AutomobilesCars

CarsEarly cars were called horseless carriages.The first car ever was built in 1769 by a French engineer named Nicolas Cugnot. It was not really a car but a tractor. It did not use gas. It was powered with steam. It could travel only 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) per hour. Cars today can travel at speeds over 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour.An American named Oliver Evans invented the first steam-powered car in 1804. This car traveled on wheels when it was on land. It could also travel in water by using a water wheel. In 1886 four different men invented four different gas-powered cars. Three of these men were from Germany. One was from Austria. In the late 1800s, manufacturers were building steam, gas, and electric cars. In the end, cars that ran on gas were the most popular.

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“Automobile”Britannica Elementary

Encyclopediahttp://www.britannica.com

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“Automobile”Britannica Elementary

Encyclopediahttp://www.britannica.com

Frightened English farmers rushed to their windows on Christmas Eve, 1801, when they heard loud clanking and hissing on their quiet country road. What they saw was a smoke-belching, steam-powered horseless carriage. It was driven by their neighbor, Richard Trevithick, who had built the odd carriage.

None of them knew it at the time, but it was the first practical use of mechanical power to move a vehicle. Other strange machines had been invented before, and some of them had even moved on their wheels. But Trevithick's was the first to actually do what it was supposed to do--making it the world's first true "automobile."

An automobile is a self-propelled land vehicle that can carry passengers or freight. Unlike a train, an automobile can travel on land without rails. Trucks and buses are automobiles designed for special uses. Race cars are automobiles that run on a race course, and offroad vehicles are automobiles that run on rough ground or sand.

Trevithick's self-propelled carriage could carry passengers over land at a speed of nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) per hour. Neither his neighbors nor even Trevithick himself appreciated the importance of his achievement. He considered his noisy carriage--with its huge wood and metal wheels and horizontal boiler that puffed out clouds of wood smoke--little more than a toy. He finally took it apart so that he could sell the engine to a mill owner.

“Automobiles”The New Book of Knowledge

Encyclopediahttp://www.nbk.grolier.com

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