# data[].attributes.headline
How Were Cars Invented? History of the Automobile 

# data[].attributes.subject
How Were Cars Invented? History of the Automobile 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Were Cars Invented? History of the Automobile - Short Documentary Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Traditional Cars

Car bodies have come in many different types. In early days most cars were open, without a fixed top. Now, aside from convertibles, most cars are closed. The most common styles include coupes and sedans. A coupe is a two-door car with a small back seat. A sedan usually has four doors and seats four to five people. Sedans with a lift-up rear door are called hatchbacks. Sports cars are built low to the ground and usually have no back seat. Station wagons have extra carrying capacity. By the end of the 20th century, however, they had been mostly replaced by minivans and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). Some cars are specially designed and built to be used for racing.

Concept Cars

When auto companies want to test out a new style or a new technology, they design a concept car. Concept cars are usually unveiled at auto shows, which are large exhibitions of cars from all over the world. Auto companies can then see how customers react to concept cars and decide what concepts should be developed. At first, an idea in a concept car may seem impractical, but after many years of development it may be found in every car on the market. For instance, the first concept car was revealed in 1938, and it included power windows. Fifty years later almost all cars had power windows. Another concept car was one that did not need a human driver, also known as a self-driving car. The concept of a self-driving car was introduced at the 1939 World's Fair, and by the 2020s there were self-driving cars on the road. The idea of a flying car has been around almost since cars were invented. A practical working model was introduced in the 2020s, although at the time only drivers with a pilot's license could fly it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A car is a vehicle that has wheels, carries a small number of passengers, and is moved by an engine or a motor. Cars are also called automobiles or motor vehicles. Trucks and...

# data[].attributes.headline
History of the automobile Facts for Kids

# data[].attributes.subject
History of the automobile Facts for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The early history of the automobile can be divided into a number of eras, based on method of propulsion. Later periods were defined by trends in exterior styling, size, and utility preferences. The question of who invented the first automobile depends on how you define the words "automobile" and "invent". The history of the automobile is rich and varied. It goes back to Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century who created early designs and models of transportation vehicles.

Early pioneers

In 1807 François Isaac de Rivaz designed the first hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine. In 1813 he built a car 6 metres (20 ft) long and weighing over 1 metric ton (0.98 long tons; 1.1 short tons).

Between 1832 and 1839, Robert Anderson built the first electric-powered carriage in Scotland.

In 1864 Siegfried Marcus built the first gasoline powered internal combustion engine. In 1870 he placed it on a pushcart making it the first four wheeled gasoline-powered vehicle. He built four more combustion-engine cars over a 10-to-15-year span that influenced later cars. Marcus created the two-cycle combustion engine. The car's second version in 1880 introduced a four-cycle, gasoline-powered engine. It had an ingenious carburetor design, and magneto ignition. He created an additional two models further refining his design with steering, a clutch, and brakes. His second car is on display at the Technical Museum in Vienna. During his lifetime, he was honored as the originator of the motorcar. But his place in history was all but erased by the Nazis during World War II. Because Marcus was of Jewish descent, the Nazi propaganda office ordered his work to be destroyed, his name expunged from future textbooks, and his public memorials removed. They gave credit instead to Karl Benz.

In 1885-1886, Karl Benz developed a petrol- or gasoline-powered automobile. It was called the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. This is also considered to be the first "production" automobile.

In 1886, Gottlieb Daimler built the first four-wheeled, four-stroke engine called the "Cannstatt-Daimler."

In 1893, Charles Duryea and his brother J. Frank Duryea built the first successful gasoline-powered car with a two-stroke engine. The two brothers set up the first American car manufacturing company.

In 1895, George Baldwin Selden received the patent for the combined internal-combustion engine with a carriage. He never produced the vehicle and only seldom collected royalties for using his patent.

In 1908, Henry Ford began producing affordable, simple and reliable cars anyone could drive.

Evolution of the automobile

Invention era

This is the period starts with the car made by Karl Benz in 1885. There were earlier inventions that used mainly steam-power to move the vehicles but the Benz car was the first to use a gasoline powered internal combustion engine in what could be called an automobile. The period goes up to the start of the production of Henry Ford's Model T.

Manufacturing era

This period dates from 1908 to 1914 and the beginning of World War I. While earlier designs were more ornamental, vehicles from this period are simpler and more affordable. It is the time when hundreds of smaller automobile manufacturers were trying to compete for attention and sales. A number of improvements were developed during this time. These include the electric ignition system, four-wheel brakes and the independent suspension. Transmissions were adopted. Along with throttle controls, these allowed the vehicles to travel at a number of speeds depending on conditions.

Coachwork era

From about 1920 to 1930, car manufacturers began creating a closed body on the vehicle. This protected the driver and passengers from the weather. Vehicles began using curved glass and the new enclosed bodies gave a sense of privacy. Heaters were added for comfort. Many of the features of modern cars came from this period. These include four-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, and hybrid electric vehicles. Safety glass protected those inside the car from sharp glass in cases of an accident. By the end of the 1920s cars were becoming faster and were showing a level of style and beauty.

Classic era

The classic era began about 1930 during the Great Depression and ended just before World War II. The Great Depression was a time when many in the United States were just trying to survive. But it is also the era of some of the most significant improvements to the automobile. Cars took on a great deal of style and sophistication. They became works of art in many cases.

Many new features were introduced during this era including the automatic transmission, the V-8, the V-12 and the V-16 engines. The gearshift lever moved to the steering column, hydraulic brakes were introduced for faster stopping and cars got trunks to carry luggage and cargo.

The car industry changed during the 1930s. It saw the rise of the Big Three automakers. These were General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler. They were able to successfully design and sell cars during the Great Depression when fewer people could afford a new car.

Integration period

In 1949, the automobile industry finally got back on its feet after World War II. This same year General Motors, Cadillac and Oldsmobile introduced the integrated one-piece automobile body. The process joined all the different parts of the body into one body shell. Cars produced during this period concentrated on safety. Cars were big during this time. But in the late 1960s carmakers tried to market much smaller cars. The attempts by General Motors, Chrysler and Ford were all marketing failures. Instead, what sold was the performance car. Cars like the Ford Mustang and the Plymouth Barracuda were very successful. During the late 1950s, many smaller countries began producing cars. Both India and Iran were making cars from about 1959. The first Indian car design from 1950 was very similar to the Opel Kapitän. The first Iranian cars were very similar to several American cars. Both were designed in the United Kingdom.

This period started about 1968 and continues to today. Body styles changed dramatically. The three most popular are the hatchback, the Minivan and the Sport utility vehicle (SUV). Starting in the Integration period, car manufacturers began designing cars for men while others are designed to attract women. The body shapes, colors and other cues are designed to appeal to a particular sex.

Today, women tend to prefer crossovers more than men. Examples are the Kia Sportage and the Honda CR-V. Men seem to prefer powerful cars like the Chevrolet Camaro and the GMC Sierra pickup truck. In car colors, men seem to prefer brighter colors while more women seem to prefer traditional neutral colors.

Related pages

Images for kids

German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, regarded as the first electric car of the world

In My Merry Oldsmobile songbook featuring an Oldsmobile Curved Dash automobile (produced 1901-1907) and period driving clothing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History of the automobile Facts for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The early history of the automobile can be divided into a number of eras, based on method of propulsion. Later periods were defined by trends in exterior styling, size, and utility preferences. The question of who invented the first automobile depends on how you define the words "automobile" and "invent".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A car is a road automobile used to carry passengers (people). Cars usually have four wheels (round things which turn in order to lead to movement), and an engine or motor to make them move.

Cars are also called automobiles, which comes from the Greek prefix "αυτό" (auto) and the French word "mobile". This name means "self-moving", as cars run on their own power and do not need horses or other power from outside to move.

Types of cars

Like other automobiles, cars are made in different shapes and sizes, for people with different needs. Here are some common types of cars.

A convertible is a car with a roof that can be opened or taken off for an open-air drive. Sportier convertibles are called roadsters.

A hatchback is a smaller car with a cargo area that uses the same space as the cabin (instead of a separate trunk like in a sedan or coupé). They combine the sportiness of coupés and sedans with the storage space of SUVs.

A pickup truck is a truck with a separate cabin and cargo area on a ladder frame. The cargo area is called the "bed".

A sedan is a car with a sloped rear window and separate trunk that has four doors.
A coupé (coupe in American English) is like a sedan, but usually only has two doors and is seen as sportier than a sedan.

An SUV (sport utility vehicle) is a rugged automobile that has a combined passenger and cargo area (like in hatchbacks, station wagons, and vans). SUVs are very popular due to their usefulness.

A van is a big box-shaped automobile meant for carrying plenty of passengers or cargo. There are many different sizes of vans, such as minivans, which are made for families.

To make a car move, it must have energy to turn the wheels. This energy might be chemical energy in gasoline or electrical energy in a battery. How quickly the engine or motor can send the energy to the wheels, and how much energy is sent, is called the power of the motor. The power of a car is usually measured in kilowatts or horsepower.

As of 2019, most cars burn a fuel to make an internal combustion engine (sometimes called a "motor") run. The power from the engine then goes to the wheels through a transmission, which has a set of gears that can make the car go faster or slower. The most common fuel is petrol, which is called " gasoline" or " gas" in American English.

Gasoline is called a fossil fuel because it comes from tiny fossils that were made millions of years ago. Over millions of years, they turned into oil, which was then drilled up from deep inside the Earth, and then turned into fuel by chemical changes. Old gasoline-powered cars are noisy and their exhaust makes city air dirty, which can make people ill. But cars made after the mid- 2010s are cleaner.

Burning gasoline, like any kind of fossil fuel, makes carbon dioxide, which makes global warming. Since 2017, less gasoline powered cars are being made, and some places will not allow gasoline-powered cars in future, like Amsterdam in 2030.

The cleanest cars are electric vehicles. They are usually plugged into a power outlet or a charging station and store electricity in a battery at the bottom of the car. The electricity then drives an electric motor, which turns the wheels. Some electric cars have 2 motors: one at the front, and one at the back. A few have 4 motors (one for each wheel).

Other sources of energy

Some cars burn diesel fuel, which is used in big trucks and buses, and a few use wood gas. In some countries, such as Brazil and Sweden, a mixture of ethanol and gasoline, called " gasohol" in Brazil and " E85" in Sweden, is used as automobile fuel. Other fuels include propane, natural gas, compressed air, and ethanol (which comes from plants). There are cars designed to run on more than one type of fuel - these are called " flex-fuel" and are rare.

A few cars generate electricity from hydrogen fuel cells (like the Honda Clarity). As of 2019, most of the hydrogen that people use comes from burning fossil fuels, but scientists and engineers are trying to make hydrogen from renewable energy a lot cheaper and easier to use.

Some cars even use solar cells for their electricity, but they are not very practical. There is a competition every year where people try to design a car that can last the longest and go the farthest on solar energy alone.

There is also a type of car that uses both an engine and an electric motor. This is called a hybrid electric vehicle; an example is the Toyota Prius.

Regenerative Brakes

All cars have brakes which work by friction to stop the car quickly in an emergency or stop it rolling when parked. Electric cars also have regenerative brakes, which slow the car by turning the energy in its movement back into electricity, like an electric motor working the opposite way. So regenerative means the electricity is generated again.

The earliest recorded automobiles were actually steam engines attached to wagons in the late 18th century. The steam engines were heavy, making these wagons slow and hard to control. Better and faster steam cars became common late in the 19th century.

Some cars in the early 20th century were powered by electricity. They were slow and heavy and went out of use until the idea came back later in the century.

The internal combustion engine changed the way many automobiles were powered. The engine used either gasoline, diesel, or kerosene to work. When the fuel is exploded in a cylinder it pushes the piston down and turns the wheels.

Although many people tried to make a good car that would work and sell well, people say that Karl Benz invented the modern automobile. He used a four-stroke type of internal combustion engine to power his Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1886. He began to make many cars in a factory and sell them in Germany in 1888.

In North America, the first modern car was made by brothers Charles and J. Frank Duryea in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Duryea brothers' car also won the first-ever car race in 1895, competing against cars made by Benz. The race was in Chicago, Illinois, and 53 miles long. The Duryeas then began making the first automobiles for everyday use in 1896. That year, they made 13 cars by hand in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Benz may have invented the first modern car, and the Duryeas the first car to be sold, but Henry Ford sold the most cars to the most people. In 1910 he began making and selling his Model T, which was a huge success. Many people could afford this car, not just the rich, because Ford used mass production. This meant he made many Model Ts in a short time in a factory. People say that the Model T is the car that "put America on wheels". The Model T was the most popular car of the time because it was cheap but it was still a good quality car that ordinary people could own.

Since then, many different kinds of cars have been designed and built, from minivans to sports cars. In the 1950s, the United States made and used more cars than all the rest of the world. Fifty years later, China became the largest maker and user of cars.

Advantages

Cars are faster than walking or riding a bike if you are going a long way. They can carry more than one person and a large amount of luggage. Depending on local public transport quality, they can also be faster and far more convenient than using buses, bicycles or trains, and can often go where public transport cannot. 4-wheel drive "off road" vehicles are particularly good at reaching places difficult for other wheeled transport due to bad roads or harsh terrain. However, they cost more and burn more fuel, and there are many places even they cannot go.

Most cars enclose people and cargo in a closed compartment with a roof, doors and windows, thus giving protection from weather. Modern cars give further protection in case of collisions, as they have added safety features such as seat belts, airbags, crumple zones and side-impact protection that would be expensive or impossible on two-wheeled or light 3-wheeled vehicles, or most buses.

With regular check ups and service, cars can last a very long time. In some countries like Australia, you have to get your car checked by authorised mechanics regularly by law to confirm that your car is safe to drive. You can go to a car mechanic to get your car checked or have a mobile mechanic come to you to repair your car.

Disadvantages

Buying and running a car needs a lot of money, especially for newer good-quality cars. There are things to pay for - the car itself, fuel, parts (for example, tyres), maintenance, repairs, insurance to cover the cost of crashes or theft, parking charges, and toll roads and any taxes or licensing fees charged by the government.

When cars crash, they can become damaged and hurt people, and the life of a person is more important than keeping a car from damage. When too many cars try to go the same way, traffic congestion slows them all. Cars can cause air pollution if too many are used in a small area like a city, and the combined pollution of the world's cars is partly to blame for climate change. Many places where people live close together have public transportation such as buses, trains, trams and subways. These can help people go more quickly and cheaply than by car when traffic jams are a problem. Some of these problems can be made smaller, for example by carpooling, which is putting many people together in one car.

Traffic congestion and accidents can be dangerous to other road users, for example people riding bicycles or walking, especially in an old town built when cars were few. Some 20th century towns are designed for cars as the main transport. This can cause other problems, such as even more pollution and traffic, as few, if any, people walk. Communities are divided and separated by big roads. Pedestrians are in danger where there are too few foot bridges, small road bridges or other special crossings.

Images for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A car is a road automobile used to carry passengers (people). Cars usually have four wheels (round things which turn in order to lead to movement), and an engine or motor to make them move. Cars are also called automobiles, which comes from the Greek prefix "αυτό" (auto) and the French word "mobile".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Author: John Farndon , Illustrator: Jeremy Pyke

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
instant access to thousands of great kids books.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.