl's technical talent, his tireless struggle for novelty, thoughtfulness and quality of machines were the foundation on which the company stood. However, Bertha's journey became and will forever remain her finest hour.
Speaking about the history of the invention of the car, one cannot ignore a certain Gottlieb Daimler. And where does Daimler, in fact, - you ask? If we talk about dates, then Gottlieb Daimler actually overtook Benz. However, he did not patent the car. Daimler created and patented his internal combustion engine in 1883, designed for a wide variety of vehicles. In 1885, he tests it on a motorcycle and on August 29, six months earlier than Benz, he receives a DRP patent No. 36423 for the world's first motorcycle. This motorcycle had support wheels on the sides, like on a modern children's bicycle. Why not consider it the first four-wheeled car, especially since the car patented by Benz also did not have a body?
In 1886, Daimler ordered a body from the carriage master, which differed from the carriage only in the absence of shafts. For turns served as a lever, brought up to the driver. And instead of horses, the Daimler engine pulled the carriage, transferring power through a belt drive to the rear wheels. Why didn’t Benz also use a ready-made body, but created his own flimsy design on three bicycle wheels?
Most likely, the engine of a foreign design that he had, only improved by Benz, could not pull a heavy car.
And Daimler in 1887 successfully tests his engine on a boat, but also does not patent a boat. In the same year, he tests a railroad trolley and a gasoline-powered fire pump. A year later, a balloon flight took place, the propellers of which were rotated by a Daimler engine.
Benz and Daimler never met in their lifetime. And the competition of their firms was put to an end by the merger of Deimler Geselschaft and Benz und Co that occurred in 1926. The official emblem of this union was a three-pointed star, once invented by Daimler and symbolizing the success of the brand on land, in water and in the air. The emblem became common for the united concern, and cars began to be supplied to the market under the Mercedes-Benz trademark.
The invention of the automobile and the further development of the automobile industry have become one of the most positive developments in the development of human society. Cars have greatly simplified not only the service sector, but also the very life of people on planet Earth. Today, cars continue to be among the most desired products for families around the world.
The first cars with an internal combustion engine running on gasoline were invented in 1886 in Germany. The world saw two mechanisms at once, created by different inventors independently of each other. So, the duet of Gottlieb Daimler with Wilhelm Maybach presented a four-wheeled self-propelled carriage, and Karl Benz received a patent for a three-wheeled vehicle.
The advent of automobiles would not have been possible without the invention of the engine. And the very first prototypes of self-propelled carts were equipped with steam engines. Two people were required to control:
- driver, following the wheel;
- chauffeur responsible for fuel loading.
Unfortunately, the first cars were either too bulky or needed to be constantly replenished with fuel. Therefore, this type of mechanism is not widely used as a personal means of transportation. Although large steam-powered trucks existed almost until the twenties of the last century.
At the very beginning of the nineteenth century, the first piston engine was invented. And in the sixties and the first ICE (internal combustion engines). Initially, only gas was used as fuel.
But a few years later, prototypes began to appear on liquid fuel. But only in 1880 the Russian scientist O.S. Kostovich created the first gasoline engine with carburetor.
How did the automotive industry develop?
The mass production of cars began in Germany by Karl Benz, but this did not stop other inventors and developers:
- 1888 - the serial production of Motorwagen by Benz & Company began in Germany, and a few months later in France, but already under license.
- 1889 - the creation of the FIAT company in Italy and the release of the first car under the same brand.
- 1890 - Maybach and Daimler founded the joint-stock company DMG, and two years later the first Daimler was sold.
- 1894 - Englishman F. Simms bought DMG, and the company became the official supplier of cars for the British crown.
- 1898 - Production of the first Renault in France.
- 1905 - G. Ford came up with his own concept of a self-propelled mechanism and launched its mass production in 1916.
- 1905-1907 - the invention of cars by Japanese designers.
- 1917 - start of sales of Japanese Mitsubishi, the mechanics of which were completely copied from the Italian brand FIAT.
- 1924 - the beginning of the automotive industry in the USSR.
- 1926 - Merger of Benz & Company and DMG under the leadership of the future famous founder of Porsche and the launch of a new and improved brand of Mercedes-Benz cars.
- 1946 - the Soviet automobile industry produced the world's first "wingless" body.
woman and car
Few people know about it, but one of the main roles in the popularization of the car as a personal vehicle was played by wife of Karl Benz Bert. She completed the world's first run of more than a hundred kilometers in the company of her children. Information of historians about the reasons that prompted her to such a journey varies.
According to one version, Frau Benz simply decided to visit her mother in secret from her husband. But the second version says that Karl wanted to make the first race with the whole family in order to advertise his invention. But after just a couple of kilometers, the transport stalled due to a clogged fuel hose.
But whichever of the stories is true, this event is still considered one of the most important in the development of the car. Because before that, the public was distrustful of self-propelled carriages.
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