Mankind is always after new innovations. They never satisfy and are always in quest of doing things more easily and effortlessly.
In the 1800s when they developed a horse-less cart that can take us where we want, they opened the gate of an industry that can give so many a life. This umbrella industry includes car manufacturing, car repair, car technologies, car repairing tool manufacturers, paint manufacturers, painting tool manufacturers, and so on…
There have been many famous as well as unknown personalities throughout the last two centuries who changed this industry, built a vast culture, and most importantly, created innovations that continue to influence our lives today.
Let’s Take a Trip Down to the Memory Lane of those industry honchos…
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
Shortly known as Leonardo da Vinci. This Italian pansophic was an omniscient person who showed his abilities as an engineer, scientist, draughtsman, painter, theorist, sculptor, and architect. He was born on 15 April 1452 and perished on 2 May 1519. This is a name that most people resist believing in the automotive industry.
In 1478, Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first self-propelled car. It’s the time when people think of it as some magic that made 4 wheels run. Unfortunately, his design never came out real. Records say da Vinci’s self-propelled car became real in 2004. His car is not suitable for people to travel. It is more like a cart than a car. Because it doesn’t have any seats. We can see it on display at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy.
Nicolas was a French inventor who lived between 1725 and 1804.
He built the “Fardier à vapeur” which is the world’s first automobile. History says Nicolas Joseph Cugnot developed Da Vinci’s car model as a self-propelled road vehicle. As an army engineer, his first car was also for the military to transport cannons. It has 3 wheels and can move at about 2.5 miles per hour.
An early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport who lived from April 1771 to April 1833. Richard is a British inventor and mining engineer who constructed a road vehicle engine propelled by steam and it is regarded as the first working tramway locomotive.
He invented it to be used on the road rather than the train. World’s first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place in 1804.
Isacc was born in Paris on December 19, 1752. He was a French-born Swiss inventor and a politician. Francois built the first hydrogen-powered Internal Combustion Engine and designed a car for it. Record says it is the first automobile to be run by ICE. Even though it turned out unsuccessful.
A Scottish inventor in the 19th century. Around the time of 1832–1839, he invented the first crude electric carriage, which was run by non-rechargeable primary power cells. Electric cars were commercially a failure then. Later in 1996, electric vehicles came back to the road because of carbon emission issues.
Widely known as Jean J Lenoir, he was born on 12 January 1822 and died on 4 August 1900. Lenoir, an engineer from Belgian, invented the very first commercially successful Internal Combustion Engine. There are people who invented an ICE engine before Lenoir and claimed a patent. But none were commercially successful. Lenoir’s ICE can move at about 3 miles per hour. His engine worked by a mixture of coal gas and air. Lenoir got a patent for “an air motor expanded by gas combustion” from Conservatoire national des arts et métiers.
Several years later, Nikolaus August Otto gave ICE a face-lift. Otto was a German engineer born on 10 June 1832. He successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine. His engine made a name in history line as the first engine that efficiently burns fuel directly in a piston chamber. Petroleum gas powered his device and paved the way for the current internal combustion engine.
Carl Friedrich Benz/Karl Friedrich Benz, also known as Karl Benz/Carl Benz.
We can’t talk about the automotive industry without mentioning this name. He is the “father of the automotive industry” as well as the “father of cars”. Carl was born in 1844 in Baden, Germany. He was a German engine designer and an automotive engineer. Carl made the First gasoline engine for automobiles. But he was not sure about his car, so he hesitated to show it to the world. That’s when Bertha Benz, the bold lady in the history of Benz, came to the scene.
Bertha Benz, or Cäcilie Bertha Ringer, was a German automotive pioneer and inventor. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Carl Benz. She took his car and drove around to show the world that wheels can take us where we want. By driving her husband’s car she became the first person to drive an IC engine car over a long distance.
Henry Ford was an American manufacturer, business leader, and the chief creator of the assembly line technique of mass production. Benz has always been associated with luxury; until Henry Ford created his first automobile, the average American could only dream of owning one. His invention made the vehicle available to the public as well.
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was a German engineer born in 1834 and Wilhelm Maybach was a German engine designer born in 1846. Daimler was a forerunner in the creation of IC engines and automobiles. He invented the high-speed liquid petroleum-fueled engine. The goal of Daimler and his lifelong business colleague Wilhelm Maybach was to develop compact,
high-speed engines that could be installed in any type of vehicle.
They created a compressed-charge liquid petroleum engine with a horizontal cylinder configuration in 1883 to satisfy Daimler’s need for a high-speed engine that could be throttled and used in transportation applications. They created an engine with vertical cylinders that were suitable for two-wheelers. The name “Riding Car” for the first ICE motorbike is Petroleum Reitwagen. After some time, they formally transformed their partnership into the Daimler Motors Corporation. Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invented the first four-wheeled, four-stroke engine called Daimler’s Dream.
American engineer James Frank Duryea was born in 1869, whereas Charles Edgar Duryea was born in 1861. In order to work in the bicycle industry, Charles relocated to Washington, D.C. His brother eventually joined him. With his “sylph” bicycle, Charles had already established a reputation for unique design features. At the Springfield public library, the two brothers did research on internal combustion engines.
Erwin Markham, their major investor, was contacted. Three times in total, Erwin agreed to contribute, but when it came time for production, he pulled away.
Duryea brothers Frank and Charles built the first successful gas-powered car in the United States Edgar in 1893. The title they carry in the history of the automotive industry of America is not just that. The brothers built the first automotive manufacturing company in America, which is the famous Motor Wagons.
Francis P Houdina created the “1926 Chandler,” a radio-controlled car. He installed a transmitter on the top of a 1926 Chandler and used a receiver in a second car that trailed it to communicate. He publicly displayed his radio-controlled, driverless American Wonder in the streets of New York City in 1925. Achen Motor, a vehicle distributor in the Milwaukee area, adopted Houdina’s creation under the name Phantom Auto and put it on display on Milwaukee’s streets in December 1926.
In 2010, Google informed the world about its self-driving car. And today every tech company, car manufacturing companies, ride-share companies, are following Google’s path. Everyone is on the run to find the best solution from their sector for autonomous driving.
Elon Reeve Musk, a corporate tycoon and investor, was born in 1971. He is the CEO and chief product architect of Tesla, Inc. In 2008, Tesla produced the Roadster, the company’s first electric sports automobile. It was the first all-electric vehicle in serial production to make use of lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla has built a number of Gigafactories, also known as lithium-ion battery and electric car factories, under Musk’s leadership. It became the sixth firm in US history to surpass a US$1 tln market valuation in October 2021.
Sources:
Wikipedia
https://www.titlemax.com/articles/a-timeline-of-car history/#:~:text=1886%20%E2%80%93%20In%20Michigan%2C%20Henry%20Ford,combustion%20engine%20with%20a%20carriage
https://www.thoughtco.com/who-invented-the-car-4059932
Compiled by:
Kavya E K
